Behind The Scenes preparation work for a Timelapse Video Shoot
i Light Singapore returns after a two-year break (due to Covid19), and this is only possible because of the successful re-opening in Singapore and hard work by the URA team to get the festival back up and running again. This is my experience in shooting i Light Singapore 2022, after taking a 2-year break.
Starting this year, each edition of the Festival will be anchored on a colour from the visible light spectrum. Themed Spark of Light, the 2022 edition will kick off with the colour that has the shortest wavelength — violet.
2022 also marks the 10th year of my time-lapse experience. It all started in 2012 when this timelapse video surfaced on the internet, which absolutely blew my mind! I had so many questions!
- How was it done?
- What were the equipments used?
- Was it done by a single person or a team of shooters?
- Was this a project initiated by the Tourism Board?
All these inspired me to go and figure out this “motion timelapse” technique for myself.
Everything that was done in the past has led to the video you see today, and I hope to share some of the workflow and key moments with those who are interested to know more.
Sequence of events
- 1st Jun — media preview (by URA)
- 3rd Jun — start of i Light Festival
Shot every night until 9th Jun (7 nights in total).
The media preview allowed me to identify the locations of the Art Installations, and the potential angles, and it was especially useful since there were also other photographers present and we could bounce ideas off from one another.
With the positions and angles in mind, I started to source for a music track which felt suitable for this year’s i Light (both for the theme “Spark of Light” and my personal interpretation of the event, being post-Covid19).
It is one of those things where you just have to put in the time to keep on “listening” and try to have a feel for the music. There isn’t a right or wrong way to to do this. Some videographers will prefer to have the visuals fully ready before getting a background music track to match.
Next, I worked out a rough storyboard to sequence the Art Installations, according to both the music and visual connections between one Installation and another. This part of the project is always like playing a jigsaw puzzle game. Looking for the suitable scenes that “fit and match” and thinking of how to transition from one Installation to another.
Even though the Marina Bay is not very big, it can still take quite a bit of time to shoot each of the Art Installations because this was all done in time-lapse mode. It’s important to have a shooting plan so that every trip will be more productive and efficient. For example — shooting in “zones” so that there’s less repeated walking around the bay area, and only shooting the “crowd favourites” on weekdays (instead of weekend).
Some of the challenges faced:
It was very crowded on the first weekend opening (as expected), and several of the Installations were blocked by visitors and good photo spots were taken up by other photographers, so there was some re-arranging in the shooting plan.
Two of the scenes, (1) on the helix bridge looking towards Arts Science Museum and (2) Lightwave by OPPO, were shaky at times. When a group of runners go past on the helix bridge, there would minor vibrations that caused the image to turn out blurry, so these scenes had to be re-done a few times.
I hope you enjoyed the video, and if you have any queries, you can reach me via my YouTube channel or send me a message here on Medium.
