Space Needle “in Bloom”

By Mark Horner on April 5, 2011 in Seattle, Seattle Sounders, sports, video, Washington

VIDEO

A scene from Philip Bloom's time-lapse video, "The Space Needle."

Two inspiring forces merged on the Web this week. The Space Needle and the creative talents of filmmaker Philip Bloom. And the outcome has stirred my soul.

I first saw the Space Needle as a young boy in 1969 when our family, having immigrated from England, moved to Washington State after a short stay in southern California. I soon heard how the Space Needle had been built for the 1962 World’s Fair and that Elvis Presley had made a movie featuring it, as well.

Beginning in 1974, regular trips from our home in nearby Everett to Seattle Sounder soccer games always included a contest between my brothers and me. While headed south on Interstate-5, each one of us wanted to be the first to blurt-out, “I see the Space Needle!”

My Dad, like a referee, would settle any dispute concerning who first saw the landmark on a given trip. It’s a scenario that played-out for years. Truth be told, it would still happen today…if we could all be in a car together, once again. But Dad passed away in December of 2009, leaving many wonderful memories and great enthusiasm for storytelling. Actually, he always wanted to hear a great story.

“Tell me a story,” grew to be the familiar words heard in my adult years.

Brian Horner at a Seattle Sounders game at Qwest Field in 2009. My Dad was a life-long soccer fan, first following the Southampton Saints during his youth in England. We only missed one home Sounders game (the Rochester replay) during the team's stay at Seattle's Memorial Stadium (1974-1976) and later attended most home games at the Kingdome, including the first-ever sporting event held in the Kingdome (an exhibition loss to the New York Cosmos. Jimmy Gabriel scored the Sounders' lone goal on a magnificent header).

Fast forward to about 2007 . That’s around the time I first spotted Philip Bloom’s work on the ‘net. Classical case of a talent who does not require words to tell a compelling story. Bloom has described himself as “one of the new breed of cinematographers.”

Bloom’s artistic footprint hasn’t gone unnoticed by many well-known companies, including Sony and Canon. Sure seems to me that these manufacturers have come to realize that the potential for growing new business—more than ever—readily lies within the growing number of highly-polished (and often instructional) videos appearing on blogs and sites such as Vimeo and YouTube.

In short, inspired consumers seem to be making purchases based on that experience of having watched the brief video rather than having dissected the black and white specs found within a product manual.

The expanding landscape of rich video content, fueled in spots by the volcanic talents of people like Bloom, often inspires filmmakers of all levels to purchase new gear. The result is an eruption of interest in “prosumer” and professional cameras (especially HDSLR), sliders, dollies, wearable HD cameras and much more.

Bloom’s a well-established, knowledgeable leader among those on the Internet who are showcasing cameras, video gear and software in our present digital age. People around the world have noticed, including Hollywood’s George Lucas.

And now, Bloom has captured the excitement and beauty of an iconic landmark borne out of a World’s Fair.

Simply titled, “The Space Needle,” it’s a compelling story told, once again, without words. A brief journey open to each viewer’s interpretation.

If his video aimed to tell me a story, Mr. Bloom has certainly done so.

*note: Video also looks very good in full screen view.