Video: Ravenswood Timelapse Captures A Year In 10 Minutes

By Sarah Gouda in News on Apr 11, 2016 7:37PM

Paul Zakas installed a camera in front of his street-facing window on March 25th, 2015. No, it wasn't to catch an errant burglar or trespassing teenager—exactly one year later, he compiled 365 days worth of still frames into a captivating 10-minute video that depicts a year in the life of your average Ravenswood resident.

For the duration of the project, he took one hourly shot of Paulina Street from the hours of 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Zakas lives on a quiet part of the street, directly across from Ravenswood Elementary School, and his video captures the daily comings and goings of a community. We found the timelapse to be a calm-inducing meditation on the passing of time; the changing colors of the trees outside his window are probably the most dramatic evolution throughout the video.

A sewage pipe replacement, which took about a month to complete, was depicted in a flash in the video. If only real life worked like that! Beyond that, the majority of the video is populated by kids intermittently playing in the field across the street through rain and snow, sunshine and clouds.

Sometimes it feels like a year can go by in an instant. In this case, it (sort of) does. See what one year, three seasons (we can't bring ourselves to call Chicago spring a full season), and 365 sunrises and sunsets look like from one tiny plot of earth here.