case studyfilm · hong kong tourism board
A fisherman, a boat at first light, and the egrets that follow the wake.
Made for the Hong Kong Tourism Board. A fisherman takes a boat out in the early light and the egrets follow the wake. No harbour front, no Peak, no light show, none of the images a traveller has already seen a thousand times before they book.
The birds, following the boat out
Hong Kong's tourism imagery is a fixed set: the skyline, the harbour, the tram, the neon. It is accurate, it is exhausted, and it describes a city the viewer has already seen, which gives them no reason to go and look. So the film takes one small true thing instead, out on the water at first light, and lets it stand for everything the postcard leaves out.
The challenge
A destination with famous imagery has a specific problem: the famous imagery is doing all the work and has stopped persuading anyone.
A traveller has seen the skyline. Showing it again confirms what they already assume, which is that they know what Hong Kong is.
The job is to suggest there is a version they have not seen, without saying so.
How we approached it
One fisherman, one boat, and the birds that follow it, shot in the early light out on the water.
No landmark appears. The city is present at the edges of frame and never announced, so the viewer places it themselves.
The result is Hong Kong without a single postcard in it, which is the only version that implies there is more to find.
the filmthe delivered cut
Two minutes twenty-six, on the water.
One boat, one morning, and the birds.
Hong Kong Tourism Board · 2:26 · sound on
the cuta working morning, six moves
Two and a half minutes, from the boat.
Almost every shot is taken aboard. The audience is a passenger, not an audience.
beat 01
Shot from behind the man
Open over his shoulder at the tiller. The film is his morning, and the birds are what happens during it.
beat 02
What the birds are following
The nets and the catch, in the bottom of the boat. The reason for everything that follows, established without narration.
beat 03
The first lift
Egrets coming off the water behind the outboard. Filmed from the boat, so the birds arrive in the frame instead of being cut to.
beat 04
One aerial, to place it
A small boat, a flock, a city on the shoreline. Tourism film needs the geography once, and once is enough.
beat 05
Shot through the boat itself
The rigging stays in frame. Keeping the vessel in shot is what keeps the viewer aboard.
beat 06
Hold the last wide
Golden hour, birds low over the water, no cut. A film about patience closes by being patient.
the lawwhat this one proves
A place is sold by the thing the brochure left out.
Famous imagery confirms what an audience already believes and therefore changes nothing. The persuasive material is always the specific, small and unfamiliar thing, because it is the only evidence that the visitor's assumption about the place is incomplete.
Converted from Hong Kong dollars at indicative rates. Work is quoted and billed in HKD.
A place, or a product, that everyone thinks they already know.
Turnaround is agreed with you before work starts.
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