A photography team has put together a mesmerizing flow motion timelapse of London, deploying novel techniques to tell the story of the U.K. capital.
A Taste of London is the fifth installment of FilmSpektakel’s long-running A Taste of series having previosuly shot in Los Angeles, Vienna, and New York City.
Peter Jablonowski from FilmSpektakel tells PetaPixel that for the London episode, “we wanted hands-on experience with 3DGS/NeRFs, AI-based transitions, and generative fill tools like Photoshop’s latest features” while refining their hyperlapse techniques and adding Insta360 cameras into the mix.
Security in London is often intense and it meant the team had to secure the rights to film from certain locations, often having to be patient to gain permissions.
“We were fortunate to be allowed to shoot from the observation deck of The Shard [the city’s tallest building]. Ironically, the day we had this amazing top-down view of sprawling train tracks happened to coincide with a railway strike—so no moving trains! But that unpredictability is part of what makes these projects exciting,” says Jablonowski.
Over nine days, four photographers — Peter Jablonowski, Thomas Pöcksteiner, Maximilian Lang, and Lorenz Pritz — took 83,000 photos amassing around 5.5 terabytes of footage.
“The whole project generated a whopping 8.10 terabytes of data,” adds Jablonowski. “Editing such massive amounts of content takes time: 640 working hours, equating to about 80 working days.”
Jablonowski says the team had trouble shooting the row of clocks in Canary Wharf, the central business district.
“Although it looks like a public square, it’s actually private property with restrictions on tripods. We aimed to be as unobtrusive as possible, but we were ultimately asked to remove the tripod and go handheld. It’s all part of capturing high-profile landmarks in big cities,” he reflects.
FilmSpektakel used Sony A7 series cameras and a host of lenses while using a gimbal for continuous hyperlapses and tripods for classic timelapses. The Insta360 was put on a pole for “immersive 360-degree angles.”
For post-production, Jablonowski and co used Abobe Lightroom in combination with LRTimelapse, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition, and Photoshop for generative fill work.
“We also experimented with Lumalabs DreamMachine for AI-powered video transitions with their start/end frame functionality which we then upscaled to UHD with Topaz Video AI,” he adds.
The team also utilized Google Earth Studio flight paths “integrated seamlessly with our real-world footage for sweeping transitions from one location to the next.”
“This blend of in-camera hyperlapse techniques with AI video generation and Photoshop’s generative fill is what makes A Taste of London a unique and exciting iteration of our A Taste Of series. For us, it’s not just about individual shots and raw footage anymore — it’s about exploring all the creative possibilities in post to craft a visually mesmerizing journey.”
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