In the world of multimedia, we often talk about capturing moments but what about capturing an entire year? That was my plan when I undertook my most ambitious project yet, a year-long hyperlapse of the 145km Centenary Trail that circles Canberra, Australia’s capital.
Starting on the literal doorstep of Parliament House, jumping on a ferris wheel during the spring festival Floriade, “invading” the pitch during a Big Bash cricket match and culminating in a hot air balloon ride, this was no ordinary walk in the park. This journey was not just about highlighting the rhythm of the city I live in, but showcasing the stunning beauty that Canberra, situated in Ngunnawal and Ngambri country, has to offer.
This isn’t my first time dipping a toe into the wildly niche world of long-distance hyperlapses, having created similarly fast-paced videos between Bondi and Manly in New South Wales, followed by another in the Grampians, Victoria.
Both of those efforts provided me with the experience I needed to go bigger for the Centenary Trail. I realised what works for this style of video is a good mix of architecture or human-created elements, and beautiful landscapes – and Canberra has both. It’s more than its stereotypical reputation as the soulless workplace of our political elite.
The typical highlight reel approach has never done justice to the immersive experiences one encounters on a long-distance hike. You know the style – lots of beautiful footage, lots of slow motion, the landscape is a backdrop, not a character.
But when you’re traversing a landscape for days, it morphs from that inert canvas into a vital and breathing entity. This becomes most prevalent in the clouds, as they bubble and roll like an ocean you get an idea for just how much is happening in the sky above us. The compression of time in a hyperlapse also brings out the contours of the land: during the Northern Borders section of the hike, the steepness of the hill is conveyed in a way that never shows up in normal footage.
Some people might think that the high-tempo nature of this video is antithetical to the serene ambience associated with nature. I get it: this hyperlapse is no Life in the Woods. And yes, part of the magic of going bush is to recapture a sense of tranquillity and introspection often lacking in modern life. I just think that two things can be true at the same time. The tranquil stillness of nature can exist harmoniously alongside a vibrant, kinetic representation of landscapes, just like in this hyperlapse.
I used an array of techniques and processes to create the video. I captured the footage with a large-sensor 360º camera, graded the footage in Premiere Pro, overcaptured, sped up and added motion blur in After Effects before assembling the clips back in Premiere for a final edit and sound mix.
For the aerial shots along the Murrumbidgee River, I used a new AI-powered technique utilising neural radiance fields to generate navigable 3D environments from some fairly bland drone footage. This allowed the “camera” to swoop and soar over the river as if it was an FPV drone.
The Canberra Centenary Trail can be explored as a seven-day walk, averaging just over 20km a day or a three-day bike ride, averaging just over 45km a day.
The trail is divided into daily sections, where you can join or leave in many locations. It’s designed for low intensity use by all walkers and for cyclists of moderate ability.
