HKU JC WISE Documentary - Urban Waterscapes: A time to bring them back?

This is the second episode of JC-WISE's documentary series "Befriend Our Waters" — Urban Waterscapes: A time to bring them back? (城市水景：何去何從？).

Speaking of urban waterscapes, what ideas have come across your mind? Apart from decorative ponds and music fountains, in what forms can water exist in our communities? Water can stimulate our senses, and it can be an important game element for children. In some cities, the water element has been incorporated into the environment of civic centres where people can enjoy stage plays and movies, and, at the same time, play in water. Urban waterscapes can enhance our quality of life and our relationship with water, which, in turn, would help us move towards water sustainability goals and the sustainability of our society in a broader sense. In this documentary “Urban Waterscapes: A time to bring them back?”, two local experts will share their views on the benefits of restoring water features in our city.

In collaboration with the research team at HKU, an educational and entertaining documentary has successfully drew the attention of the public society. The challenge of this project was the government regulation during the pandemic. We kept the size of production small and reply more on the post-production side.

Another challenge was the intense competition of social media content on Youtube. Since our target audience is general public in Hong Kong, we understood river is an unfamiliar topic. From content to illustration, we keep things simple and easy to digest. 5-min short documentary series were the great prelude in raising public’s interest in understanding waters.

To learn more about JC-WISE project, feel free to visit https://www.jcwise.hk​ for more details.

CLIENT Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong

ROLE Project Management | Direction of photography | Art Direction