Walking Across America: Time-lapse Project

Photography Tips  •  Time-lapse Photography

The filmmaking collective known as Conscious Minds are known for using conceptual ideas in producing spots for the internet. When they teamed up with Levi’s, in 2010, they produced the viral video, “Guy Walks Across America.” The two-minute short features a time-lapse of the crew’s journey across the United States. In making the film, the group employed the popular Canon 5D Mark II to capture the trip. The director of the film also mentions the use of an Apple iPad, which was used to set up the proper framing of each shot:

To ensure continuity between each scene, the exact distance from the model to the camera was hand-measured using a measuring tape. The hard work and diligence is evident in the films nearly seamless transitions from each location. While the crew did, in fact, travel across the country, the trip was made in an RV starting in New York and ending in San Francisco, California. Here is a map of their journey:

Map of Their Journey Across America for this Time-lapse Project (Click for Larger View)

The team stopped in different locales to take footage, most of which required the model to remain frozen in pose to make it appear as though he were walking while each  frames was shot. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at how they created this production: