A professional photographer, specialised in event timelapses and hyperlapses. He travels a lot between Belgium and Australia, and his showreel made him famous going viral with almost a million views in one week on YouTube.



Introducing the 5-minute interview with our friend Matthew Vandeputte, featured Author of the Month on Time Lapse Network.

Who’s Matthew Vandeputte, in a video-nutshell?

Before starting our interview, let’s watch what we consider Matthew’s masterpiece (at the time being, obviously!): The Dish.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfubFKFEuOI

Introduction

Ciao Matt, and thanks for accepting our interview first of all!

Time Lapse Network has already mentioned your stunning creations by assigning them the “Top Story of the Day”, “Best of 2012“, “Best of 2013“, and “Best of 2014“ awards: this is REALLY a lot, mate!

1. How does it feel like being one of the most awarded time-lapser on Time Lapse Network, and what do you think about our site?

It’s amazing to get so much recognition for my passion which has in time turned into my profession. I remember the early days of Time Lapse Italia from years ago and to now have the consistent support of the much bigger Time Lapse Network is really amazing.

I think Time Lapse Network and Time Lapse Italia are the best timelapse hubs out there. They get regularly updated with relevant content ranging from videos to behind the scenes stories to interviews with the best creators out there. It’s honestly the best site for timelapse lovers out there.

2. We know you’re doing so many creative things in photography: time lapses, commercials, corporate videos, event hyper lapses. As this sounds fantastic, can you please tell us something more about your story, and how did you get to that point?

In 2012 – after finishing film school and playing around with timelapse for a few years – I got the opportunity to be part of Epic Cinema’s award winning crew for the Tomorrowland Official Aftermovie. This is where I showed them my first hyperlapse sequences, which turned out so well that they asked me to be part of next year’s crew. The 2012 and 2013 Tomorrowland aftermovies today have a combined view count of 182 million views!

After I quit my full time job in Antwerp (Belgium) last year I moved to Sydney, from where things have gone really fast. I’ve shot for Dutch production company Final Kid for a David Guetta documentary in Israel in october and more recently for the Ultra Music Festival in Miami. In Australia I’ve shot for Canon Master Abraham Joffe’s company Untitled Film Works on a range of things going from a million dollar wedding to Canon Australia documentaries.

Before I knew it my hobby had turned into my profession and I couldn’t be happier about that.

3. What’s your favourite gear when it comes to shooting your projects? Camera, lenses, Slider and other accessories?

I like to shoot things simple. Dual cameras on tripods or one on tripod and the other being used to shoot hyperlapses for example. I have a motion control slider that I’ve only used once. It’s a bit heavy for all the travelling I do, however I am currently looking into acquiring a lightweight motion system to replace my current one.

My main camera is a Canon 5D Mark III, my most used lens would be the Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM. This lens is, in my opinion, one of the best all-round timelapse lenses. The range is better than the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM, it has great built in IS that is incredibly useful for shooting aerial stuff or handheld hyperlapses.

I often walk around with my “lightweight set-up” which consists of just these two pieces of gear and a Manfrotto carbon fibre tripod.

4. We believe The Dish can be truly considered your masterpiece, full stop. An epic video that leaves people completely speechless. You are also about to receive an award from the Central Western Astronomy Society David Malin Awards in Australia for that video! Please tell us something more about it, and how hard did you work on it to get such a perfect result!

The Dish is one of the southern hemispheres biggest radio telescopes. It was used in 1969 to receive the video footage from the first moon landing, and had captured my interest from the first moment I heard about it a couple of months ago. Considering the six hour drive from Sydney and the short timeframe for which I had a car available for the trip, I waited for the moon cycle to be optimal to go shoot some astro timelapses.

The day I arrived at Telescope Road in Parkes, the hometown of The Dish, I got word of the David Malin awards, an annual astrophotography competition with a category for ‘animated sequences’, for which timelapse fit perfectly. The only downside was that the submission deadline was in less than a week.. So I shot two nights and two days all around the dish and it’s magnificent dark skies. In total I captured 16333 photos, about 45 sequences worth, and had less than 5 days to deliver an edit that could be submitted for the awards.

Postproduction went something like this:

two days of processing the RAW files in Lightroom and After Effects

one day of creating the edit in Final Cut

one day of creating the soundtrack and fine-tuning things

I submitted the day before the deadline and got word that I would have to wait for 3 weeks before judging would be finished.

This was a very result-driven timelapse shoot. I knew exactly which shots I wanted, why I wanted them and how I would edit them, and after three weeks of waiting for results I got a congratulatory email from the David Malin Awards organisation notifying me that “The Dish” had been selected for an award.

5. In your opinion, who are the greatest time-lapser that you know and follow?

Terje Sorgjerd: He made me really pursue timelapse photography on a bigger scale after seeing ‘The Mountain’ on vimeo. It’s fun to notice that this video is going viral again over the past few weeks.

Tom Lowe: His film Timescapes and the Dreamcore team afterwards paved the way for timelapsers worldwide to pursue bigger things than just online edits.

Rob Witworth: His editing style is just a blast to behold!

6. Producing very high quality time-lapse videos can bring benefits to an author career. Do you agree with us? And if so, how is your life and work career changed with time-lapse production?

Of course. One should always strive to put out only the very best of the best. Even though I put out a lot of tiny edits throughout the year, I focus on the big projects for the long run. Going over my timeline as it stands right now: The Dish coming out next week, an Israel edit after that one, and a new 2014 showreel coming out around december.

I think it is important to showcase diversity and different styles. In the end, if you want to make a living off of it, you have got to be flexible and you need to be able to prove that you can succesfully capture and show a wide range of events/styles.

7. How do you perceive the professional time-lapse production market these days? Do you believe there’s still a chance for amateur and pro videomakers to get out there and become worldwide known with a great time-lapse production?

The market definitely is very saturated, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to make a living with timelapse. The more people and businesses I talk to the more it becomes obvious how applicable this principle is to a vast array of things.

I’ve shot weddings, constructions, festivals, bars/restaurants, landscapes (the list goes on), and the client has always been satisfied. Timelapse photography opens up new dimensions to showcase pretty much every type of business and I believe there is a great market for that.

To come back to the question, in the end it shouldn’t be about becoming famous, it should be about doing what you love and being able to support yourself/your family with that passion all the while making your clients happy with unique visual imagery.

Thank you, Matt!

As the project founder, I would like to thank Matthew Vandeputte very much indeed for his time, kindness and great interview, which I believe is going to represent a true inspiration for all those reading Time Lapse Network pages.

Good luck with the award and professional life mate! A warm embrace from the whole community of Time Lapse Network!

Marco