A new time lapse film by Martin Heck of Timestorm Films came out this week. ‘New Zealand Ascending’ It took sixteen weeks of production time and 185,000 photos to make a film of less than seven minutes. The result, as always is beautiful.

New’s Zealand’s Māori name is Aotearoa, which means “Land of the Long White Cloud”. That’s particularly appropriate for this film as the changing clouds that are part of our changeable spring weather feature heavily.

New Zealand Ascending

 

Location

The TimeStorm Films website has details about the locations in the film.

Filming is at various locations of the South Island and Stewart Island including Canterbury, the West Coast, and the Southern Alps. Heck writes, ” this video is aimed to bring you as close to the scenery as being just on location”. He continues:

Capturing high resolution time-lapse visuals in some of the most remote places of New Zealand came with a lot of challenges for men and equipment. Nature made [it] clear who the boss is by destroying two of my cameras. A very strong Mag 7.5 earthquake hit the Kaikoura region about halfway into the trip. Spring weather was very unsettled so it surprised me even more to capture one of the most perfect night sky reflection scenes I have ever done. …

Getting a plane-ride to Stewart [Island] and landing on pristine beaches was only one of the many highlights of the trip. Taking a boat to discover the mysterious lakes of Fjordland, crossing freezing cold streams to reach hidden canyons or exploring the [magnificent] underworlds of [New Zealand’s] glowworm caves where incredible experiences that came along capturing the natural wonders of one of the most beautiful countries on earth.

Film of some of the plane rides taken plus landing on Stewart Island is part of the “Behind the Scenes” film.

Behind The Scenes

The website also includes this short “Behind the Scenes” film, which is as beautiful as the main film. In fact, in many ways it’s more enjoyable. A highlight is Heck’s a close encounter with a kea.

Film Production, Equipment, and Music

For those who understand such things, the YouTube page gives the following details:

Captured in incredibly detailed 8K resolution and mastered at 60fps….

Within the production-time of 16weeks, 185000 photos have been taken, 8TB of raw-material shot, over 220 hours of time captured, 8000km driven and over 1000 hours have been spent for post-production.

EQUIPMENT
Cameras: Sony A7RII, Sony A7s, Canon 6D
Lenses: Zeiss Otus 28mm, Canon 11-24 mm, Tamron 15-30 mm, Zeiss Milvus 35mm, Canon 70-200 mm
Motion-Control: eMotimo Spectrum ST4, customized Dynamic Perception Stage One

MUSIC
Soundtrack: “Waves” – Mattia Cupelli

 


 

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