City & Tourism
An e-commerce founder, a young couple, an art studio creator and a student each get a slice of life. Split screens and switches between characters turn Longgang's “Four Haves” into city life you can feel.
01 / Background
The campaign theme was “fun, opportunity, room to live and quality,” aimed at young people who work and live in Shenzhen. Rather than listing resources one by one, the concept picked four sets of characters: an e-commerce founder, a young couple, a multi-hyphenate young professional and a university student, whose work, home life, creative pursuits and exercise answer the question of what kind of life this city can offer.
The whole film is pitched at “urban ease”: fast-paced editing set against characters who are calm and unhurried, creating a contrast. In under 40 seconds, the film tells four stories with AI-generated character clips, set on city streets, at home, in a Dafen studio and on campus, and finally brings these different lives together under one shared identity: “Longgang people.”
02 / Creative Highlights
The founder first watches global order data, then raises a glass at sunset and walks his dog by the river. Business and personal time share the same segment, so “opportunity” is no longer a slogan: viewers see a city where you can build a career and still enjoy life.
Black-and-white subway crowds and a colorful home appear at the same time: one side cramped, the other bright and spacious; then the couple paint a wall together. The split screen makes the difference obvious at a glance, and the next action turns the apartment into a home the two of them are building together.
An office with reports and a computer slides away sideways to reveal a richly colored studio, where the character picks up a brush and paints. The switch lands right on the voiceover's line about becoming an artist after work, so “fun” comes across through scene and action, and the short keeps its brisk rhythm.
Reading on campus, running and skateboarding give the student's segment both fast and slow moments. At the end, four panels hold each group's smiles and interactions, then cut to all five raising a glass together in one frame. The colorful 3D title at the start states the theme, the yellow “hou dim” at the end takes the mood to its peak, and the group portrait makes the city memorable.
03 / Scene Breakdown
On a crosswalk in the early morning, office workers walk past the Twin Towers into the sunlight, and the big colorful words “Everyone here has a special talent” fill the frame. The first lead is a young cross-border e-commerce founder who watches orders by day, then has coffee on a rooftop and walks his dog by the river in the evening.
The sun sits right between the two towers as pedestrians cross the road at an easy pace, and the subtitle asks: They say Shenzhen is nothing but the rat race? Then you haven't come to the right place.
He sits by a floor-to-ceiling window, looking at a global order map on the wall; the next shot cuts to a rooftop at sunset, coffee in hand, with the subtitle “Life's even better.”
The setting sun falls on the river as he walks a golden retriever along the bank, and the subtitle continues: business and life, neither gets left behind.
A couple new to Shenzhen push a shopping cart around a supermarket; then the frame splits in two: on the left, a packed subway in black and white; on the right, a spacious living room full of sunlight. Finally, the two paint a wall together and give each other a thumbs-up.
He pushes a cart full of fruit and vegetables with her arm in his, and the subtitle reads: “This couple made a bold decision as soon as they arrived.”
A diagonal line splits the frame: one side shows a crowded train car in black and white, the other shows the two sitting on suitcases with a bright living room behind them. Subtitle: Skip the crowded city center, say no to being a mortgage workhorse.
In overalls, one rolls paint onto the wall while the other turns around with a thumbs-up. Subtitle: Just here to ride through life.
A young woman faces spreadsheets in her cubicle; with a whip pan, she is standing in a vividly colored studio in Dafen Village, wearing a paint-splattered apron and painting; then a visitor studies an oil painting closely in a gallery.
She sits at her computer working on reports, with rows of workstations behind her. Subtitle: One second, she's a cubicle worker.
With a sideways whip, the background becomes a wall of colorful oil paintings as she smiles and puts brush to canvas. Subtitle: In the time it takes to clock off, the office worker turns into an artist.
A young person leans in close to study a landscape oil painting on the wall.
The fourth lead is a student at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen): by day he walks across campus with books in his arms and reads quietly in the library; at night he runs and skateboards at the Universiade Center.
First an exterior of a CUHK-Shenzhen teaching building, then he walks under the trees with books in his arms. Subtitle: And there's him, reading his way through countless books at CUHK-Shenzhen, not caring whether he's fast or slow.
In a bright library he reads with his head down; the next shot is already a running track at night, where he sprints under the lights. Subtitle: He only cares about direction; at night he goes to the Universiade Center to recharge.
A low-angle shot of a skateboard flipping up and landing, against city lights at night. Subtitle: He says only those who know how to recharge can see the future.
The four groups' smiling faces fill four panels as the voiceover says “Come here and you're a Shenzhener, but more than that, we're Longgang people”; finally, five people raise a glass together on a rooftop as the big yellow characters “hou” and “dim” pop up on either side.
The founder raising a glass, the couple embracing, the painter holding up her palette and the student wiping off sweat all appear at once.
On a rooftop at sunset, five people raise their glasses together toward the camera as the two big yellow characters for “hou dim” pop in from both sides.
04 / Storyboards & Final Frames
In the film's order, with each character's face and clothes consistent throughout. Below are the final frames for every shot; a few use frames from the finished film.
Shot 1.1
In the early morning, sunlight shines between the Galaxy Twin Towers as pedestrians in business attire cross the road at ease, in contrast to the traffic behind them.
Shot 2.1
An office by a floor-to-ceiling window with a global order map on the wall; he watches the screen with a smile tugging at his lips.
Shot 2.2
A sky garden on top of an office tower, backlit by the setting sun; he holds a coffee, looking relaxed.
Shot 3.1
On the left, a crowded subway car in black and white; on the right, a sunny living room where the two sit on suitcases.
Shot 3.2
In work overalls, the two paint a wall together and give each other a thumbs-up when they finish.
Shot 4.1
After work, she paints in the studio, her apron covered in paint, against a wall of highly saturated oil paintings.
Shot 5.1
First an exterior of a CUHK-Shenzhen teaching building, then into an airy library where he reads quietly, all in fresh blues and whites.
Shot 5.2
At the Universiade Center at night, he first sprints on a night run, then lands a skateboard trick, two close shots that bring the energy up.
05 / Results
The final film is a city portrait short of under 40 seconds in 16:9, ending with the logo of the Longgang presenting organization.
Case Study
“Fun, opportunity, room to live and quality”: this is the development goal Longgang has set for the district, known for short as the “Four Haves.”
All four words sound right, but they're hard for young people to remember. Instead of matching each word with a set of landmarks, we found four people: a cross-border e-commerce founder, a young couple who skipped the crowded city center, an office worker who paints after work and a student at CUHK-Shenzhen.
This is our work for the Publicity Department of the CPC Longgang District Committee, Shenzhen: the eighth film in the Longgang series, 38 seconds long with Cantonese voiceover, ending on the line “Gong zan, nei dou hou dim” (“For real, it's great here”).
01
The script takes the voice of a “city observer,” and the whole film is pitched at “urban ease”: the editing is fast, but the characters stay relaxed. Each of the four “Haves” is played by one person:
Opportunity is a cross-border e-commerce founder who checks global orders by day and has coffee on a rooftop in the evening; Room to live is a couple who skip the crowded city center and use the rent they save to repaint their home; Fun is an office worker in a cubicle who goes to paint in Dafen Village after work; Quality is a CUHK-Shenzhen student who studies by day and runs at the Universiade Center at night.
Each of the four segments has its own color: warm-cool contrast for the office, cream tones for the couple's home, the richest colors for the studio and fresh blues and whites for the campus. Viewers know the story has moved to the next person without reading the subtitles.
02
There are four sets of characters in 38 seconds, and each has to appear in several shots. We made the storyboard frames for all 11 shots in one go, requiring that each person's face and clothes stay the same throughout, with every frame at 16:9 and 2K; we generated several versions of each shot, picked the best one, and turned it into video.
For the Longgang buildings in the film, real photos were uploaded as reference images before generating, so the buildings would match; the prompts also specified Asian faces.
The storyboard often had several ways of playing the same shot. For the couple, we tried a high five and planting flowers on the balcony, and finally used painting the wall together and a mutual thumbs-up. For the student, the storyboard had him skateboarding in front of a red venue; in the final film this became two closer shots, a sprint on a night run and a skateboard landing, for more energy.
A diagonal line separates two ways of living: cramped on the left, spacious and bright on the right.
03
The voiceover had to sound like a friend chatting, not a news anchor. The script originally planned Cantonese only for the last line, but the final film switched the entire voiceover to Cantonese.
The subtitles also switched to Cantonese expressions: “get off work” became “lok baan,” “worker” became “da gung zai,” and doing well is simply “dim.” At the end, five people raise a glass on the rooftop, the big yellow characters “hou” and “dim” pop up on either side, and the voiceover says: For real, it's hou dim here.
Five people raise a glass together on a rooftop at sunset as the two big characters for “hou dim” pop in from both sides.
04
The “Four Haves” are a development goal, and filming them directly can easily turn into reciting slogans. This film turns them into lives young people can see themselves in: being able to do business, living somewhere spacious, having a hobby after work, and balancing study with exercise.
For the client, all four “Haves” are covered in 38 seconds, and the Cantonese voiceover and local expressions like “hou dim” make the film sound more like Longgang people talking in their own words. For young people thinking of coming to Shenzhen, what they see is a concrete way of living, not a string of numbers.
FAQ
Don't recite the slogan; find a concrete person for each word. This film uses a cross-border e-commerce founder for “opportunity,” a young couple for “room to live,” an office worker who paints after work for “fun” and a CUHK-Shenzhen student for “quality,” filming only the two or three most contrasting moments from each person's work and life.
Make the storyboard frames for every shot in the script in one go, requiring each character's face and clothing to stay fixed throughout. Generate several versions of each shot, pick the one where the character is most consistent, then turn that image into video. None of the four sets of characters drift in their shots, and you can still tell who's who in the closing four-panel shot and five-person group shot.
Yes. This film uses Cantonese voiceover throughout, and the subtitles use Cantonese expressions too, such as “lok baan” (getting off work), “da gung zai” (worker) and “dim” (great), ending with the line “For real, it's hou dim here.” Before the final version, the voiceover and subtitles were checked line by line against the film once more.
Approach
The early outline set the approach of “Four Haves + AI + district character,” choosing a city observer's point of view and stories of four sets of characters. The storyboard required each character's looks and clothing to stay consistent, then gave each segment its own color palette: warm-cool contrast for the office, brightness for the home, rich colors for the studio and a fresh, airy look for the campus, so the different lives are easy to tell apart.
Storyboards were generated with reference to real Longgang buildings, with Asian faces specified for the characters. Models were compared on building consistency, characters and detail, then used to make stills and motion shots. The film uses black-and-white/color split screens, sideways scene transitions and a four-panel montage so that, in under a minute, the four stories are distinct yet connected.
The voiceover is friendly and conversational, delivered entirely in Cantonese, and the subtitles use Cantonese expressions too. Local words like “dim,” paired with the characters' relaxed manner, make the city feel closer.
More Work
Ideal for brand launches · public-sector communications · cultural-tourism campaigns · IP transformation · event openers · earnings visualization · social campaigns · AI workflow development
