‘It paints a dark picture... all these places that have closed where people had jobs and people had great times’

Film-makers behind the video showing some of the Sydney clubs and pubs which have shut “where people had jobs and people had great times” explain how and why they shot it.

• LOCKOUT LAWS: POSSIBLE CHANGE COMING
• POLICE UNION BACKS TWEAKS TO NIGHT LAWS

A VIDEO showing how 10 popular Sydney clubs and pubs have folded because of lockout laws has become an online smash.

Using their expertise in timelapse work, David May and Tim Pass of Surry Hills firm Shifted Pictures, produced Sydney Closed, a highly effective piece of art cataloguing a stream of once-lively venues such as Hugo’s now dim and drab after closure.

The video was uploaded to Facebook yesterday afternoon and had been seen half a million times in just four hours.

Candys Apartment nightclub in Kings Cross had 57 patrons at 10.46pm on a recent quiet Friday night. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“That’s just from our tiny page — it seems to have struck a chord,” said May.

The pair’s shared interest in Sydney’s music venues and access to motion-control video technology made the project “a natural”.

“It paints a pretty dark picture, doesn’t it — all these places that have closed were businesses where people had jobs and people had great times,” he said.

“We know some musicians with some strong opinions about the effects of the lockout laws, and when I played it to Jim Finn (from Art Vs Science), he said he had the perfect piece to accompany it.

The video opens on the closure notice on the door on the Flinders Hotel.

“We didn’t want to shoot two venues the same — each has a different feel and history.

“I think when somewhere like Hugo’s closed, with its multiple awards for top Sydney nightspot and history with bands such as Flight Facilities, people realised how bad things were getting.”

Venues featured include those ranging from highbrow to decidedly edgy. Jimmy Liks, the Backroom, the Goldfish, Exchange Hotel, The Passage and Bar Century are among those to appear.

The Exchange was legendary among Oxford St partygoers.

The Soho in Kings Cross closed after 20 years.

While views differ on issues surrounding the laws, the video is eminently watchable.

Filmed in timelapse style, it features slow panning across bleak exteriors of the closed premises, lights of cars and bikes providing glimpses of movement and colour. Padlocks and chained gates tell the story.

Ghostly text appears and vanishes, and Finn’s taut and sparse music sets the tone.

Goldfish Bar was another casualty in Darlinghurst Rd.

The video ends with a strong statement.

May agrees that an element of two-way dialogue missing when the laws were passed might be coming into play for future finetuning.

“While I don’t go out to clubs much now, I think the entry ban after 1.30am has been the big killer,” he said.

“And not being able to buy alcohol from a bottle shop after 10pm has been an issue personally when with friends at a BYO restaurant.”

Darlinghurst Rd is a bleak sight with zero pedestrian traffic on a Friday night.