Further Up Yonder

***UPDATE 28/11***
18.6K views, that's crazy! I'm trying to answer to everybody who liked this video, bear with me if I can't get to you.
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***TO THE STARS!***

A timelapse message from ISS to all Humankind. - 2K version available on my blog: http://wp.me/p2fVm6-bv
Facebook page - Making of coming soon! https://www.facebook.com/furtherupyonder

I wanted to use pictures taken from the International Space Station to tell a story and share the message sent by the astronauts who worked on the station in the last 11 years.

They are working to open a Gateway to Space for all humankind, but people on Earth must understand that they have to get rid of the concept of borders on our planet if they want to follow the astronauts to new worlds in outer space. While the cosmonauts speak a day passes on Earth, from dawn to sunset, until the Gateway opens with a burst of light. The ISS then gains speed and goes faster and faster, the astronauts are leaving our planet which they see spinning faster and faster, merging earth, oceans and people together, ready to follow them, Further Up Yonder.

Making of

As a filmmaking student, this was my first attempt to craft a timelapse video. It has been a time consuming process, but it turned out as one of my most satisfying projects.

I focused my workflow on colours and harmony of movements, syncing every frame with the music and the voices of the astronauts. Every picture has been post processed individually before being imported in the NLE software, as I tried to take the most out of every image in terms of colours, contrast and neatiness.

Pictures were downloaded from the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center and edited with Photoshop CS6. Even if they were Hi-res images shot with Nikon D3S cameras, a lot of noise removal and color correction was needed, especially for those shots at ISO 3200, which was the highest ISO speed limit I've allowed myself to use, exception made for the last sequence of the spinning world, which comes from a sequenze of shots taken at ISO 12800. Daytime shots were taken at ISO 200. I've used Topaz Denoise 5 for noise removal, as it is very powerful and accurate when dealing with shadows and blacks.

Editing was made with Adobe Premiere CS6, with a 2K workflow, which allowed me to scale, rotate and pan image sequences whose native resolution is 4K. The video was downscaled to 1280x720 resolution for Vimeo. The original 2K version is available for download on my blog (link on top of this description).
Credits

Images courtesy of Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, downloadable for non-commerical use from http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/

Music: Synthetic Truth, by digitalR3public - licensed under a Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 License: http://soundcloud.com/digitalr3public/synthetic-truth

Audio messages courtesy of NASA: http://www.nasa.gov

As the most forward-deployed citizens of the planet at this moment,

we, the first expedition crew aboard Space Station Alpha...

We are well started on our journey of exploration and discovery,

building a foothold for men and women who will voyage

and live in places far away from our home planet.

We are opening a Gateway to Space

for all humankind.

As we orbit the planet every 90 minutes,

we see a world without borders, and send our wish

that all nations will work towards peace and harmony.

Our world has changed dramatically.

Still, the ISS is physical proof that nations can work together in harmony,

and should promote peace and global cooperation, and reach goals that are simply out of this world.

On this night, we would like to share with all,

our good fortune on this space adventure,

our wonder and excitement as we gaze on the Earth's splendor,

and our strong sense that the human spirit to do, to explore, to discover

has no limit.

Times are hard all over the world,

but this is a time when we can all think

about being together and treasuring our planet,

and we have a pretty nice view of it up here.