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It is the mood of the beholder which gives the city of Zemrude its form. If you go by whistling, your nose a-tilt behind the whistle, you will know it from below: window sills, flapping curtains, fountains. If you walk along hanging your head, your nails dug into the palms of your hands, your gaze will be held on the ground, in the gutters, the manhole covers, the fish scales, wastepaper. You cannot say that one aspect of the city is truer than the other, but you hear of the upper Zemrude chiefly from those who remember it, as they sink into the lower Zemrude, following every day the same stretches of street and finding again each morning the ill-humor of the day before, encrusted at the foot of the walls. For everyone, sooner or later, the day comes when we bring our gaze down along the drainpipes and we can no longer detach it from the cobblestones. The reverse is not impossible, but it is more rare: and so we continue walking through Zemrude's streets with eyes now digging into the cellars, the foundations, the wells. 

-Zemrude from ‘Invisible Cities’ by Italo Calvino

I interpreted this story to be about negative versus positive outlooks on life. The narrator describes the pleasant views of the upper part of the city, and the unpleasant and unpolished views when looking down. They hint at unknowns and rumors of the other parts of the city, with no one seeming to have an understanding of it all.

To translate this visually for my video, I played with distortion effects including warping, overlays, and color altering to illustrate lack of clarity and illusions. The average camera angle of the film tilts down as time progressses to reflect the inevitable lowering of everyone’s gazes.

I also included tranquil sound effect such as birds singing, wind chimes, and water dripping as well as darker or dirtier sounds such as thunder, airplanes, and city noise.