Viewfinder: Above America

In a day and age before ubiquitous personal drones roamed the skies, capturing incredible footage of active volcanoes, for example, filmmakers had no choice but to climb into planes and film those breathtaking views themselves. Harrison Sanborn found some of this footage in his father’s archives, digitized the film, and turned the result into a neat three minute video on Vimeo.

There’s a certain quality to this footage that newer, digital-first recordings courtesy or our aerial robotic minions just don’t have. Perhaps its “the celluloid warmth of the colors”, as Nick Milanes suggests in Gear Patrol’s article covering the video. Regardless of what it is, I just hope that we don’t lose it. There is always something to be said for taking the hard route, and the quality of the end-product when doing so, over that of the easier, increasingly mechanized approach.