Originally published at: Skating through an empty Los Angeles | Boing Boing
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kenopsia seems a handy new word (given the downfall of malls etc)
Kenopsia ( noun): The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that’s usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet—a school hallway in the evening, an unlit office on a weekend, vacant fairgrounds—an emotional afterimage that makes it seem not just empty but hyper-empty, with a total population in the negative, who are so conspicuously absent they glow like neon signs. source
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I had that when I walked through the City of London on a Sunday evening 20 years ago. St Paul’s Cathedral was busy (understandably) but the next street over was empty and silent.
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Does anyone know how this was done? If you’ve never lived in LA you may not know that there is never a time when the streets are quiet, even for a moment. Never. At 3am on a Sunday, every freeway is still busier than rush hour in any mid-sized city. Plus this is all shot in daylight. I genuinely can’t fathom how this was done. It’s not a COVID lockdown thing either- the film is nine years old.
Would love to know how this was done.
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yes indeed! i wondered the same. apparently it’s masterful editing plus computer video removal of cars etc. here’s a contemporaneous vice article which talks about the cunning video work it took.
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New from AMC, “The Skating Dead”.
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Ahhh, of course. Removing the cars digitally. That makes sense. So you’d only need a moderately light day. 
Still looks like they took some big chances with on ramps and such. Maybe they ran interference with a helper car in a few places too (much to the anger of other drivers, no doubt).
Remarkable piece of filmmaking!
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If Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater taught us anything, an evacuated city makes for a top-notch skate fantasy…
Also, Konami took the engine from Evolution Skateboarding and stuffed it inside the second release of Metal Gear Solid 2 to make Solid Snake and Raiden skate around (and destroy) parts of the Big Shell, which was way better than anything else that happened on it.
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RIGHT?? i can’t imagine. and i’ve only visited L.A. even with video editing and removing of cars, they would still have to stop traffic to get these shots. it boggles the mind, but the result is incredible.
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Not far from where I live, there’s a stretch of highway that’s been closed to cars. A park now surrounds this former road segment. The highlight is an old bridge.
It feels surreal, partly because it’s so quiet when it’s clearly not built to be quiet, but also to walk in a place obviously not designed for human feet, but only humans are around. I wonder if I can use kenopsia equivalently for that sensation? Or is there a term for “a place that’s usually bustling with machinery but is now abandoned and quiet?”
Pic of the bridge deck:
Seen from below:
source: Knapsack Bridge and the Lapstone Zig Zag Walk | Sydney Uncovered
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I seem to remember video of a lot of USian cities. Totally empty. Wasn’t that like early 2020?
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The thing that really sells it is the foley. They have recorded all the skateboarding sounds separately and dubbed them over.
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Similar - Five Finger Death Punch’s video shot in shuttered downtown Las Vegas, spring 2020.
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