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Ross Ching's videos
With "Carmageddon" looming in Los Angeles, I decided to take my "LA with no cars" video and re-edit it with new music, coloring and opening shots. Editing was done in Final Cut, coloring done with After Effects and shot on a Canon 60D.

Music: Wim Mertens - Often a Bird

Here's the basics:
1. Record for 20-30 mins.
2. Go frame by frame and grab pieces of the road that aren't obstructed by a car. Eventually, you will have every piece of the road.
3. Put the static image of the road in with the moving background.

For more information see: rossching.com/running-on-empty

Credits

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  • Nathan Petersen 7 months ago
    I loovvveedd the original, and even am trying to do the same thing myself. :) This one is just as good or even better. :)

    Just curious, how'd ya do the beginning shot?
  • Ross Ching 7 months ago
    had my friend drive over an overpass, shot in slow motion then stabilized in After Effects 5.5
  • Christopher Scott Knell plus 7 months ago
    That Warp Stabilizer in 5.5 is one tricked out trick... It's saved the day on a few jobs already.
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  • MMiguel 7 months ago
    Curiously enough I saw this while listening to the Doors' "The End"...
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  • Cory De 7 months ago
    Brilliant work, Mr. Ching! Bravo, Sir.
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  • Shaun McAlister plus 7 months ago
    This is wonderful stuff, sir!
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  • Doktorr Wubit 7 months ago
    Good choice of song! wim is superb! one question! did you do the "track in-out" in post production or with a mechanical tool?
  • Ross Ching 7 months ago
    did the pushes in post
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  • Sam Morrill staff 7 months ago
    This definitely adds to the original, which is saying something since the original was so good.
  • Ross Ching 7 months ago
    thanks for promoting it to your staff picks!
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  • Dan Dobi 7 months ago
    RADDD - awesome work!
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  • Paul Kroeker plus 7 months ago
    shot of fence at 1:12 my fave! Nice!!

    Are the slow pushes all done in post? This was NOT stills correct?
  • Ross Ching 7 months ago
    yeah, all the pushes are in post. and except for the first 2 shots, they were all stills
  • Paul Kroeker plus 7 months ago
    Awesome job! Thanks for gettin back Ross! at least 25 of those views are mine !!

    :P
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  • PINGSCo.net plus 7 months ago
    great video, very creative, well done, inspires food for thought
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  • The Film Artist plus 7 months ago
    Nice music and colour grading, if I remember the traffic signals and music in the original video were awesome aswell :)
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  • Rijad Spahic 7 months ago
    00:42 look at trees glowing from removed cars :D
  • Erica 7 months ago
    interesting :O
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  • Stephen Clee plus 7 months ago
    Great job on this!
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  • davyd Whaley 7 months ago
    very nice.
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  • Joe Moya plus 7 months ago
    very good.... very well edited
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  • UPHEAVAL 7 months ago
    Terrific!
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  • Keith Rivers pro 7 months ago
    amazing music! well done composer
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  • makavelihl 7 months ago
    Me a gustado mucho esa técnica
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  • Patrick Jones 7 months ago
    this is a lovely fantasy, but where are the bikes, walkers, foragers, urban farms etc., that an 'energy descent' future will necessitate.
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  • Mark Harmer plus 7 months ago
    I was wondering where all the people are (although there's a high-speed football game at one point). Shows you how much real-estate is devoted to getting from A to B by car. Seems like a lot of concrete trees died to make those roads!
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  • John Rowley 7 months ago
    Wonderful. Come to London and do the same thing here!
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  • Harrison Brooks 7 months ago
    Amazing! Great work, I love it!
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  • Christopher Scott Knell plus 7 months ago
    Stunning. Of course, you realize, there's going to be tons of copy cats trying to do this themselves. I'll be one of them.
    Great job.
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  • trike 7 months ago
    Say, that was nifty.
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  • Edson Zerati, MD plus 7 months ago
    Bravo !
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  • joe-elipo plus 7 months ago
    Wow! The best time lapse ever seen.
    Very creative video editing.
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  • Lidia Edith Monge Arias 7 months ago
    fantastic..loved!
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  • Stu Kennedy 7 months ago
    Beautiful, if only! any tips on removing cars from video?
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  • Greg Kiss plus 7 months ago
    You are really a great "storyteller"... :-) Cheers, Greg
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  • tomzzi 7 months ago
    Wow!
    Amazing video! Beautiful work. Love it.
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  • Arthur Leonov 7 months ago
    I can only imagine how many hours this took you to do this. But it is a very interesting approach.
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  • Docent~Prodigy 7 months ago
    That was great work. I admire the how much work that must have took.
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  • Jose Garcia 7 months ago
    Love it! Great work.
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  • DMetzler 7 months ago
    Great work!!
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  • Khalid Wadi 7 months ago
    Very good
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  • Steve Fredericks plus 7 months ago
    So. Very. Cool.
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  • Richard Baker 7 months ago
    Excellent work, I lived in the LA area for many years, but never saw it without traffic. You did an excellent work.
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  • ferrinspace 7 months ago
    幹得好!
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  • Duke Geren 7 months ago
    If I could live in this Los Angeles, I would have never left.
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  • Dandruff Douche 7 months ago
    breathtaking, love it.
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  • Kristen Chambers 7 months ago
    Wow, this looks very eerie.
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  • Paul Kroeker plus 7 months ago
    You've turned L A into a tranquil paradise!
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  • Riley Hayes 7 months ago
    this is one for the archives. great work man.

    what song is this in the background?
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  • Bence Szemerey 7 months ago
    did u use any AE plugins? Or not, what is the name of the plugin with you made this beautiful colors?
  • Ross Ching 7 months ago
    I used the hell out of Colorista II
  • Bence Szemerey 7 months ago
    thanks :)
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  • neil esoy 7 months ago
    I really like this vid, the imagery with the music makes it a pleasure to see.
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  • Lidomar Bison 7 months ago
    How life would be with less human beings.
    Imagine a world with half population within 50 years.
    Richness for everyone!!!!
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  • Ponderosa Productions plus 7 months ago
    Awesome work, was this an hdr timelapse or just normal photos?
  • Ross Ching 7 months ago
    normal photos, but shot them in RAW
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  • Jake 7 months ago
    awesome. or you can just wait for events like carmageddon. lol. it does feel like a i am legend, LA version. it would be nice if the sounds of will smith broadcasting on the radio was inserted into this video.
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  • Brynn Sankey plus 7 months ago
    Very cool concept
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  • Ralph Mastromonaco plus 7 months ago
    the only thing separating this from greatness is roaming cloud cover on the roads :D
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  • Cristian Mejia 7 months ago
    awesome, so peaceful just like a early morning walk by the beach. Congrats!
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  • Frank_Red 7 months ago
    Very nice, love your colors and mood. you forgot a car in the right part behind the wall at 1:18->1:19 :D..ita passes like a ghost.

    Nice work.
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  • dkm news 7 months ago
    love the scenes with the blinking trafficlights..thx for that..
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  • Daniel Cohen plus 7 months ago
    Wow!
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  • R.A.N. 7 months ago
    AMAZING!! and Love the scene by LMU, I go to school there!!!!
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  • Luiz Amaral 7 months ago
    amazing! Thanks for sharing
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  • Yatzer plus 7 months ago
    yatzer.com/vow29-LA-With-No-Cars
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  • Daniel Blažek 7 months ago
    just WOW!
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  • WildWood 7 months ago
    amazing
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  • Benescual 7 months ago
    Awesome job!
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  • Allume Point Productions/Andre G plus 6 months ago
    If I may ask, how do you avoid camera shake?
    I have a 60d and the shutter itself causes camera shake during timelapse... it seems to slightly shake the cam every time it takes a pic. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
  • Ross Ching 6 months ago
    hmm, i don't have an issue with camera shake. if anything though, you could do mirror lock up...
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  • Allume Point Productions/Andre G plus 6 months ago
    Thanks man, much appreciated. I will research "mirror lock up". It seems that the shutter on the cam opens hard, and slightly alters the position of some shots during a long sequence of images. I will try again!
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  • Eskil Sæter 6 months ago
    Very cool!

    I'd love to see some trippier stuff based on the same approach, like only showing single cars, or have them fade in and out of existence at various points along the road, etc. I suspect that will be even more painstaking to achieve though :)
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  • mikie10u 6 months ago
    very nice!!
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  • Michal Taraldset plus 6 months ago
    How do you make the camera zoom in when you do a time lap?
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  • Ty chau 6 months ago
    That's so cool 
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  • Richard Brehme 6 months ago
    Well done Ross!
    The music was a superb counterpoint.
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  • Kevin Jacobs 6 months ago
    Mind blowing! I want to live there. :-)
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  • chip brandstetter 6 months ago
    This is great. I've been researching the 60D and you've helped me decide it's the right choice for me.
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  • Thomas Boymann 6 months ago
    Awesome job! Amazing!!! Best regards from cologne germany!
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  • John Brackett plus 6 months ago
    I've been shooting in downtown LA a lot lately and had a similar concept in mind. You did an outstanding job. Living here, I can image how much work went into this piece.
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  • Philip Erskine 6 months ago
    wow good work man, really well done
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  • Livideyez 6 months ago
    Awesome work Ross =)
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  • Mike Gualdoni plus 6 months ago
    Incredible
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  • Kris Kehasukjaren 6 months ago
    dude, this is freaking tight. sick concept
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  • Jack5on5000 5 months ago
    Stunning work.
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  • Thomas Burn 5 months ago
    how do you shoot in slow motion with the Canon SLR's? I feel i am being very stupid asking the question, but i haven't discovered it yet.
  • Ross Ching 5 months ago
    try googling that question
  • Thomas Burn 5 months ago
    That's true. Sorry for taking your time
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  • Thomas Burn 5 months ago
    oh and an incredible idea by the way! Look's so surreal. I figure you know about the little snippit of the car in a side street (bottom right corner) on the final shot as you will have spent ages editing this. I think it's a nice touch. At least one sign of life!
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  • Worth the Stars Media, LLC plus 5 months ago
    This is such a fun video to watch. You did such a good job!
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  • Patrik Ontkovic 5 months ago
    very exciting! and great idea of course!
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  • Jim McKenzie plus 4 months ago
    Very clever/creative!
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  • Banana Magazine 4 months ago
    I loved you're video and it inspired me to create a fotoproject: behance.net/gallery/3-Million-Missing/2138346

    thanks for your great work!
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  • Brian Sparks 4 months ago
    love it... its really beautiful
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  • Karl Jones 4 months ago
    Bravo! Well done, indeed!
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  • Billy McKeown 3 months ago
    Great revisit. It's amazing what you can do the second time around.
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  • Lloyd Revald 3 months ago
    did you use an ND-filter? :-)
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  • Luke McFadden plus 2 months ago
    Well done!
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  • Anna Cardinale-ruiz 1 month ago
    Oh wow! this is absolutely beautiful! I love it!
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