Q&A with Julian Tryba of Alinia Media
What did it take for Julian Tryba of Alinia Media to make his latest time-lapse / layer-lapse film "NYC Skyline?
- 22 Trips to New York
- 232,000 Pictures Taken
- $1,430 in Parking Fees
- 9988 Miles Driven
- 352 Hours of Filming
Kessler: Do you have a favorite spot, building, feature, etc. about NYC?
Julian: My favorite place in NYC is Sheep Meadow, you can’t beat the open space and awesome view.
Kessler: Tell me about the effort and process it took to put the video together.
Julian: For the majority of my 22 trips to New York, I only stayed for 2 or 3 days. I was always keeping an eye on the weather as well as waiting for opportunities to gain access to properties or rooftops in the city. On many occasions, I’d wake up in Boston, make coffee, look at the weather, and make a spontaneous decision to drive to New York to capture the sunset. One of my most productive rooftop shoots was when I got a call at noon from Casey at 929 Media. He had an opportunity for me to get rooftop access that same day, but I wasn’t sure what the view would look like and I would have to leave immediately to make it to New York in time. Four hours later I’m parking my car in Manhattan, I haul my gear to the right building, introduce myself to a broker I’ve never met, and 20 min later I was on a rooftop with 360 views and golden light glowing over the city. I drove back to Boston that same night, feeling incredibly grateful that everything came together. By the time my head hit the pillow at 3 am I was out like a light. I had essentially done an 8-hour drive for a 4-hour shoot and it was 100% worth it.
Kessler: What's next for you?
Julian: In the short-term, I will be releasing NYC Layer-Lapse on Monday (11/13) as a follow up to NYC Skyline. The NYC Skyline is all traditional time-lapse techniques whereas layer-lapses are more abstract and rely on animation.
My ongoing ambition is to get permission from buildings in NYC to leave my long-term time-lapse cameras installed on their rooftops; I think it would be incredible to create time-lapse footage of cities over the course of decades so you could literally see the city grow over time. Not to mention the cameras would run every day so you would capture the best sunrises and sunsets of every year. I will do the best I can with my limited resources and connections to make those time-lapses a reality, I know it's doable.
Kessler: What was the most challenging part of creating NYC Skyline?
Julian: Getting access to unique locations, I can’t stress that enough. Anyone can shoot from the ground level of a city, and there are plenty of street-level shots to be had; however, I think cities look much more impressive when the camera is up in the skyline itself. Not to mention most of us never get to see all the amazing different views from on top of all the buildings in a city. I feel like I have barely even scraped the surface in New York, but I’ll keep on coming back whenever an opportunity presents itself.
Shot using Kessler Second Shooter Plus and Cinedrsve motion control systems.
