BTS: Photographing a Lyric-Lapse Music Video Over the Course of Six Months

Back in August we shared a mesmerizing stop-motion video titled “Dream Music: Part 2” and created by Marc Donahue and Sean Michael Williams. The team spent 6-8 hours of work photographing every 3-4 seconds of the 8-minute music video. All in all, the project took six months to complete. The video above presents a behind-the-scenes look at how the whole thing was done, with director’s commentary, deleted scenes, and a bunch of time-lapses of the time-lapse being shot.

Here’s a taste of how much work and attention to detail went into the shots: For one short sequence in the video, the team spent six hours photographing Beau Brigham scooting around on his back, under the baking sun, and with a plate of food in his hand. Every so often, one of the helpers would take a bite out of the sandwich on the plate Brigham was holding, causing the food to disappear before your eyes in the final stop-motion.

Be sure to check out the finished video if you haven’t already (it has received over 2 million views now on YouTube):