Island in the Sky – Time lapse video
Inhale the fresh air, smell the refreshing scent of the green pine forests glowing above black volcano sands, no sound but the wind in the trees. A deep blue sky matches with the blue atlantic ocean far below. Epic volcanic trails lead trough an unique archaic landscape. Feel the elements. Be yourself, at the “Island in the Sky”.
This short film, a homage to the beautiful Island of La Palma – « Europe’s Hawaii » – was like a never ending project for me. More than one and a half years of work…. photographing, processing, re-processing, selecting and de-selecting footage, some weeks filming…
I had certain pictures in mind – the scenes, locations, and moods. Every interesting place I had spotted during many stays on the Island while Hiking or guiding Bike Groups was considered.
As often as possible I returned to Palma to let the film get reality (newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2011/08/15/new-astro-timelapse-video-the-island-showcases-astronomy-haven/), but more than once got thrown back – bad weather, equipment malfunction or whatever.
I hiked up Volcanoes, stayed awake all night on stormy ridges, slept like a dead on the beach next morning. Pre-processed nights footage at the Apartment later, to validate what scenes worked, or needed to be repeated. Hurried back up the mountains before sunset for new setups. Finally got some rest and watched the clouds and stars move. Feeling small in the universe. And tired and dizzy, as well.
Night-Timelapse filming is an art, a struggle to live from, tough on your biorhythm – and needs a lot of passion, love and dedication. Passion for the work, love for nature and wilderness, being alone in the night. Back at the office in the timelapse studio it needs dedication and endurance in front of my workstations working trough the image data.
Which is the toughest part for me – I am not the office guy. I hate sitting in front of a Computer screen too much. And that is what you do with Timelapse. Way too much. After cleaning up the project, 906.65 GB and 83846 RAW images and movie-sequences remained for processing. And there is no automatism, each software at the workflow needs to be fed with each sequence separately, to deliver results…
On some key scenes of this film I have even worked over several months, trying different variations on color-reprocessing, iterating them many times. I am still not sure if they are good now. You judge.
Thanks to all who support me, especially my family. Thanks to Babak Tafreshi of Twanight.org for providing the legendary GRANTECAN Intro and MAGIC-from-the-side Footage (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAGIC_(telescope). Props to the Folks at IAC.es and Visitlapalma.es! Horay to the team at TWANight.org for tips and feedback! Awesome to Nikon NPS!
Jesse Hozeny has provided an awesome soundtrack with « Miles High »! This ended a long search!
itunes.apple.com/at/album/niyama-volume-one-two/id39888393
Equipment: Nikon D4, D700, D7000, D3s, AFS 14-24/2.8, AFS 24-70/2.8, AF 50/1.8, AF 16/2.8 and AF-DX 10/2.8 Fisheye. Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly and MX2 Merlin Interface, Vixen Polarie: vixen.co.jp/en/lp/polarie_movie.html
Processing: Nikon View NX, Adobe Lightroom LR4, LRTimelapse, Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro X.
Introduced on Slate, Wired, NG aaaand Dr. Brian May of QUEEN (awesome!!):
slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/11/26/time_lapse_video_clouds_and_stars_over_the_volcanic_la_palma_canary_island.html
wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/time-lapse-island-in-the-sky/
newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/11/29/starry-nights-in-quick-time/
brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbnov12.html
Now dive in, put your earphones on and relax…
Cheers.
Christoph Malin
That Guy with the Tent
Christophmalin.com
P.S.: Check some of my other films:
« Astronomer’s Paradise », vimeo.com/36972668
« Urban Mountain Sky », vimeo.com/40969904
« ISS Tronized », vimeo.com/51499009
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