Ep.01 Coronavirus Isolation
For the past week, I had two interviews with my friends who were in quarantine at home for the past seven months.
Hailey is an American citizen originally from Hong Kong. She came back to New York in February 2020 and was stuck here for the pandemic. Staying alone at her friend’s place in the Financial District, she stayed up late almost every single night to play Game for Peace，the Chinese version of PUBG Mobile， a first-person perspective military competition mobile game. During our three-hour gameplay, we talked about her experience of the pandemic in both Hong Kong and New York, her dream career in the music business and beyond.
Hailey’s avatar cries in the lobby of Game for Peace.
Say hi to Hailey with a punch.
Interview with Hailey during the battle
I also had an interview with my childhood friend Lucy. Her roommate left during the pandemic, and she has been living alone. Moved to the New York earlier this January, she didn’t know many people in the city, and she has been playing Animal Crossing to keep social. She also showed me another comforting game she played called Short Hike. She told me about me about the different stages she went through during the pandemic, starting with learning how to make a bread, to the struggled with loneliness, and how she started to meet people online. The games make her feel relatable, as if part of her ordinary life can remain online, and the games can be a fantasy that she wish she could have lived in.
Jude visits Lucy’s fancy apartment in Animal Crossing.
Lucy told Jude her experience of learning how to make a bread, and how it made her feel alive.
Testing different angles of over-shoulder shots
Lucy even has an exorcism place to wish the virus go away.
Testing out action shots in Animal Crossing
Lucy showed me a touching phone call her avatar received on the top of a mountain from her virtual mom in Short Hike, an indie adventure video game.
Testing on handheld shot to follow the avatar on TV
Problems encountered
Gameplay capture and recording device needed
Unstable wi-fi for remote recording
Running out of storage on mobile devices
Audio quality of live chat in gameplay
Storyboard and shot list needed
How to get over bias of knowing the interviewee too well?
What should I do to make the interviewee I don’t know feel comfortable to share remotely?
What’s next
Finish the A copy of the first episode, starting researching for episode 2 on digital love.