Hong Kong is a very stressful place to live in, that being the first thought that popped to mind when asked to describe this place. There are many aspects to it: From the high rent and long working hours, ignorant expectations from employers and clients, bad education with a high population on a small patch of land…and the list can go on.
In a graphic design perspective, Hong Kong does not have a rich cultural history. Having focused on finance, trade and business for as long as I can remember, the funny thing is what barely resembling physical cultural items that could represent Hong Kong would be Cantonese style fast food: Pineapple Bun (butter crust on top of a bun), egg tart, milk tea, stylised version left from our Colonial days, a handful of local cartoon characters that still get reused since they were created in the 70s, 80s, cantonese pop and films that have way passed their glory days, and seriously that is it. Everything else is imported, all trends of now are imported. Most local artists and designers alike work a day job to support their passion; the ones fortunate enough to make it a full time job do not make enough and are pissed off at the non-existant cultural scene, a government which talks about boosting culture and innovation but is clueless with execution and trying way too hard to maintain censorship over general content and creativity, to shape “a positive vibe”. It’s embarrassing.
A recent move to a new place has landed me and my fiancee in meeting a crazy ol’ guy while shopping for a decorative lightbox. For the past 30 years, Mr. Au Yeung live and work in a small shop inside a mall that is about to be demolished, we happened to be talking to the forefather of Hong Kong billboard calligraphy writing, crowning a style known in Chinese as Real Type. He offered us a lesson on calligraphy which ended up lasting for a fun, but tiring 4 hours (cause the whole time we were standing up, writing with ink and brush on sheets of newspaper), and having gained the basic ability to tell “his style” apart from others, our eyes were opened stepping back out into the busy streets, and was in awe of how many pieces of signs Mr. Au Yeung has hanging in Hong Kong. Yet modern development has rather have him forgotten, replacing his traditional font and handcraft light box making techniques with hideous computer fonts and laser-cutters. But Mr. Au Yeung’s story is for another week, another time.
Having set my sights on the many billboards and signs, I walked the streets one day after work with my camera (phone) in hand. I wanted to be as spontaneous as Sam Winston put it, I have my subject and it all depends on how I am to approach with an empty open mind. Photos won’t do it, I am not pleased with phone camera photos and made the decision of wanting to capture the movement of the streets also but I had no stabiliser.
So heck with it, I started purposefully letting the camera wobble up and down as to take in my motion of walking, allowing pedestrians, lamp posts and double decker buses to brush by, and after I had around 15 pieces of ten second footages on my phone I think I was done filming. Then one extra shot, since I am capturing my walk a cheesy shot of my shoes might be handy.
I went home with all these and thought hard about how to present them and did regret not snapping photos for a bit, making a poster would be a lot quicker…Aiming to have fun though, I gave myself a lil’ sigh after the final idea was realised, and the inevitable is about to be carried out which I was trying to avoid on a Wednesday night having to go to work the next day: Editing and putting the clips together, give the signs voice overs (since they are in Chinese) and that would also leave me wanting to make a soundtrack to the video (never been a fan of using someone else’s music), I finished at around 3am and called in sick the next morning 😀
At first was the learning curve to re-learn Premier, not having touched the software for some time really makes me feel dumb. Eventually having to put the clips together, then the bloody option of doing direct voice overs was not working…so I turned on Garageband (which I am familiar with), first pressing record before playing the video immediately on a separate window, transfer and syncing the soundtrack in place after I was done. The good thing about Garageband though are the effects and sound adjustments ill be able to make. Most clips took around 4-5 takes to get right, working late night getting me all tongue tied. Having to get in to character is one of the things I needed to adjust to also, the personality of the voices were thought out by picturing what kind of a shop-owner or staff would be sitting behind the counter of such shops, or the tone of a construction worker, the traffic light that is installed in place of a traffic cop (and my inspiration for a electric cop came from the voice of Robocop). Another mention is my attempt to make a satisfying click of shoes against pavement, I actually recorded myself drumming my fingers against my desk in the pace of my walk, and that slightly enhanced the steps which I felt is much needed. The soundtrack I tried to finish quickly by key board drumming in Garageband and took inspiration from Antonio Sanchez’s Birdman original soundtrack, ending up with a jazzy drum fiddle.
The clip came out pretty satisfying! I’ve always wanted to do voice acting but never really had the chance to until now, it’s a good thing that I sing for my band and is familiar with my voice going through a microphone. First time handing in a video instead of Illustrating is actually a much needed refreshment to my mundane life. Woop woop!
ANDY was here
ANDY was here 🤓 