URL: https://youtu.be/loxNQMupX0Q
BGM: Joker OST- Call Me Joker
What is sidewalk?
Filming this video, I asked myself for the definition of sidewalk, despite walking for my entire life. I, in this final essay, am searching for a meaning and purpose to walk on a specific path in a city when walkability is highly prioritised in the degree of livability of the city. In my opinion, sidewalk is part of the city, and city is a mixture of many sidewalks. In another word, city is a sprawling form of sidewalk.
Is sidewalk a bounded space?
Further to the question of walkability of a city, I noticed that many sidewalks in Hong Kong are confined by fences and concrete wall. People’s reachability in the city is however limited by the artificial structure, and even made the city best known for its length of metal fences. Moreover, high rises around the city limited our sky-ward sight and formed a depressing and distressing atmosphere on the street. Restaurants’ covers even exaggerate the confinement, obviously felt when we are walking under them. In the middle part of the video, I tried to recreate the sense of confinement in the camera by closely shooting the bounding materials surrounding the sidewalk, such as metal fences and concrete wall, and pan through them, trying to answer the question of whether it is a bounded space. An interesting point of I noticed when shooting is that sidewalks are only half-bounded given that most of them are outdoor. Indoor sidewalk is mostly recognise as corridor. Reaching to a deeper reflection of the planning of sidewalk in cities, I realised that their density, length and width greatly show the vitality of the city, the habit of the people and the social ambience. For instance, narrow sidewalk tends to accelerate people’s pace, and wide sidewalk gather people, becoming a centre or landmark of the city.
Shooting Highlights:
Referencing the Joker (2019) as well as Big (1988) introduction of the video, I used the Saul Bass title sequence that creates an overwhelming atmosphere, which is also the feeling of sidewalk in Hong Kong. Throughout the video, I widely use close shoots and still clips, intersecting them to make a complex and rush feeling, echoing the city’s ambience. Last but not least, when I navigated in the city, I use a first-person recording to make the confinement more realistic, and later the camera was set to drive away from me to record a greater and walking view in the city.
Implication of the Video:
Metal fences, concrete wall and sight-blocking high rises are shaping this city, yet being socially and architecturally unhealthy, in my opinion. Since we can only feel the city by walking on it, but not by drawing sections and plans of it, or simply build a site model to explain all the urban planning, which are removing ourselves from the city and see it with a bird-eye view. In the end of the video, I get rid of the first person recording as well as walking on the sidewalk only, where later the camera also move away from me and navigate in the city. This all echoes the theme of walking city, not only walking on the sidewalk but also on other reachable routes.
Reference List:
Background Music: Larice, M. A. (2005). Great neighborhoods: The livability and morphology of high density neighborhoods in urban north america (Order No. 3211411). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I. (305031038). Retrieved from http://eproxy.lib.hku.hk/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/great-neighborhoods-livability-morphology-high/docview/305031038/se-2?accountid=14548
Varsity (April 7, 2020) Caged City. Retrieved from https://varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk/index.php/2020/04/caged-city/
The Conversation (December 7, 2017) Phillippe Put/Flickr, CC BY-ND It’s time to recognise how harmful high-rise living can be for residents. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-recognise-how-harmful-high-rise-living-can-be-for-residents-87209
BEST MOVIES by FARR (2017) John Farr HOW SAUL BASS TRANSFORMED OPENING MOVIE CREDITS FOREVER. Retrieved from https://www.bestmoviesbyfarr.com/articles/saul-bass-title-sequences/2017/05
Wong Ming Chun Markus 3035935357
This film can be seen as a well-planned and well-edited film that carries a strong message on ‘boundaries’ and ‘self-autonomy’. The atmosphere you have created is depressed alongside the background music from the film ‘Joker’. This helps to let the audience reflect and think on the message. Indeed, it is astonishing that you link ‘sidewalk’ with ‘Hong Kong people’ and ‘fences’. The idea of breaking boundaries but walking the paths by ourselves is good. If any point would like to raise, I would say the scenes to be presented can be caught in more well-balanced angles. But the camera movement is doing great.
You raised a though-provoking question that brought me a new perspective to reflect about the space of sidewalk. I like your way of presenting how sidewalks are indeed “half-bounded” in the video using a first-person perspective. I really appreciate your effort in linking the theme of Hong Kong being a walking city to the functions of walking, and how that relates to sidewalk. I also agree that to experience the city, walking on the confined sidewalks is only one way to do it and one can explore the rather uncharted realms. Perhaps you can look into more on why in certain places sidewalks are to be bounded in various ways. Boundaries can sometimes be very necessary, not only from a bird-eye view, but can also bring a different walking experience to the walker and have some interesting reasons behind.
You put me in the moment with the first perspective shots and the music that fit the camera images. I appreciated the questions and findings you raised, which I found very interesting. When the sidewalk gets narrower people walk faster and when it gets wider people become fond of being next to each other. The sidewalk has always influenced our lives and is very relevant to our lives. When you turned the camera to the sky and asked us to look up, I thought it was amazing because we are always focused on getting to our destination quickly or looking down at our phones when we walk on the sidewalk and rarely look up to observe the sky.
This helped me meditate on how we Hong Konger’s approached the simple everyday idea of walking. I really enjoyed how u captured and arranged the clips to highlight the contrasting moments between night and day, speeding and stopping, wide and narrow, dry and wet…which portray the clashing variety of experiences the act of walking can bring in Hong Kong. I also appreciate the new question you raised that I usually overlook, relating to the boundaries of a city.
The tone and pace is really well handled. Audience’s emotion can be effectively affected by the editing. The message trying convey is also clear, which is very essential for a successful film.
This video really draws my attention on sidewalk, an important element of the city but always being forgotten. I am really impressed on how this video make use of background music, a very depressing theme from The Joker. With the suspense of the music foundation, it build up the tension which facilitate message delivery, as well as force the audience to reflect and focus on the texts popping up from every scene. An impressive scene, in my opinion, will be the shot that follows the people walking along the sideway on the other side. The steady camera slowly panning across the cars really give a strong sense of the theme of how people use the city.
Trying to define the sidewalk through its relation to what surrounds it is rather creative. You also made some interesting and meaningful observations through your documentation of the sidewalk. Overall, the findings and ideas could be better organised both in the text and in the video. Some of the arguments you made about how the sidewalk changes the experience of people in the city were not conveyed by the video. For example, the point about ‘Look Up’ was not really discussed in your essay despite its strong presence in the video. You could also do more virtual research to substantiate your ideas. Perhaps you could also reference de Certeau? It is also not very clear how your reference list informed your essay.