Waterfalling timelapse
A time-lapse short film to celebrate the majestic beauty of waterfalls in iceland and its breathtaking landscapes
#TIMELAPSE #SHOOTING #POST-PRODUCTION #COLOR-GRADING
A non narrative short film where the enchanting colors of Icelandic nature are the story teller, taking the viewer from icebergs dancing on the water to martian terrains immersed in hot-springs fumes, from epic cloudscapes painted by midnight sun to majestic waterfalls decorated with rainbows.
It’s easy to fall in love with the breathtaking landscapes of Iceland, but it’s hard to capture their wild and unique beauty, even harder in an unseen way. I tried for almost a month, driving alone for more then 5.600km (3.500 miles) on winding roads, fighting against the weather and a glacial flood. I went back to the same locations many times, waiting for special conditions of light, wind, fog, water and cloud movements. Majestic and spectacular waterfalls had to be a significative part of the film, but I also wanted to portrait icebergs mirroring in the water, midnight sun painting cloudscapes and fumes of hot-springs. Evolving and surprising colors of Icelandic nature became my leitmotif and obsession.
Timelapse showfest Premiere in Madrid
I had the great pleasure to see my work projected on one of the biggest screen in Spain (300mq), during the premiere at the most prominent film festival for timelapse. Lots of submission came from all over the world and I was honored to be awarded with the Bronze Timelapse Showfest Winner recognition.
Production and post-production backstage
I took more then 55.000 raw pictures for a total of 180 time-lapse sequences, but only 70 of them survived in the final editing. I’ve spent more then a year in the post-production, not for adding special effects but for removing distractions and trying to make the images as pure as possible. I painted out an infinite number of tourists, birds, cars and many (not all) fast moving and disturbing things.
I developed the pictures in Lightroom in combination with LRTimelapse. I imported the raw sequences in After Effects, working in 4K at 16bit, with a color managed project in Adobe RGB: each frame is a lovely printable picture! I took advantage of GBDeflicker for fine tuning flickering problems and I edited everything in Premiere Pro. Color grading was done mainly in Lightroom and After Effects.
technical stuff
Camera: EOS 7D. Tripod: Gitzo Mountaineer GT3531 + Ballhead GH3780
Lenses: Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, Canon EF 70-200mm f4L IS.
Filters: LightCraft Workshop Variable Neutral Density filter.
Software: Adobe Lightroom, After Effects, Premiere Pro, LRTimelapse, GBDeflicker.
Hardware: Mac Pro, 32GB Ram, 16TB raid HDD, two Dell 27″ and Wacom Intuos Pro L.
Film credits & Special thanks
Shooting, Editing & post: Giovanni Antico
Music: Rise, by Tony Anderson / the music bed
Calligraphic titles: Alga & Goran / Sunday Büro
Production year: 2011-2013
Super Thanks: volunteers of Icelandic rescue team.
Adobe systems italia & Wacom Europe GmbH
Canon professional services / Italy.
For guidance to Iceland: Enrique Pacheco.