ITHACA, NY – “This video was my final ‘Thank you and farewell’ to Ithaca,” says creator Canon Brownell.
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Brownell worked for local startup Givegab after graduating from Ithaca College’s Emerging Media program in May. Recently, he decided to leave Ithaca and embark on cross-country trip to the west coast.
Appropriate to a student of 21st century media, Brownell’s goodbye came in the form of a beautiful “visual postcard” titled “Lighthouse of Ithaca.” Check it out below:
Brownell said he was inspired by other postcard-type videos (citing “Watchtower of Turkey” in particular). After a lot of talk about the idea, Brownell went about collecting the most captivating shots from his personal collection and some from his close friends. Then, he set to work.
Brownell described his goal for the project: “For people that once lived in Ithaca, I wanted them to see the video and feel a sense of nostalgia and longing for this unique place they once called home. For people currently living in Ithaca, I wanted them to feel a sense a pride and joy when seeing the video. ‘Yep, this is my town’ is how I would imagine a perfect response going.”
The final product took almost a month to complete, with Brownell working a few hours a night after work. He said the most time consuming elements of the video were the “hyperlapses” (such as the shot of the Commons around the 1:45 minute mark in the video).
“This is like a time-lapse, except I have to move the camera for every frame. Even though this shot is shown for about 2 seconds in the video, it took about 2 hours to accomplish,” Brownell said.
While Brownell is driving cross country with friend Skyler Bocciolatt, he’ll be collecting footage for more videos. “We plan on focusing heavily on capturing time-lapses and hyperlapses of America’s famous western landscape. We’re hoping to present it in a visually captivating way that most people have never seen before,” Brownell said.
While his final destination is Los Angeles, Brownell is certain he’ll see Ithaca again. “Ithaca will always be a second home to me and I don’t doubt I will be back very soon. I consider it close to impossible to be exploring somewhere like downtown Los Angeles and not miss a place like downtown Ithaca, NY.”
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