I’m not the type that finds himself welling up from the sheer beauty of natural spectacle often, much less when I’m experiencing it on a computer screen. Adrift got me though, and it’s well earned as the two years of disciplined work that went into this short shows. A brisk four-and-a-half minutes, the film is a collection of time-lapses of fog drifting into San Francisco over the hills and bay, captured by one dedicated Pixar animator in his spare time . It took some doing to put together:
The weather conditions have to be just right for the fog to glide over the hills and under the bridge. I developed a system for trying to guess when to make the drive out to shoot, which involved checking the weather forecast, satellite images and webcams multiple times a day. For about 2 years, if the weather looked promising, I would set my alarm to 5am, recheck the webcams, and then set off on the 45-minute drive to the Marin Headlands.
Simon Christen (his site). I wouldn’t be surprised to hear his name again.
Thanks to Colin Levy