Filmmaker releases stunning time lapse in celebration of Scotland’s incredible summer
An award-winning filmmaker has just released a captivating time lapse/stop motion film which celebrates the beauty of south east Scotland.
Walid Salhab, media practice lecturer at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh came to the attention of an international audience when his stunning time lapse/stop motion film of Scotland’s capital ‘Kinetic Edinburgh II’ achieved over three million hits on You Tube.
Walid now wants his latest film ‘Kinetic East’ to be a celebration of the wonderful summer which the Scots had been longing for.
The film highlights some of Scotland’s hidden treasures such as the expanse of Ravensheugh Beach in East Lothian and the waterfall at Cramond, as well as some of the better known tourist spots like the harbour at Dunbar and Aberlady Nature Reserve.
The film, which took three months to complete, was mainly shot during the days and nights of May, June and July.
Walid said: “I am lucky enough to live in such a beautiful part of Scotland, and I really wanted to capture some of the amazing evenings and sunsets which we enjoyed this summer. Part of the filming process took me to unspoiled locations, some of which I experienced for the first time. My favourite has to be Ravensheugh Beach near Tyinghame and also the viewing point at Gullane, East Lothian where I was able to capture a glimpse of Muirfield in the lead up to the golf Open Champions.
He continued: “The great thing about this summer was the opportunity to see such incredible sunsets at our beaches. You can visit the beach ever night and have a different visual experience – the sunsets were totally different every time.”
Walid’s Kinetic films use a style of filming which combines the use of time lapse and the physical movement of the camera to create the illusion of motion. Kinetic East involves Walid manually moving the camera on a tripod – shot by shot. No tracks or sliders were used. The film is pieced together from thousands of high resolution photographs (23 million pixels each). One sunset scene could involve the use of approximately 600 individual images.
Walid concluded: “Kinetic East only shows a fraction of the beauty of Scotland’s east coast. I really hope that people enjoy seeing all of these different areas and that it encourages them to seek out some of these wonderful locations.”
At the moment, Walid is applying his filming technique to Scotland’s largest arts and regeneration project – The Helix in Falkirk. A major part of this work is capturing the construction of ‘The Kelpies’, two 30 metre high steel-plated sculptures of horses’ heads, weighing over 600 tonnes. The final sculptures will tower above the Forth & Clyde Canal, forming a dramatic gateway at the eastern entrance to Helix Park.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
