You have some amazing shots in there. Very beautiful piece. The only questionable thing I could see is 03:27 when it is reversed, it looks good but does not fit with everything else.

So impressed by your city shots. Super !! May I ask if you did all the shots specifically for the contest. Anyway, you're making city beautiful. And I love your shots of people. I wish I knew how to do that.

For me the beauty of both is so evident in your captures , not sure if you actually did equal time on them ; Brooklyn & Iceland but it seemed to be a tad leaning more to Brooklyn and some of the dynamics of the cloud movement and the shot with the horses I could use more of since they are visually stunning and for most of us, so foreign ( I'd like just a few more moments with some of the stunners i.e.; vary the times kind of like how you had that cadence in the front of the piece. )
the shot of the shadow of yourself is quite cool.
I appreciate the focal pulls of the three walking down the street and how it's almost akin to a moving landscape ,, to me anyway.

Great stuff.

Horrible. Absolutely horrible. How could you think of submitting this?

Seriously, this is so totally awesome. You really integrated your footage with the Sigur Rós footage well. I think the last pan out to the city line - I was wanting it to pull back even more, but it was a good way to end. If I hadn't watched all 50 clips, I would have thought that you had filmed it all. Maybe you could add some of the Iceland footage of people shopping into your clips of people in New York - being picky here. In all honesty, this just rocks. What was my word? Oh, yeah. Supercool.

That was great. The contrast on the images is so good. What Cam are you using? Are you doing the out of focus with the Cam or the software?

Wow. You have a ton of great footage in here. I especially dug the shots of the people walking around towards the end.

If I had to make a criticism, and I'm digging for one here, it's the real quick 1 second shot of someone's jacket at around 3:55.

I don't know how many times I've watched this.
I think your shots are better than theirs.

Well composed HD-foootage + Sigur ros, could you go wrong with the combo?

Looks good man. I really enjoyed it.

Great shots and edit, good travelling and beautiful image.
J'adore tout simplement.
Encore bravo

2:48 could be a cross dissolve in to road scene, to link ctiy and nature

That's beautiful.
Each frame is so powerful, thanks for sharing.

Sheesh - this is fantastic!

might pull mine out the comp now :(

nice idea. although having visited both iceland and brooklyn nyc, they are very very different worlds...but saying that dude.
i get you.

absolutely beautiful Blake...your hard work paid off, it's great! :)

i've bee interested in Iceland a lot.
i spent a long time in Norway,
and the contrasts appealed to me.

Blake I really enjoyed this. The only thing I would change is one shot towards the beginning where it looks like you tilt up to a window or something, it looks like you can see your reflection. Im not sure if it was intentional or not, just my thoughts. Other than that, it was great. I love the similarity between your shots of Brooklyn and the shots given to you from the contest. Great focusing changes and depth of field changes. Nice work

go to iceland mate its pretty and awsome.

i want to go back during their summer, 24 hr sun. might be ermmm different. good luck blake.

BRILL!

i like how you started some of the shots out of focus, then focused them. i'm not sure there's a technical term for that, but i really really like that a lot.

Boo. I love love LOVE it. Gorgeous images. The looming big sky is incredible in the last shot of the city. Bravo! You'll ace the contest!

gosh! love it.

i hope you win!!

Really beautiful footage. You keep impressing me!

i don't know how many times i've watched this now. the combination of HD with those wonderful shots coming into focus (and of course Hoppípolla) make for the perfect piece. i absolutely love it.

I absolutely love this! I was really shocked when it ended! I wish there was more. This was beautifully filmed and edited. It made me realize two things:
1. I want to stand in every place you stood for each segment of this video.
2. I NEED a high def. camera. It's no longer a want, it's a need!
Amazing!

yer gonna win

I think that the photography is as good as kubrick, but I wish there was more of a theme to follow that would intertwine Brooklyn and Iceland even more. Like the sigur ros logo's popping up. People are always interesting to watch. Maybe people with those logos on their jackets. This is just what I think. It is probably supposed to be more mellow anyway. I am just thinking of music videos like Everlong by the foo fighters, but yours is more like the opening sequence of 2001.

frikkin awesome, Blake!

Really good shots. Some cuts were kinda weird (0:23, 1:40, 3:22).

And yeah, people are always nice to look at. Close intimate shots if you can. Their eyes.

I'd say lose the border fade.........

I think your intro could use a little work.. something a little more interesting. But maybe it means more to you..

That last shot made me feel good.

Your composition was absolutely gorgeous -- skillful focus racks and camera moves. I especially liked the last shot with the gradient blue sky, which could've easily been a title background, and suddenly it's the skyline of New York. One thing I think it lacks is a visual theme; your description says "brooklyn and iceland are strikingly similar in many ways," but I didn't get that from the visuals. Anything you can do to communicate that, such as making cuts between similar shots -- mountains beyond a lake in Iceland and the city skyline beyond the Hudson river in New York, for instance -- or something like that, would help get your message across better.

I love the exploration between the sparseness of space at first glance and the rich detail and texture that exists in that space at the same time.

Really enjoyed this one, Blake. Can't wait to see how it progresses.

OMG! Iceland is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Oh, Blake, this is stunning. Just fabulous and wondrous! You inspire me.

wow. just... wow. your ability to find beauty in the city that parallels the stunning beauty of iceland is absolutely inspiring. This is artistry at its finest, Blake. I can taste the thought and smell the care that went into crafting this. You better win.

very nice! wish i was there! hope you win.

Although I cant say Iceland bares any resemblance to Williamsburg Brooklyn I can say that you had some amazing shots in the edit. I guess being that I used to live in Williamsburg the shots of Iceland were the most powerful to me especially the timelapses of the mountains and scenery. Personally I think the beveled edge bringes the maturity down, maybe try more of a vignette edge. I think it may work better. Great video tho, good luck in the contest.....

It is beautiful!

nice crisp looking shots. love the similarities between the two places.

This was so perfect from start to finish, I loved it. Music really goes great with it, too.

I thought 1:04 was a pretty shot, and I loved 3:01 when the wind blows the grass.

Great job.

Very nice, but I'd remove that blurred border, I didn't like that the most;
thanks for sharing and good luck!

This is great! I like the diversity of the shots. From very urban, to very scenic. How long did it take you to get all the shots for this?

Great video - could you tell me what music that is?

shit I was gonna say you could shoot something


but still great edit.

this is one of the best clips i've watched here.how long did it take to film all this footage.there's a lot in there.i love the closing sky to horizon pan ,i wish i had such panorams & landscapes to work with
thanks for posting

Wonderfully atmospheric and dream like. May I ask: what's the music? And also what camera did you use for this?

uplifting. congrats for being a finalist:)

Blake, this is really beautiful. Congratulations on being one of the finalists! We should work on something together sometime.

Beautiful shots blake...congrats!!

ok so this is pretty amazing. the decrepit american flag in the window, the horses, everything....so cool man. good luck!

woah this is really good.

congrats blake.

beautifully done.

Congrats dude! This video is really amazing.

Good stuff. Each shot is composed as carefully as a still photo. You did a great job relaying the beauty from both locations.

My only critique is that you may want to look at your audio compression settings. The soundtrack sounds a bit compressed and shimmery, moreso than soundtracks usually do on vimeo.

this has really brought round my incredibly shit day, a really inspiring piece.

get out of that office and give us more HD goodness!!

I watched this on Youtube and I couldn't tell what some things were. Then I came to vimeo to watch it and it was like night and day! Awesome video! and really, some great testimonial to how rad vimeo is in HD!!

One of the most interesting things about video filmmakers is when you ask them what camera they use, they never tell you. I did a sample of ten on YouTube and not one of them replied. Blake's just one more.