Capturing the special moments in a child’s life is every proud parent’s goal. Moms and dads save pictures, make photo albums, create scrapbooks and keep videos on their computers at home. Occasions arise when company comes that a thick photo album is dropped in the lap with either ‘mommy’ or ‘daddy’ inviting you to look at pictures of the kids. Probably no one minds looking at three or four pictures of someone else’s children, but after the fourth or fifth snapshot the desired comments begin to dry up. Unfortunately, few out there have both the talent and the equipment to put all those photos into a three-minute package that shows off twelve years of childhood like you’ve never ever seen before.
A father in Utrecht, Netherlands managed to film the growth of his children weekly over the years. Filmmaker and photographer Frans Hofmeester made short time-lapse videos of his daughter and his son and produced a whole new way of capturing special moments in the growth of a child. His latest is a film he made of his daughter starting with her birth in 1999 and filming her weekly for the next twelve years. Hofmeester used actual video instead of still photographs for the time-lapse sequence, which makes Lotte appear more alive, the transformation from newborn to big kid literally happening before your eyes. “It’s a bit spiritual,” says Hofmeester. “It touches your soul.” Have a look at his impressive short video, Lotte Time- Lapse: Birth to 12 Years in 2 min. 45.
When Lotte was three years-old her brother Vince was born. Hofmeester starting filming him as well. This one is called Birth to 9 years in 2 min. Time-Lapse Vince.
Along with a good representation of all his work, Hofmeester’s website has several wonderful short films, one of them so beautiful and interesting it lit up my Sunday morning. By all means check out the film of Hey you! What Song Are You Listening To? It was filmed, directed and edited by Hofmeester, asking random citizens of Utrecht walking or biking with headphones, what song they are listening to. Fascinating! As one person commented, “What a great, generous way of seeing random people on the street with instantaneous, personal depth! Bravo!”
Yes, these are floating around on many cyberspace sites and how wonderful they are. What grand video albums of his children.
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