Fast City
The video aims to show Hong Kong as a fast-paced, crowded city. Though people may focus on various jobs each day during day time, most people would inevitably need to commute between places and travel among numerous regions in the morning when they go to work or when they go back to home in the evening. Being a commuter, it is not hard to picture how busy the city could get during peak time with tons of people chocking up carriages and vehicles. The video was shot primarily in MTR stations and connection tunnels in the most densely populated areas scattered all over Hong Kong. These include the connection tunnels in Central Station, the platform in Quarry Bay Station, the escalator in Admiralty Station in Island, Kowloon Tong Station in Kowloon, and the passageway in Sha Tin Station in New Territory. It is also within these stations that show the fast pace of the city, where not only train services are frequent and rapid, but also the speed of the walking crowd. However, being busy is only one of the themes of the video, just as work and pressure are not all about Hong Kong. The story starts with a relatively calm and quiet early morning, turns busy with the sunrise when people start their day, and finally rest again with the day ending. As MTR and train stations may only appear as a means of transportation in most people’s lives and thus would not be present at the start and end of their day, traffic lights were utilized in this case as an item that’s closer to people, and as a visual representation of slowing down and coming to a halt. Through a combination of various scenes which reflects different pace, the video aims to reflect a process that the city becomes exceedingly busy and resettle to peace.
Methodology
Hong Kong is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. With 7.41 million people spreading across an area of 1114 square meters, Hong Kong ranks fourth in the most heavily populated region. Being a transit city unlike a car city, most Hong Kong citizens utilize public transport as a way to commute, with the mass transit rail as one of the most popular options. With more than four million passengers using the service, it makes MTR stations and connection tunnels one of the most ideal places to show how busy and fast-paced the city is. Among the 100 rail stations, Central Station services the most intensive passenger flow during peak time. Additionally, Mong Kok Station and Quarry Bay Station were recorded as the busiest station in the system, serving a daily average reaching forty million passengers. With such a concentrated flow of passengers, it made these stations ideal settings for the video.
When it comes to the idea of documenting the city as a busy place, it was the sidewalk that first came to mind. However, though there are numerous sidewalks serving crowded pedestrians, it is hard to show the crowdedness and thus the busyness. In particular, thanks to perfect city planning, though abundant people are walking, most streets have sidewalks that are wide enough to host them. Thus, bulkiness could not be reflected intuitively on camera when there a high density of the population is lacking. In addition, what makes the situation even worse is that most sidewalks and crossings are situated in open spaces. With a sense of capaciousness that naturally comes with the spaces, it added more difficulties to showing chunkiness in these places. In contrast, MTR stations locate mostly underground. Passenger flows get much denser and more concentrated in these limited spaces bounded by the fences in the tunnels, naturally giving people a sense of crowdedness.
In addition to the passenger flow as a way to show crowdedness, time-lapse is widely used throughout the video to intensify the feeling of fast. With normal recording, problems may arise as people do not always walk at an extreme speed, and the interval between train services may be lengthy. These elements countering the aim of showing speed could be weakened by speeding up or cutting these parts out. With the technique of using time-lapse to speed up the video, all elements in the video appear to have been moving at a more rapid pace. Besides, audio is also utilized to facilitate offering the feeling of being busy. The noise of the crowd chattering can hardly embody any meaning or convey any feeling. To help illustrate the busyness and anxiety, the recording of warning audio, which consists of a brief beep sound, was added to the video to add anxiety and help present the bustling feeling.
Liu Jinheng
3035951959
Reference
Hong Kong Government. (2023, February 27). GovHK: Hong Kong – the Facts. All Rights Reserved. https://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/facts.htm
MTR. Patronage Updates. (n.d.). https://www.mtr.com.hk/en/corporate/investor/patronage.php
Your video demonstrates the fast-paced environment and constant commotion of different sites in Hong Kong- the crosswalk, the MTR station, elevator lobby etc. I appreciate your video and the repetition shows the relentless pace of the city, however it would help if you had more diversity in shots (i.e. some tracking shots instead of all still shots) and a clear structure or a narrative to help guide your video. More research is needed in exploring the transit-orientedness of Hong Kong instead of an explanation of “crowdedness”.