CineAtlas 60 | Week 1 — One Take Intro | [Plaza Bus Park/ Uyo City]

So I decided to give my viewers a cinematic view in the heart of my city, Plaza. Although the climactic view isn't stationary to view everything, you can actually get a good glimpse if the camera is moved about. This is a spot where sellers run for their lives in the evening because they are prohibited from selling by the road. It's also the spot where buses are parked and Keke takes in passengers.

A spot where misty sellers were killed because a car veered off the road and couldn't control his brake. A spot where people pickpocket because of the number of passers-by. A spot for women, fresh customers, and the only place you can reliably see fruits being sold. Lastly, a spot where people struggle for their livelihood regardless of the dangers of hazards imposed on them.

I'll tell you why I chose this place to be my first cinematic entry. A lot of things happen in this park. This park is located close to the roundabout of Ikot Ekpene Rd. in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. It's actually a public setting and the busiest park ever. Why? Students make use of the vehicles in this park. You can access this park via six routes.

• Plaza

• Ikot-Ekpene Rd

• Ikpa Rd

• Iboko Street

• Udi Street and

• Ibiam Street

It's a park, as I rightly mentioned, a bus and Keke park. While buses offload here as their final bus stop, Keke takes in passengers that the buses offload to their desired destination. This place is made just for them. Buses too take in people going to Itam and Ikot-Ekpene local governments.

Why I chose this place is because crazy things happen in this place. You get to see all kinds of madness and drama in this place, especially in the afternoon and evening. It's the best view for a comic relief setting. You'll see how passengers flare up with bus conductors because of how drunk they talk.

It's always so funny when they use our native language to bandy words. It's the starting point for every funny and emotional scene, and I think my viewers would have a lot to learn from this first view. Why and how? They'll see the way of life of different people here and the attitude of people.

This is the place someone will push you to fall into someone else's market, marketing you as the buyer of what has fallen. It's a place where buses fight with sellers for space. The sellers say it's their space, and they shouldn't block their goods. The bus drivers say it's their space and they should go inside or they'll be knocked down.

My one-take video is 50 seconds long, and I used the trailer cinematic song as background. Actually, montage wasn't involved in this because it's a direct video. I just had to edit the noise to prevent uneasiness when viewed by viewers. The vehicle horns and the ranting by bus conductors would have made the video repulsive and noisy. Sounds weren't completely off because that's the joy of watching an event. You get to hear certain things, live and direct.

I also used the text feature to give a title to my video. No one would want to watch a video that's plain without a hook or clue as to why they are watching this video. Just a text that describes the video is enough.

From the video, I'll describe what you guys will see. If you notice in the video, I used two arrows to point to two sets of people. The first one is pointing to a struggling woman trying to sell apples to a customer, and they usually do so on this chair called Madam Sidon's top.

The second is pointing to another woman having a conversation with her son, probably about education since her son is in the university close to where she sells. It was of interest to me because she may be using her business to sponsor him in school. You'll also see buses lined up by the road, close to where these market women sell their honey fruits.

Still in this park, you'll see a man with 4 public address systems, trying to advertise his products. These sounds cause disruption in the park because you won't even be able to tell if someone is calling you from behind. You also get to see passengers coming down from vehicles and passers-by walking so fast on foot, probably hurrying to their place of work or something extra.

You can see a lot of businesses lined up by the roadside that compete in space for passers-by and buses that are parked there. This place matters a lot to me because it has this connection that mothers or women go the extra mile to ensure their family is taken care of.

They put their lives at risk just to ensure they aren't housewives and that they can contribute to building a household financially. Even when exposed to changing situations of death and the like, they just believe it won't happen to them as they are rather cautious. Almost everyone selling there is a woman, and a few men, especially the Abokis who sell nuts of different kinds. It's a place that needs to be studied because you get to see how people struggle just to produce 100 naira.

The mood I'm trying to express in one take is the mood that balances fear, risks, struggles, and action. While three sets of people are afraid not to cause a scene, they can't help but struggle to survive, as that's their livelihood.

The women selling fruits depend on the buses for customers but are afraid that they may be subjected to accidents, accidents that killed most women in this place. It's rather emotional to also see that bus drivers depend on them for lunch but fear that they may buy someone's market if their vehicle mistakenly veered off the road and crushed their goods.

But they can't help it because that's the only place they see long-distance drives. Passers-by are afraid of both the buses and sellers but also benefit from these two. How ironic.