Paris Timelapse Video: The Making Of Le Flâneur

Untapped took afternoon drinks in Paris (très Francais) with Luke Shepard, who created the timelapse video, Le Flâneur, which appeared in National Geographic and the Huffington Post.

He shot this using a Nikon SLR D90 camera and a tripod. Unlike typical time lapse video in which the camera is stationary, he snapped photos one foot-length (literally the length of his shoe) from each other around the monuments of Paris. Each sequence took between two to five hours to shoot and since the video is en homage to his love for Paris at night, he would be on location between 1am and 6am.  For continuity, he chose one place to focus the image on for each photograph and in post-production, used  Adobe  After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro. The result is a collection of 2,000 images, beautifully stitched together. The music (Le Flâneur by the XX)  reflected his mood during this period of his life in Paris.

But, there were definitely some unforeseen issues along the way. Halfway through the shoot at the Louvre Pyramid, the guards changed and the new guard was less amenable to having trespassers into the area so he couldn’t shoot around the monument like planned. Luke told us that having to negotiate with guards to explain the project made him realize him how good his French had become. Also during the project, his hard drive crashed and the entire Bastille sequence was lost. He returned to Bastille 17 times to reshoot, until the conditions were right. In order for the sequence to work, there cannot be a moon in the sky or significant cloud cover.

Luke arrived to the meeting by bike, his preferred method of travel in Paris, and I think the video captures his interest in movement, unique for a city known for its static beauty. Luke is a sophomore at the American University in Paris and has been working on an online TV platform for his school called  Panam[e] TV. We look forward to more collaborations between Luke and Untapped in the future!