Rays slowly inch across the face of a beautiful valley of boulders as the sun sets in the west. A wide, sweeping shot of the Milky Way, and more, fill the frame of Kai Gradert‘s stunning new 4K timelapse, Rise – The Prediction of Everything. According to the filmmaker, the three-minute film attempts to show the predictable and steady nature of our solar system. He writes, in an accompanying blog post, “Given the date, time, latitude, longitude, elevation, and direction, we can predict astronomical events in our observable universe with absolute accuracy years in advance.” Thus, the film is an exploration of these inevitabilities in motion.
Rise is comprised of footage taken over the last three years. The first sequence of the film, Gradert explains, was shot on his visit to the Sequoia National Park. The rest of the following clips were taken over the last two years from Arizona, Utah, Yosemite, and Joshua Tree, perfect sites to observe cosmic nature, in all its harmony. Writes Gradert, “The planets are in a delicate balance, and the chaos that has emerged from the Big Bang has arrived at a place of stability… Earth’s orbit has been stable for billions of years. Without stability, there is no life on Earth. Without stability, we would not exist. To create life, we need predictability.” If the universe’s expansiveness frightens you like it frightens me, maybe Rise will help calm your nerves. Check it out below:
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Rise – The Prediction of Everything 4K from Kai Gradert on Vimeo.
Check out more of Gradert’s films on his Vimeo page. You can also head over to his website to learn more about his work.
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