150,000 Photographs, Riots, Wildfires, And Optical Illusions Make For A Compelling Time-Lapse Film

Jeff Frost Flawed Symmetry of Prediction Modern Ruin  

This first part, called Modern Ruin: Black Hole, is about destruction and has just been released and it’s an intoxicating combo of riots, wildfires, stunning cloud-filled vistas, and optical illusions. The visually and sonically compelling piece is composed of real world events, from shooting stars to the burnt out wreckage of a riot to Frost’s meticulously painted illusions, created inside abandoned houses with the process captured using time-lapse and stop-motion—this film closes with a rather dramatic one as a portion of a room fills ominously with blood-red paint.

The way shots pan down empty corridors with industrial-sounding reverberations humming in your ears, and the way the film skits about from scene-to-scene, gives it a foreboding horror movie-esque tone, making for eerily gripping filmmaking—which doesn’t come without risks. “A significant challenge in creating this work is to not die.” notes Frost on his Kickstarter page. “The physical risks of being in a riot doing a moving shot on a tripod for four hours (see: Modern Ruin at 1:04) are fairly obvious, as are the risks in shooting wildfires, exploring storm drains on the LA River and potentially toxic abandoned structures. But I’m okay with all of that; it’s part of the adventure.”

He has a Kickstarter for the second half of the project, go support it here.

Images: Jeff Frost

@stewart23rd