When put together, the images compose a 27 minute long non-narrative film of the perfect winter week of Aurora Borealis. The film, Iceland Aurora, is made from over 50,000 individual High Resolution RAW images.
The film captures nature’s own silent movie shown in the way human eyes cannot. It’s a mind-bending representation of reality, it’s hyper-reality. The time-lapse sequences are put together from thousands of images taken each night. Each second of the film is equal to approximately 3-5 minutes of real time. This gives us the opportunity to see the various shades of green, purple and pink aurora super imposed on the beauty of nature and the cosmos.
When the first time-lapse sequence were shot, the filmmakers realised there was no turning back. The magic of the aurora framed by the beautiful surroundings of Iceland were simply something that had to be documented.
“We set ourselves a goal at the beginning of the winter, our own quality manifesto. In our opinion it is not enough to just catch beautiful aurora displays of all shapes and colors, but each frame had to look beautiful and be good enough by it self, even if there wasn’t any aurora. Correctly exposed foregrounds and thought-out compositions were a must. Aurora photography tends to focus on the lights themselves and at most a silhouette of the landscape. That’s understandable, given that the aurora can be mesmerizing all on its own, but to make a whole film interesting, there’s got to be more than just pretty lights dancing in the sky.” (Snorri Thor Tryggvason, photographer and filmmaker)
The filmmakers spent the nights travelling the countryside of Iceland capturing the lights, but hurrying back each morning before their day jobs as designers started. They often filmed in extreme conditions and freezing cold temperatures (occasionally at great risk).
Iceland Aurora is divided into seven chapters, each with its own distinct visual theme. Each chapter has a commissioned soundtrack composed by some of Iceland’s hottest composers: Pétur Jónsson, Kajak and Yagya.
The film was released online on Tuesday 25th of November 2014. This is the first Icelandic film to be released in 4K presenting everything in exquisite detail. You can Buy or Rent the film at icelandaurorafilms.com