Inspired by a film Milan made about his bus trip, I made my own travel films during my cross Canada journey on the train. It isn’t very good, but, it is at least quite long. There is quite a lot of footage of scenery, as well as self-interviews – which don’t make very much sense. On the upside, it probably gives quite a good idea of what it is like to be on the train.
Canadian Railway Journey – poorly edited travel films
7 thoughts on “Canadian Railway Journey – poorly edited travel films”
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Only a Northern Song 
Tristan,
Your videos gave a good sense of the Canadian winter. The train journey seems to accentuate it. I felt that I was traveling with you. The view from the Dome Car was quite special. Thanks for sharing this with us.
You certainly got a better look at the scenery than I did!
The Norwegian broadcaster NRK recently made a 7 hour program about the very scenic train journey from Bergen to Oslo. The program was hugely successful (the TV version offered interviews and various things along the ride). The raw film from the front camera is now being offered as a free Bittorrent download under a CC license and there is even a competition (in Norwegian) for best reuse.
That raw footage looks very neat. Almost worth getting a video screen and media computer set up just for the purpose of looping it, as a kind of art installation. I think I will download the footage.
During the summer, you could make a neat time lapse film on a train across Canada.
You could, but it would be a lot of work.
Rudimentary calculations indicate that taking a photo every 5 seconds, then playing it back at 30 frames per second would give a 20 minute film (assuming 3 18 hour days).
It’s really the kind of thing done best by something set up, automated. Kind of like the way this footage was shot.
And you wouldn’t want to do it with a DSLR – the shutter would wear out.
This is really a good idea. Via should produce something like this, and have the CBC air it as a half hour special with some Canadian music in the background.
This is really a great idea. I think a DSLR actually should be used, and using a lens that has IS, or a very fast wide prime. If the photos are spaced at one for every 5 seconds, and a full frame DSLR which goes to very high ISOs is used, and it is left in P mode, the footage as sunset turns to dusk turns to dark could be amazing. Shutter speeds will get longer, but ISOs will also increase, and the footage could continue potentially quite far into the night, and with very eerie results. I’m more and more convinced this is a great idea.