I find this video really amazing, and I'm always happy when I find out a new way of photo/video expression.
In this case the author, Keith Loutit, has succesfully mixed some cool techniques such as time lapse video, tilt-shift photography, Miniature faking to create something we can call, in default of a shorter expression, tilt-shift miniature faking time lapse video!
First of all if you don't know what I'm speaking about here there are some brief explanations of these concepts. Clicking on the title will send you to Wikipedia more in-depth explanations:
TIME LAPSE
Time-lapse photography is a video technique whereby each frame is captured at a rate much slower than it will be played back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing. Often the frames are normal photographs taken in sequences on a tripod and mounted in a time-lapse video afterwards. Common subjects are the bloom of flowers or the constuction of buildings. It shouldn't be confused with Stop Motion
STOP MOTION
Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames are played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as claymation, for their ease of repositioning. Perfect examples are famous Animation movies like Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit
TILT-SHIFT
Tilt-shift is a photographic technique used especially in architectural photography to obtain undistorted lines or in many other fields to play artistically with the depth of field. It refers to the use of camera movements on view cameras or on small and medium format cameras with the use of special lenses.
"Tilt-shift" actually encompasses two different types of movements: rotation of the lens relative to the image plane, called tilt, and movement of the lens parallel to the image plane, called shift. Tilt is used to control the orientation of the plane of focus (PoF), and hence the part of an image that appears sharp; it makes use of the Scheimpflug principle. Shift is used to change the line of sight while avoiding the convergence of parallel lines, as when photographing tall buildings.
In many cases, "tilt-shift photography" refers to the use of tilt and a large aperture to achieve a very shallow depth of field.
MINIATURE FAKING
Tilt-shift miniature faking is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is manipulated so that it looks like a photograph of a miniature scale model. By distorting the focus of the photo, with the tilt-shift technique, the artist simulates the shallow depth of field normally encountered with macro lenses making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is. Many miniature faked photographs are taken from a high angle to further simulate the effect of looking down on a miniature. Many examples can be found of the photo, with the Tilt-Shift technique, the artist simulates the shallow normally encountered with here
The author, Keith Loutit, has cleverly mounted a time lapse video made of a sequence of tilt-shift photographs. The result is an amazing video that seems a stop-motion movie relized with little toy tin soldiers or toy-folks such as Lego or Playmobil. Instead everything is absolutely real and many people should have recognized Sydney, Bondi Beach and the neighbourhood.
On Keith Loutit Vimeo page you'll find a lot of other similar videos.