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Film

Toronto gets another epic timelapse sequence

Posted by Derek Flack / October 6, 2011

15 Comments

Toronto Time-lapseIt's probably not necessary to repeat how much I like a solid timelapse. Cinematic and slick, the good ones cast Toronto in an intriguing light that tends to renew one's appreciation for just how photogenic this city can be when the right people are tripping the shutter. One of those people is Ben Lean (a.k.a. *Imperialis*), whose previous efforts Time Travel and Cherry Ice are some of the best timelapse sequences of Toronto that I've seen.

His newest video keeps up the trend. Marked by an epic soundtrack — Clint Mansell's
"Requiem for a Dream (Orchestral Version)" — the photographer takes us on a tour of Toronto between July and early October that's made up of tens of thousands of individual photos, a number of which are pretty majestic in their own right (i.e. the image above). Needless to say, it's a lot of work to put one of these things together, so check out the fruits of his labour!

Neo Solar from Ben Lean on Vimeo.

Discussion

15 Comments

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Hossim / October 6, 2011 at 12:21 pm
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Didya catch the full moon at around 1:35?
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Syncros / October 6, 2011 at 12:25 pm
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Amazing timelapse. Simply the best I've ever seen of Toronto.

Ben Lean is Toronto's Ron Fricke.
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Jim Rooney / October 6, 2011 at 12:26 pm
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Great video? Is it Video?
Did you catch the four or five mooning us at Sherbourne Common?
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Stra / October 6, 2011 at 12:29 pm
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cool, a couple of really neat sequences - a great deal of his subject matter however is a little meh. Wide angles of Toronto will do that.
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Jaymie / October 6, 2011 at 12:57 pm
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That was absolutely insane!! I wonder how long it took for him to shoot all of that! Thanks for sharing that - I gotta link this to my friends
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Dave / October 6, 2011 at 01:08 pm
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Amazing shots, nice work. Could have done without the music choice, but still great stuff.
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Justin / October 6, 2011 at 01:39 pm
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Great work, thanks for sharing this.
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Chris / October 6, 2011 at 02:08 pm
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Beautiful stuff, Ben. Would love to see it (hear it) without that Clint Mansel music though... give us a remix with Gavin Bryars' "Three Elegies for Nine Clarinets III" and I'll send you one American dollar in gratitude!
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Torontonian / October 6, 2011 at 02:33 pm
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In a word--Bravo.
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SeventhMovement replying to a comment from Syncros / October 6, 2011 at 03:57 pm
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Are you kidding? Toronto's Ron Fricke? Amateur Hour. Take a few mins and check out some legitimately good time-lapses before comparing a mediocre video to a legends work.
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lost / October 6, 2011 at 04:48 pm
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Phillip Glass has a lot to answer for.
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belvedere / October 6, 2011 at 05:32 pm
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love it!
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NR replying to a comment from SeventhMovement / October 6, 2011 at 05:48 pm
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Way to go putting down a fellow artist. Must make you guys feel so much better...

Your time-lapse videos are nothing special either, sorry bud.
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SubArt / October 6, 2011 at 05:53 pm
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Simply incredible.

Amazing what truly talented artist can create.
Well done, Sir ... well done.
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choppery / October 6, 2011 at 06:43 pm
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Love the video, but that's one of the most over-used and cliche pieces of music...maudlin and melodramatic and it's just silly, to me, to use a major feature film's key soundtrack song over and over in every little indie film. Words do not describe. Every time I hear those first chords fade in I cringe. I don't understand why so many filmmakers use it to imbue their work with drama and emotion; it's just lazy and pulls at the viewer's drama-strings in such a vapid and overbearing way...even if you like it musically, why not find a more original choice? I feel like it's such an aggressively amateurish move, like "Hey, this soundtrack gives my little homebrew movie that 'big picture' quality!" without any awareness that making such transparent attempts is what fixes one's film firmly in the "nice effort" zone. Reminds me of filmmakers who create shorts in which more thought, spit, and polish has gone into making the credits sequence look reputable than into making the film itself any good. I like Ben Lean's work, but come on, bro.
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