Tilt Shift

Boilerhum, A Year Through My Window.

If the Australian Tourism Board hasn’t already licensed the film below they should. This short 5 minute film compresses an entire year of travel around the entire coast of Australia into one short film, and it does it really well. The film maker uses plenty of time-lapse split screen, and tilt shift techniques in the film but he does it skillfully and it works.

I’ll be honest I am the kind of guy that really doesn’t like to see the latest flavor of the month effect being used, and right now time-lapse is as hot as stop motion was a year and a half ago. (That’s right I’m saying stop motion has jumped the shark so move on already) The thing is Boilerhum used the effects really well in this film and it works. Maybe it is the fact that it is combined with split screen footage that is offset or at a different crop ratio. Maybe it’s because the soundtrack chosen for the film completely matches the time-lapse pacing. Either way, what ever it is, it works and it feels fresh.

I guess now I have to start planning a trip to the land down under.

“The Lion City”. A Time Lapse Video of Signapore.

When tilt shift video is done right it looks amazing. Here is a short time lapse video from Keith Loutit entitled “The Lion City”. The film was shot in Singapore, and does an amazing job of capturing the architecture, and bustling transportation the city is known for. The video was shot on Nikon and Canon HDSLRs with a moderate sized crew. If you get a chance, take the time to watch his other tilt shift films. Keith Loutit has the technique down, and the final results are worth watching.

Whistler Blackcomb, The Miniature Resort.

Tilt shift techniques have been quite the trend for a couple of years now with still photography. You see it used in a variety of ways for advertising and product shots, as well as fine art photography. I’ve seen it used with video, but never with much effect. There was a Toyota ad that was running last year that used it, but the shot was so close, that you never got the full effect of what tilt shift does. It makes things look miniature, and that is why this commercial for Whistler Blackcomb Village works so well. There is a great little set up, and the tilt shift effect applied with time-lapse just works so well.

Enjoy.

Music
Passed Out by White Apple Tree

Directed by Mike Douglas
Edited by Jeff Thomas
Filmed by Jeff Thomas and Mike Douglas

The iPhone Camera and All Those Lovely Applications For It.

City Market Vegetables.

You know it’s really all about the tools, and how you combine them. Actually that is arguable. It could be said that it’s really all about the content you produce. I tend to agree with the latter on this. I’m a huge proponent of “I don’t care how you make it as long as it looks good and does what it is supposed to do in the end.” With that said, I want to talk about iPhone photo apps. I am always amazed that I can take the crappy little camera on the iPhone, combine it with the right series of applications, and turn out some really solid images. What I have discovered is this; you can’t use just one app. the best result happen when I combine 2 to 4 for the final image. The images below were all shot on my iPhone in various lighting conditions and tweaked with no less than 3 apps, and multiple filters within each one. I think the reason that I am drawn to the way these images look is because they remind me of color versions of early photography and the school of Pictoralism as pioneered by William Henry Fox Talbot in the 1840’s

Knob Hill SF