Further Up Yonder

Giacomo Sardelli, an Italian film student, has used Nasa still images to create a film that he calls a message from the ISS to all humankind. He explains here …

I wanted to use pictures taken from the International Space Station to tell a story and share the message sent by the astronauts who worked on the station in the last 11 years.

They are working to open a Gateway to Space for all humankind, but people on Earth must understand that they have to get rid of the concept of borders on our planet if they want to follow the astronauts to new worlds in outer space. While the cosmonauts speak a day passes on Earth, from dawn to sunset, until the Gateway opens with a burst of light. The ISS then gains speed and goes faster and faster, the astronauts are leaving our planet which they see spinning faster and faster, merging earth, oceans and people together, ready to follow them, Further Up Yonder.

… As a filmmaking student, this was my first attempt to craft a timelapse video. It has been a time consuming process, but it turned out as one of my most satisfying projects.

I focused my workflow on colours and harmony of movements, syncing every frame with the music and the voices of the astronauts. Every picture has been post processed individually before being imported in the NLE software, as I tried to take the most out of every image in terms of colours, contrast and neatiness.

Here it is …

OK, right now you are thinking, “ISS at Night” by Knate Myers is the benchmark for footage like this“. Well yes it is, and when asked about that, Giocomo commented …

It is, indeed! That’s the one that inspired me a few months ago. And the soundtrack is also great! I fancied the idea to play with the voices of the astronaut to send a message, though.

I think what you need to remember here that this is not NASA PR, but rather some amazing art inspired by science and has been created using the tools of science to remind us of the awe and wonder that inspires us to reach out and discover new things. As for this new version, it is indeed a beautiful landscape for the track he chose, and a great use of the actual radio transmissions from folks on the ISS

He has more footage and an even higher resolution image available on his blog here.

Since I have mentioned it, if you have never seen “ISS at Night”, well, for completeness, here it is as well … enjoy

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