Manchester Time-Lapse Exercise

This short marks a few firsts for me: first extensive use of a DSLR camera, first time-lapse experiment, first use of Adobe After Effects.

This was created in response to D&AD's Moving Image Brief:
"The city is constantly in transition and mutation, disappearing behind changing environments and shifting identities. Create your own 'Adventure In Motion' that explores this"

If memory serves, I think I got the idea to do some time-lapse footage when it was suggested that the final piece needn't necessarily be a movie; that even a still image could capture the ideas suggested in the brief. In a time-lapse sequence the environment tends to remain still; it is the features within it that create the sense of movement - people and vehicles in this case. And the primary force that drives change in an urban setting is the people, so what we have here is a still environment featuring a lot of activity from the people within it.

I also wanted to incorporate some kind of slogan to help illustrate the point; the collection of quotes I found on manchester.com were too good to resist.

How effective this all is at meeting the brief remains to be seen. The bits of text at the end feel more AdSpeak than art, and I've a few misgivings about some of the photography (some of the daytime shots look pretty washed out, for instance). Other tweaks could include keeping the captions on screen for longer allowing for extra reading time, and making sure the last of the quotes fades out at the same time as the visuals.

However, it was a welcome challenge and a valuable learning process, and in practical terms the movie at least works.

Music: "Smooth As Jam" by the talented Mr Si Oliver in the guise of Kalabi - you can find his channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/kalabiband

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• manchester
• city
• onedotzero
• d&ad
• student
• award
• 2010
• moving
• image
• time
• lapse
• film
• animation
• adobe
• photoshop
• flash
• after
• effects
• kalabi
• smooth
• as
• jam

[SamuelRidings]

Nice =)