City of Melbourne

The Cerebral City

Investigating the curious public spaces of Melbourne, Australia.

Overview
A meditation on space, place, and finding yourself in a city. To convince people that it’s possible to create amazing places in cities out of forgotten urban spaces, I made a short film that reflects on my own discovery of the curious laneways of Melbourne, Australia and the techniques that the city’s designers used to bring them to life.

RoleProject Director

Activitiesconcept development
video production
cinematography
video editing
motion graphics

TeamXiao Han Drummond, Ian Dryden, Andrew Tuttle, Daron Deonier

ClientCity of Melbourne, VIC

Date2015

LocationMelbourne, Australia

Short Film

A young Australian woman discovers Melbourne’s public spaces through the narration of a charismatic designer who helped transform these spaces from a dying wasteland into vibrant places for people.

“A beautiful and engaging short film about the life of the Melbourne side streets.”

— Gehl Architects

Context
Before stepping foot into the laneways of Melbourne, Australia, I had no idea how much a city could awaken my sense of discovery. During a tour of these spaces with an urban designer, I was fascinated to learn about how they used design to simply augment what they had—a network of old laneways for services and utilities—to transform a dead downtown into a magical layering of history, people, and culture.

Hosier Lane in the 1980s

After a six-year hiatus from making any of my own films, and annoyed by the glut of DSLR- and Vimeo-fueled “city porn”—beautifully shot images of cities without any real substance or sense of lived experience—I decided to try and create an experience for people that I’d never seen before.

Film as meditation
With only a faint idea of a story, I learned to shape this film as a meditation: a curious flow of memories and encounters, revealing Melbourne’s quirky spaces through the humble insights of a city designer and the experiences of a young Australian woman.

Impact
I still can’t believe the response and praise of the film. Most recently, the film screened at the UN World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi, and in an actual laneway in San Francisco! The Melbourne city design crew has also used it in several presentations around the world.

“a fascinating look at urban design and understanding spaces”

— Congress for the New Urbanism

“How do you make a doc about urban design that causes its viewers to CRY???”

— The late Lynn Shelton, film director

John Moody is creative director & urban designer specializing in user research, urban strategy & place identity. Let’s connect! ~ john.s.moody@gmail.com