Incredible “Birdman”-like Tracking-Shot Timelapse of Earth from Space

The Academy Award winning film “Birdman” used what’s called tracking shot to create the sense of a seamless one-shot film. A new timelapse created from imagery captured by astronauts on the International Space Station uses the same technique — which has not been used in previous ISS timelapses — with stunning results. Additionally, the footage is very recent, from January and February 2015. It was compiled by Phil Selmes.

“The footage has been composited and edited to show enhanced camera movement, a day to night transition, and an uninterrupted camera movement which links two timelapse shots seamlessly,” Selmes told Universe Today. “These processes have never been used to present ISS time lapse footage in this way before.”

Like other ISS timelapses that Selmes has put together, this one shows perspective-altering, gorgeous views of Earth from space. “I don’t see politics, races, borders, countries, religions or differences,” Selmes said in a previous article on Universe Today. “I saw one planet, one world, one incredibly beautiful miracle in the absolute vastness of the universe.

All the footage comes from courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center. Links to original footage can be found here.

For post production, Selmes used After Effects and Premiere Pro.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/

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