HD aurora footage on-line

[janlameer]

Hi All !

Since a geomagnetic storm might happen this weekend, I have put a HD 720p short film on Vimeo of the night of 6 / 7 april 2000, which also was the first time I saw real northern lights.

You can find it at http://www.vimeo.com/27315234


enjoy !

JanL



Some background info on the footage:

During large geomagnetic storms the northern lights (aurora borealis) can sometimes also be seen far away from the arctic regions.

On the night of 6/7 April 2000 a large cloud of electrically charged solar wind particles hit the Earth by surprise and a strong northern lights show was seen all night from Europe, the United States and Canada.

Northern lights from these latitudes look different than in the polar regions: more red and yellow colors, slower movements and mainly rays and beams of light instead of moving curtains.

The footage was shot on the beach of the island of Terschelling in the north of the Netherlands.
For 500 kilometers to the north of that island there is only sea water, so the northern night sky is very dark.
This makes it a perfect place to see the northern lights.

The little house on the beach that appears in the film is an old rescue shelter for shipwrecked sailors. In the shelter there were blankets, food and fresh water.

This rare footage was shot on 35 mm film, 24x36 mm, ten meter long rolls.
After development the frames were scanned one by one in a film negative scanner, yielding a resolution of about 6K.
Registering the thousands of images and removing dust and scratches through rotoscoping by hand took more than ten years to complete ...

[Ulrich Rieth]

Hi Jan!

That is really a nice video...good soundtrack also.
Can we expect to see more videos of such kind in the future?
Thanks for sharing!

Ulrich

[janlameer]

Hi Ulrich!

Thanks for the compliment, I'm glad you like the video.

And yes, there will be more coming soon.

Vimeo only allows one HD upload per week for basic accounts though, so I will slowly add more.

Making music was something I started a few years ago because it is very difficult to get music rights cleared for films.

The first piece of this sort of film and music you can find on http://www.youtube.com/user/pixelidiots ... G7r12s3J10
it is about large thunderclouds.
Text is still in Dutch though, but I'm working on an English translation. Among the sounds you hear is the last morse sent by the Titanic.
Cmb should be Cb, I know

On
http://www.youtube.com/user/pixelidiots ... GfI_AwKZOs
you will find the musical concept worked out further, there are a lot of "spy number station" in the soundtrack of this video.

And on
http://www.youtube.com/user/pixelidiots ... 2VERasoz3I
you'll hear only the basic sound layer.
This one is also with Dutch subtitles, the subject is pulsating and drifting aurora, which I find the most mysterious type of aurora ...

It's fun making these video's. especially when they play on large screens at a music festival ...

JanL

[Yann Hollander]

Hello Jan!

You are the master.

Are you going out tonight into polder?

Yann

[Ulrich Rieth]

Hi Jan!

I like the one with the pulsating aurora.
That's also one of my favorites, even though one is not really able to capture it on film or chip in its full extend.
Cheers!

Ulrich

[janlameer]

Hi Yann and Ulrich !

No polder to-night, it'll be work till late, but I hope to catch some sunlit blue Nitrogen aurora around 03 hrs local time later to-night ...

And yes Ulrich, no film or video camera can capture the true beauty of pulsating aurora; very slow pulsations and movements combined with the very rapid flashes that sometimes occur.

Good hunting to-night!
JanL

[Yann Hollander]

Hej Jan and Ulrich!

I hope we will get some, but the clouds are a mess.
I am pretty close to the polder now in Netherlands, with some light pollution. Not like in Porjus.
I have seen the pulsating so much there in the aftermath of activity. Don't know where to look because it is everywhere. Fast waves and pulsating big patches through the whole sky. Pretty bright also. And very relaxing and comforting to look at. Like a 'heartbeat' of the lights.

Can't wait for winter again You coming? Your office and editing desk is ready for you.

Good hunting, and see you soon Jan. Great work on the clip by the way. You are the King.

Yann