On the heels of my first timelapse movie ‘Hello Toronto’, which garnered amazing feedback, I meticulously poured over hundreds of hours editing sequences frame-by-frame to produce my new unveiling: ‘Bonjour Paris’! This great ‘city of light’ was well worth the effort. I enjoyed making it, and I hope you enjoy watching it.
When shooting ‘Bonjour Paris’ I employed the same equipment setup used for the Toronto shoot. The obvious difference was the time allocated to shooting. ‘Hello Toronto’ was shot and compiled over a 2 year period. Therefore my timeline for ‘Bonjour Paris’ was minimal by comparison. As such, I was a bit worried at the start of the project. However, I enjoyed the challenge. After all, we should all be looking to test our limits.
I returned to France during the 2014 Christmas holiday. The shooting was hectic. I had only one week devoted to Paris, with over 50 locations to shoot. Additionally, during this time I had to balance my job, working remotely for a Canadian bank, while flexing my creative photography muscles. As a result I did not have much time for holiday respite. So needless to say, it was a challenge!
First I was capturing footage from 7am to noon. Next, I would do bank work from noon to 10pm. The next day would be the same thing. Therefore, the schedule was intense. Finally, add to that the expected ‘cauchemar’ for photographers grappling with the swell of tourists in Paris at Christmas time, and it is easy to see why this was a challenging project.
Later, after the holiday, and back across the pond in Toronto, I had ample time to edit the videos. Finally having time, I threw myself into the work. During this time the focus was on improving my technical edge. Therefore, I went frame-by-frame through each video I worked to remove spot dust, stabilize the motion and all sorts of other minutiae. Finally, I began to start adding the finishing touches. As a result, the shooting of this video was a mad dash. The editing was anything but. However, I did find the differences in the experiences very interesting. I expect to look back at this project with a smile in the future.
Finally complete after hundreds of hours of dedication and artistry was refined into 2 minutes of fabulous video, I give you ‘Bonjour Paris’! I hope you enjoy my production as much as I enjoyed making it. Additionally, I hope to share more videos with you in the future. Finally, please feel free to share your thoughts with me.
Music
itunes.apple.com/ca/album/on-and-on-1-1/id977169118?app=itunes&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
soundcloud.com/onandonrecords/the-geek-x-vrv-101
Workflow
2. Adobe Photoshop
3. Adobe After Effects (Video effects, stabilization)
4. De-flickering (GBDeflicker Plug-in)
granitebaysoftware.com/Products/ProductGBD.aspx
5. Adobe premiere (Final video editing)
Gears
14mm
17-35mm
70-200mm
ND and polarizing filters