Spice of Europe

From sunsets over the Buda castle to dawn on the Danube river, the unique elegance and stark beauty of Budapest are the one and only among European cities.

The video contains three thematic ideas with my own remix of Continent by Anbr and The Racer by Tristan B. The first minute is composed of peculiar sounds to establish the fantastical elements of the early mornings and daytimes of Budapest and thereby revealing the sense that the capital city is truly out of this world. The second-minute transitions with abrupt tunes build up tension and draw in the audience through the swift shift from daytime to dawn with a series of time-lapses. The beauty of the night-time of the city is highlighted through these short clips and is used to create a more immersive viewing experience. The last minute starts with the bridge of the music score that provides relief from the repetitive tune used for the time-lapses, and then enters the guest star who will take the audience on a ride that explores the thrill of driving down the streets of Budapest at night while being accompanied by the main chorus of the music score.

This video is first inspired by the video of Budapest created by Timelab Pro and Hungarian musician, Havasi. It sparked my interest as a drone hobbit to rethink the way cinematography and the unique ways of capturing shots from high above. Other ideas and composition references were drawn from SkyHighFilms, Hartnett Media, Joey Palmroos, Ben Maclean, ClOWN EDITS, FiExhaust, Niklas Christl, and VossenWheels. The car sequence is mainly inspired by Alen Palander and Miles Cable as I wanted to capture the extravagance of the all-new BMW 5 series hybrid at high speed while maintaining the elegance of the city at dawn and night.

The entire project is filmed on the Fuji XT4 mounted on the DJI RS3 while the aerial footage is captured with DJI Air2s. All lighting equipment from UIanzi.

Special thanks to my friend Yifan Zhang for diving me around the city to film from 9pm-2am over the course of 3 weeks and also for Ying Sandy for being avalible at the last minute to pull off the stunt drive at the parliament. Cheers to Li Teng for being the guest star. Your aura of 帅气 blends pretty well with that of BMW.

My next vision for a film project will be trying to create choreography for a dance video featuring Latin-American culture.