'Ode to the North' is a video I created as part of my application for the Fjällräven Polar 2012 expedition, a 330 Km dog sledding adventure in the North of Sweden and Norway.
About the video:
I shot a lot of pictures during my two hiking trips to the Northern parts of Sweden. Being out there on my own was very inspiring and refreshing.
Final video
The process of creating my 'Ode to the North' video
1 - Selecting the images
I tried to pick 5 pictures which in my opinion combined the beauty, the magic, the endless space and the feeling of 'timelessness' of the Swedish North.
2 - Bringing the pictures back to life
I wanted to capture the feeling of being in the Arctic North, alone and away from time in my video. A good way of creating this feeling of 'frozen time' is by bringing pictures back to life using animation. Dreaming about the north, getting inspired by the thought of the Fjällräven Polar and bringing those thoughts to life in my video appeared to be the perfect combination.
I had to recreate the landscapes in 3D geometry in Cinema 4D and by using a technique called projection mapping I was able to Project my picture onto this virtual landscape.
3 - Color grading
After animating the 5 pictures I needed to bring them together by changing the colors a bit and by adding some extra elements like dust and drops of water. This was all done in After Effects using the Red Giant Looks and Particular plugins.
