The Arctic Light

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This was filmed between 29th April and 10th May 2011 in the Arctic, on the archipelago Lofoten in Norway.

His favorite natural phenomenon is one he does not even know the name of, even after talking to meteorologists and astrophysicists he is none the wiser. Terje has decided to call this phenomenon The Arctic Light and it is a natural phenomenon occurring 2-4 weeks before you can see the Midnight Sun.

The Sunset and Sunrise are connected in one magnificent show of color and light lasting from 8 to 12 hours. The sun is barely going below the horizon before coming up again. This is the most colorful light that he knows, and the main reason he has been going up there for the last 4 years, at the exact same time of year, to photograph. Having lost a couple of cameras and some other equipment up there before, it was crucial to bring an extra set of everything.

If you can imagine roping down mountain cliffs, or jumping around on slippery rocks covered in seaweed with 2 tripods, a rail, a controller, camera, lenses, filters and rigging for 4-5 hour long sequences at a time, and then having to calculate the rise and fall of the tides in order to capture the essence - it all proved bit of a challenge.

Almost as if planned, the trip turned out to become very difficult indeed. He had numerous setbacks including: airline lost his luggage, struggling to swim ashore after falling into the Arctic sea: twice, breaking lenses, filters, tripod, computer, losing the whole dolly rig and controller into the sea, and even falling off a rather tall rock and ending up in the hospital. As much as he wanted to give up, the best way Out is always “Through”. We are glad he stuck to it though, because there were some amazing sunrises waiting. At 1:06 you see a single scene from day to night to day which is from 9pm to 7am. Think about that for a minute.. 10 hours with light like that.

Terje asked the very talented Marika Takeuchi to specifically compose and perform a song for this movie, and what she came up with is absolutely remarkable. Thank you very much Marika!

Available in Digital Cinema 4k

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Music: "The Arctic Light" by Marika Takeuchi
http://on.fb.me/kOezbO
Buy it on iTunes
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-arctic-light/id445751308?i=445751313

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/01/arctic-light-time-lapse-video_n_869054.html

Thank you to my friend Geir Nøtnes for all the help.