"Tilt shift" time lapse video of Saigon

[ilbonito]

The first minute or so is stills, then the action kicks in:

[Deleted]

I have never been able to figure out why tilt shift photography has such a strange effect. Whenever I look at the tilt shift sites, I just want to fold up the world and store it in a matchbox.

[ilbonito]

Yeah, I don't understand exactly what it is...but I love it.

[bjd]

That's great. I have never been in East Asia, but Ilbonito's pictures and this video certainly upset the "tourist" view of the area as seen in travel information: all temples, gentle people and tinkly music. It's obvioulsy much more dynamic, urban.

Gotan Project actually has an interesting split-screen video to go with that music.

[ilbonito]

I'm kind of surprised to read this because to me Asia has always been urban and dynamic, the home of the supercity. Its this grittiness and excitement which drew me to it. I've yet to make it to New York, but no city I've seen in the Western world can hold a candle to Bangkok or Beijing for its vibrancy.

Ho Chi Minh too - although I actually found Saigon TOO much; too many motorbikes, constant noise, constant fumes, constant sales pitches, grey cheaply-built concrete tower for row after row after row; all the hassles of an emerging metropolis without the style of say, Tokyo or the charm of Bangkok. This video rather misleadingly, makes it look absolutely serene!

[bjd]

It's just that the way south-east Asian countries are presented for tourism here in France shows beaches in Thailand and maybe a temple or two, rice paddies and ladies in those conical hats, Halong Bay in Vietnam and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

[Deleted]

That's so well done and so interesting! Can't be easy making a video like that.

[ilbonito]

It's just that the way south-east Asian countries are presented for tourism here in France shows beaches in Thailand and maybe a temple or two, rice paddies and ladies in those conical hats, Halong Bay in Vietnam and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.


Wow, those tourists must get a shock when they hit Bangkok. Come to think of it, maybe thats why so many people hate the city (which I have always loved). They just weren't primed to expect it. People are constantly advising on the Lonley Planet Thorntree forum to get out of the city as soon as possible, to a beach somewhere. I've never understood that. (Although this weekend in particular, sadly, it might be wise ...)

[Deleted]

Those big hotels are going to have some great discounts. Too bad I have no interest in going to those places.

[Deleted]

Anybody who wants to know more about tilt shift photography should take a look at this.

[bixaorellana]

Apr 11, 2010 7:11:54 GMT bjd said:

Ilbonito's pictures and this video certainly upset the "tourist" view of the area as seen in travel information

Apr 11, 2010 9:40:25 GMT ilbonito said:

to me Asia has always been urban and dynamic, the home of the supercity.

I instantly identified with what Bjd wrote. I ignorantly have been envisioning S.E. Asia as a bunch of small, green, slightly backward countries with loads of charm and little in the way of large-scale modernity. It's embarrassing to know so little about such a dynamic part of the world.

Thanks for that link, Kerouac. I thought it really was little scale models somehow superimposed over real images, such as the rivers.

[gertie]

Bixa: maybe try Laos?

That tilt shift makes everything look like a tiny kid's toy city to me. Even the rusty-roofed gas station just looks so bright, like a toy perhaps left outside in the past by mistake thus a little rusted and weathered on top.

[Deleted]

There is clearly some tilt shifting in Tokyo in Gaspar Noé's new movie coming out later this month.

[Deleted]

I have to remember to buy ilbonito's book about Bangkok some day.