Title: Slow City
Credits: Director – Martin Lee and Actor: Martin Lee, Ray Fung
Description
– Theme
The theme of this video is conveying an idea of slowing down our pace is beneficial for us living in Hong Kong, a city with fast-paced lifestyle.
– Story Setting
I tried to convey my idea with a compelling narrative structure.
Story Act 1 (Set-Up):
Martin(protagonist) is an busy accountant that lost his passion for living in Hong Kong because he believes that everything in Hong Kong seems to be about efficiency, and he could not feel any warmth and beauty of Hong Kong anymore
Inciting Incident:
Martin decided to choose taking tram instead of MTR to go back to his home, and that is where his reflection journey begin
Story Act 2 (Conflict):
On the tram, Martin look outside the window, and he realised that he has not seen such stunning scenery of Hong Kong for a long while.
This prompts him to reflect himself if he should take a slower-paced lifestyle.
Story Act 3 (Resolution):
Martin realised that the reason why he couldn’t feel warmth of Hong Kong or even lost his passion for living in Hong Kong is that his attitude of living in a fast-paced city is wrong before.
Martin decided to take a slower-paced lifestyle.
Once his point of view changes, things happening around him changes too, and Martin feel warmth in Hong Kong again. (Ray, Martin’s friend, come to pick him up for supper)
Research Methodology & Video Production
I will break down into stages:
– Brainstorming and Scripting
I first began by brainstorming the ideal story idea and what I was looking is a place/space that could highly contrast to “Fast city”. Thus, the idea of investigating into tram stop came up.
Then, I came up with a narrative structure, I started to create my narration script
– Research
I need to research on the scenery when travelling along different tram lines.
I used Google map to navigate the surroundings first to get a rough picture. Then, I did a fieldtrip, so that not only could I try to picture how would shooting take place in the future, but I could also get familiar with those tram stops, so that the time of shooting could be used efficiently.
Eventually, I decided to take the tram line which is starting from Kennedy Town and heading to North Point. And I picked a stop in Wan Chai and another one in Causeway Bay to do shooting.
I get off the tram, and I tried to capture the tram stop using different camera angles, so that I could have a better understanding on how to tell my story visually in a practical sense
– Shooting
Different settings, backdrops, camera angles and movements can convey different emotions and messages to audience. Thus, hand-drawing a storyboard is the best way to help me visualise the right picture that is in my mind, and the storyboard makes a huge positive impact on the shooting stage onwards as it really make the shooting process as detail as possible
Moving on to shooting, I used my mirrorless Sony ZV1 with 1080P, 24fps, f/1.8 setting to capture clearer and smother footage with the right exposure
– Editing
– Moving on to editing, I edited the video based on the story I want to tell and the emotion I want to convey to the audience
Reflection
After making this video, i realized that taking slow-paced lifestyle might be a good choice if we are living in Hong Kong. This is the message I want to convey to the audience, and hopefully, I did it. I would always remind myself that we could take a stop, reflect on ourselves, and be grateful on what’s happening around us and pick ourselves up if we encounter a bad day, and hopefully we could live in Hong Kong happily.
Creator
Martin Lee (3035929839)
References
8 Steps to Cinematic Movement Tomorrow Filmmakers
https://youtu.be/ExebCguDG7s
Aspect Ratio Tomorrow Filmmakers
https://youtu.be/BdPsyLtlamM
Hong Kong Tram Line
https://www.hktramways.com/en/interactive-map
Hong Kong tram tour: Explore the 852 on the Ding Ding
https://thehoneycombers.com/hong-kong/tram-tour-landmarks/
Google image of Kennedy Town Tram Stop
https://www.google.com/search?q=tram+stop+kennedy+town+hong+kong&rlz=1C1CHBF_zh-HKHK1023HK1023&sxsrf=APwXEdfaAYUerVCIsx5aJUji1UYjc02o2w:1684056111823&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiVvs7yvfT-AhWY-2EKHTewB6AQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=2560&bih=1321&dpr=1.5
I really enjoyed the video! Great cinematography (very smooth and well-captured footage, I especially enjoyed the sparkle of lights that shone in the mix of some old shop signs hanging off the building, great quality considering it was shot at night) and nice story. At one point, I thought I was watching an insurance company’s commercial.
Hayley Chan 2010522587
Your video has very nice cinematography and narration, good job keeping it engaging for the audience. However, more analysis and a critical position in your text will help improve the level of insight your project can give- what is the significance of trams in the urban fabric? How does it shape perception of the city? You can introduce ideas from readings of the course to help strengthen your analysis.