Last summer, Florian Nick — who goes by Flo, for short — spent his days immersed in the Canadian Rockies.
For six weeks, the 23-year-old passed through the winding, rocky roads of Alberta and British Columbia, hiking through forests and up mountains, camera gear strapped to his back, sweating his way to get the shots he had dreamed of.
A native of Tübingen, Germany, Flo left home after finishing up classes for the year at Stuttgart Media University, where he studies Audio Visual Media. After a handful of group projects at school, he wanted to do something on his own.
“I wanted to create a film that raises awareness for our planet by showing nature’s most beautiful side without any signs of human civilization,” Flo says.
This led him to choose the remoteness of Canada’s wild west for the setting of his project.
After days and days of non-stop driving, staying up all night to film the stars, and sleeping in his minivan when he could, Flo had captured something special. He had created a video that showcased Canada’s Rockies — a place peacefully enduring the changes occurring around it — in their purest form.
ALIVE is a captivating time-lapse video, featuring a technique in which, instead of pressing the camera’s red record button once, the shutter is snapped hundreds of times in sequence. The photos are then “stacked” in post processing, creating a single, moving image.
For Flo, this is where it all comes together — the conceptualization, the travel, and the hours of editing.
“I love how filmmaking gives me the opportunity to visually express myself,” he says. “In my opinion, the real magic of filmmaking comes from the beautiful harmony of story, imagery, and audio.”
Since the film’s release, Flo has received responses from all over the world, people completely floored by what he captured, and some — especially Canadians — who were even moved to tears.
“The Canadians love and respect the beautiful places they live in. I could really feel how Canada’s culture is shaped by nature.”
And ALIVE sure proves his point.
For more of Flo’s work, you can check him out on Instagram and Vimeo.