Done well, hyperlapse sequences can look pretty darn awesome. Take Vadim Tereshchenko‘s recent piece featuring Los Angeles — believe us, the City of Angels has never looked so good. They do, however, require some serious planning, long hours, and an imaginative mind.
It took the L.A.-based Russian filmmaker over two years to compile the necessary segments for this particular hyperlapse, which, since its release in the last few days, has been picking up praise from across the Web.
Vadim used a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 17-40mm f/4 lens to shoot the individual frames that make up the two-minute piece, with Adobe’s After Effects software helping the filmmaker to get the hyperlapse looking just how he wanted it. The carefully selected soundtrack is a remix by Seattle-based Odesza of One Day They’ll Know, originally by Pretty Lights.
Vadim told Digital Trends he first became interested in the idea of shooting hyperlapse videos in 2012, and, realizing it was possible to obtain spectacular results with little more than a camera and a tripod, wanted to give it a go. However, his initial efforts fell well short of his expectations.
First-year frustrations
“For the first year I was trying and always failed,” Vadim said. “The clips were shaky and looked terrible, and it was only when I started working on my L.A. hyperlapse that I started getting good results.”
The Vladivastok native told DT that for him, the greatest challenge when shooting a hyperlapse is finding a great location that’ll gain even more from a striking sunrise, sunset, or simply changing cloud formations, in the process creating a striking sequence for the final video.
He adds that when shooting you always have to expect the unexpected. A couple of times he’s had to abandon a sequence, once when a car accident happened close by and again when he was almost robbed of all his equipment.
So, besides keeping an eye out for ne’er-do-wells looking to nab your gear, does Vadim have any advice for budding hyperlapse creators? “Watch video tutorials, there’s so many of them on sites like YouTube now, far more than when I started,” he says, adding, “And then go outside and try, try, try. That’s all you need to do – but be ready to put in a lot of time and passion.”
