One Month in Mexico in Five Minutes

In Jan/Feb of 2011, I traveled in Mexico for a month. Each place I went I made a short stop-motion video clip with an iPhone 4. This video virtually compresses the whole month-long journey down to about 5 minutes. 

For your pleasure... shot & edited 100% on iPhone 4.

I really didn't set out to make this full 5 minute trip through Mexico from the beginning, but I was fascinated with using the iPhone 4 and the StopMotion Recorder app to make little vignettes that somehow bridge the gap between still image photography and motion image capture. Somehow I think this method conveys a scene in a much better way than either a still or motion image can in that the photographer can more tightly direct what they want to viewer to see in a given place. 

The first few attempts to use this method to bring the viewer a bit deeper into the travel experience was during a trip to Washington D.C. to see one of my images displayed in the Smithsonian Castle, I made a few time-lapse sequences for the travel blog I kept. One of the sequences was meant to convey what it feels like to ride the people mover between art galleries on the mall without having to take 10mins of video doing it: HERE

I really liked the way this compressed time and gives the viewer an interesting experience and still conveys the gist of the actual experience. Cut to a couple months later while backpacking in Mexico for a month, I continued with these sequences all along the way with further experimentation. When I got home there were so many I thought came out well that I decided to just edit a few of my favorites together to wrap up the blog I'd kept of the journey: HERE

The idea of this piece being done completely on the iPhone 4 really appealed to me so I used the app Splice to put them together and drop in some title frames and basic transitions. As I watched a few play back in sequence, it occurred to me that if I just string all of the sequences together in order, the viewer would essentially be able to view the gist of my entires month's worth of traveling in Mexico in just 5 mins. And I think it came out rather well if I do say so myself. :-)

This is something I'm definitely planning on continuing on my next travels, but I do think some audio would be nice. I'm not sure how I'm going to mix appropriate audio for a time-lapse sequence, but I think I'll likely try to create mixed soundscapes of each scene captured like I did in this recent trip to New Orleans where I made this soundscape in the French Quarter using the iphone 4 for audio recording, and then edited into multiple layers with one track of "Play Misty for Me" running underneath to hold it all together: HERE 

This sort of approach of taking a virtual traveler along with you and give them the emotional highlights in condensed digital expressions via soundscapes and time-lapse might just be an more immersive experience than video and sound are capable of delivering. We shall see. Stay tuned!

Check out the rest of Skip's travelog of Mexico 2011 HERE
Photo gallery from this trip also shot/edited via iPhone 4 HERE
Perfect Bound "Best of Mexico 2011" publication from this trip HERE

Skip Hunt
Austin, Texas

Comments

[neely]

cool and colorful! love the cows.

[Kaleidoscope of Color]

Thanks Neely! :-)