Chiang Rai, an unforgettable time-lapse view

Chiang Rai – Heaven of the North, by Saengthit Kamlangchai.

By Terry Fredrickson

Time-lapse photographer Saengthit Kamlangchai has just posted his latest film, this time from a wide variety of locations in Chiang Rai province. As usual, he has given us a description of how he made his film. Personally, I think it is his best one yet.

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Chiang Rai, an unforgettable time-lapse view.

If you are a regular follower of our the Bangkok Post learning website, you will likely remember Saengthit Kamlangchai. He is a young Thai film-maker specialising in time-lapse videos. We have already featured three of his videos from three different locations, Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket and, in each case, Saengthit has described the production process from start to finish. Today, he does the same with his just released video from Chiang Rai province in the North.

Watch closely and you will see that he uses two basic techniques, time-lapse in which still pictures of the same scene are taken every few seconds and hyper-lapse in which the camera shifts position during the shooting.

Time-lapse videos are extremely time-consuming to make. For his latest, a 5-minute tour of Chiang Rai province, Sangthit says he took spent about 20 days filming, taking 30,000 photos – 12,900 of which were used in the final product.

Now watch the film. Make sure it is set for HD. You might want to watch on the YouTube site itself so you can see it full screen:

Here, in Saengthit's own words, is his description of his Chiang Rai project.

Overview

The objective of this film project is to showcase the true beauties of Chiang Rai Province using the Time Lapse cinematography. I thus traveled to nearly all the landmarks of Chiang Rai Province and some interesting places that made it into the film that were discovered by accident .

The people

Journeying through mountainous terrain and meeting new people who have lived around the mountainous border of Thailand all their lives, I feel these people are really sincere and kind. For example, the community at Doi Tung Forest Fire Control Station where I camped overnight cared for me absolutely just like one of their own. One resort owner at Doi Mae Slong gave me a free room upgrade for no apparent reason, and a fellow diner at a local restaurant in Chiang Saen city bought me a free beverage. I've never said the word "Thank You" so many times in a day as I did on this Chiang Rai trip.

Interestingly, while doing a Time Lapse segment at the top of Doi Lang Ka Luang, a few people among the group of campers came to ask me about how to use the DSLR camera they just bought. The little conversation gradually turned into into a "photography workshop" at the very top of Doi Lang Ka Luang.

The filming locations over the 20 days it took to do the photography.

The Landscape

For me, I feel the most beautiful landscape in Chiang Rai is Phu Chi Fah. Another unique and interesting scene, I stumbled on by chance was a soccer game on the mountain terrain near Doi Mae Salong; watching a soccer game on the mountain top with the sun setting was truly an amazing sight. Also, another was that the most beautiful after-sunset twilight scene I encountered was not from a mountain's top, but at Chiang Saen city by the roadside (included in the film). It is exactly the same in real life, truly beautiful.

You can see Sangthit's previous three film here. In each case he has given quite detailed descriptions of the production process.

Bangkok

http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-together/402276/a-unique-video-view-of-bangkok

Chiang Mai

http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-together/408095/chiang-mai-timelapse-how-it-was-made

Phuket

http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-together/423626/phuket-time-lapse-how-it-was-done

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