Welcome to the Timescapes Blog! I am excited to announce that I have received financial and other backing from a small studio outside the United States, and will begin principle photography on my first film, titled Southwest Light, on Feb 22nd, 2010!  The film will be roughly 45 minutes in length, a mixture of timelapse, slow-motion, and real-time footage shot in beautiful digital RAW format on Canon and Red cameras.

Along with friends, fellow filmmakers, acquaintances, and various “Guest Directors of Photography” who will join up with me along the way, I will travel the American Southwest (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona & New Mexico) for ten straight months, no stopping, in a Toyota 4X4 truck hauling a travel trailer and camera gear. My goal is to create a portrait of “a time and a place” using poetic, haunting, jaw-dropping visuals.  The genre of the film will be similar to non-narrative masterpieces Baraka and Koyaanisqatsi. Along the way, I hope to offer unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to the making of a film of this type, here on this blog. For those of you who really like to dig into the details (what f-stop? what gear? what settings? how did you shoot that?) and see how these types of films are made, this will be your chance.

Thanks to help from friend Vincent Laforet, Canon USA is stepping up and backing Southwest Light with a crucial, major sponsorship. I will also be announcing other major sponsorships over the coming weeks.

We are also looking for suggestions of amazing locations and events you think we should film over the coming year in the American Southwest. Maybe you know of some interesting local event, like a hot-air-balloon rally, Native American ceremony, a natural granite waterslide where families swim in the summer, or maybe some epic landscape where the setting sun hits a rock formation in a certain way only one time per year? Let us know! We are looking for great suggestions for locations and events. If you have expertise or connections related to locations (your Uncle works at a radio telescope array?), let us know. We will show up with the cameras.

To keep up with the production, also sign up for email updates at timescapes.org.

In addition to documenting the filming of Southwest Light, the Timescapes Blog will also feature contributions from leading members of the Timescapes Forum and Community, related to timelapse and other digital filmmaking news and innovation.

Stay tuned! This is going to be a year to remember!

Production footage from August 2009:

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.