Honey, I shrank Melbourne and Sydney

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Melbourne, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso Source: Supplied

• Designer captures beauty of Australia's biggest cities
• Melbourne film follows earlier success shooting Sydney
• 10 months shooting followed by weeks in edit suite

A TALENTED young Australian graphic designer has won a coveted Staff Pick on video-sharing website Vimeo for his latest tilt-shift time-lapse magnum opus.

Melbournian Nathan Kaso won rave reviews earlier this year when his short film Toy Boats, capturing a day in the life of Sydney’s harbour and beaches, was recognised by editors on Vimeo, the website dubbed "the cool kids YouTube."

Buoyed by his success, Kaso has now released his debut homage to his home town, a four minute masterpiece entitled Miniature Melbourne.

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Melbourne, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso

Miniature Melbourne from Nathan Kaso on Vimeo.

"I’ve been doing time-lapses for a couple of years, mainly with landscape photography," explains Kaso.

"There are lots of tricks to pick-up along the way."

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Melbourne, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso

Time-lapses are a series of still images taken at set intervals, then edited into a video.

So far so formulaic.

What sets Kaso's wonderful work apart from regular time-lapse is that he mashes it up with tilt-shift. An increasingly popular photographic technique, tilt-shift blurs the edges of an image around an area in focus, making it seem as if the scene captured is in miniature.

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Melbourne, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso

"Tilt-shift is actually pretty easy to do if you know how," says Kaso.

"The main thing is to shoot from a high angle at a flat perspective with a zoom lens."

The new film is mostly shot from the look-out of the Eureka Tower, the 297m tower that dominates Melbourne.

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Melbourne, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso

"The Chinese New Year scenes were shot from a car park, other shots were filmed from bridges. I did a lot of walking around looking for open roofs"

"The whole project was shot over ten months, starting in July last year," explains Kaso.

"I bought an annual pass for the Eureka, which gave me nine or ten trips to the highest point in the city to shoot without restrictions - well, you have to shoot though glass, but it’s surmountable.”

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Melbourne, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso

Why is tilt-shift such a popular technique? "It offers a refreshing perspective on things, makes the viewer look at the scene in a different way, makes it look fun and cute."

Toy Boats from Nathan Kaso on Vimeo.

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Sydney, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso

Simon Crerar is News Limited's Visual Story Editor. Follow him at twitter.com/simoncrerar

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Sydney, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Melbourne, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Melbourne, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Sydney, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso

Miniature metropolises: a short tilt-shift time-lapse film featuring the city of Sydney, Australia. Picture: Nathan Kaso

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Sydney buildings need to grow up

A LEADING property expert has called on Sydney to build towers up to 80 storeys tall - higher than the CBD's tallest office - to make housing prices affordable.

Retail Property Association of Canada former CEO Michael Brooks told more than 400 industry leaders at the UrbanGrowth NSW conference yesterday that Sydney had to embrace high density living so that young people could afford to buy a home.

"Your houses are too expensive because people do not have that choice, because you do not have that density," Mr Brooks said.

"You do not have enough medium or high rise. You need product in the $250,000 range. "You need to get that to market. I do not care if it takes 80-storey buildings, do it.

"People want to own their own home, they want to paint their bedrooms purple and hang pictures on the wall, they want to choose their own counter tops and have their own appliances."

Mr Brooks said Toronto was similar to Sydney, with a population of six million and bracing for 11.5 million by 2031.

But it had addressed affordability issues through building high-rise. Toronto was three times the density of Sydney in a bid to stop the surrounding farmlands being eaten up by urban sprawl, Mr Brooks said.

"It's sold on lifestyle. There is a pool and a restaurant downstairs, so you can order room service to your suite if you want it," he said.

"The high-rises are dating machines. It's full of young twenty-somethings riding the elevator with each other - it's sold on lifestyle by people who do not put value on the grass out their back door."

In a major boost to urban housing in Sydney, Chinese developers Greenland Group will build the city's tallest apartment tower after spending $600 million on a prime CBD site. The Sydney Water Board site takes up half a city block in Bathurst St and is set to become a 240m-high tower.

It has approval for 400 apartments over 60 levels.

Further west, Planning Minister Brad Hazzard said the state government would deliver smaller land lots for Paddington-style terraces to drive affordability.

"We have one million people coming to live in Sydney, and 70 per cent of those are our sons and daughters establishing new families," Mr Hazzard said. "(The terrace plan) is so people who want to buy a home can afford to buy a home at an affordable price.

"Some people would say, we do not want Sydney to grow. Well, Sydney is not full. It's a world city, and world cities do not die, they grow."

Committee for Sydney chief executive Tim Williams said Sydney had to be rebalanced to go "upwards".

"The ask is that we get the quality as well as the quantity we want. The campaign is for more and better homes. This is a city where 70 per cent of 30-year-olds cannot afford home ownership," he said.

"The average age to buy a home is 38 to 40 years old (and) 22 per cent of Australians own 55 per cent of homes. Fewer people own more homes."

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Heavenly holiday on Sydney Harbour

The ECQ Bar at the Pullman has one of the best views of the bridge and the harbour. Source: Supplied

The Pullman Quay Grand sits right beside Circular Quay, not far from the Opera House. Source: Supplied

I MUST confess I'm born again. This doesn't, however, involve praising the Lord or banging on cymbals.

Actually, it involves a cool cocktail (or two), a rooftop dinner and a rather comfortable bed. My eyes have been opened, and the light I see is sun on Sydney Harbour, semaphoring from water to winking windows. Pacific Ocean breezes stir on street corners and the shells of the Opera House gleam like mother-of-pearl.

I'm born again because, after too many years of overseas travel, I've realised pleasure is on my doorstep.

Yet when was the last time I actually strolled Circular Quay, slurping ice cream and sightseeing?

Now I'm joining the tourists whose enthusiasm for photo-snapping makes me appreciate what a great city I live in.

My first stop is the Botanic Gardens, where foreigners get excited about the ibis and love the lorikeets. I've taken these birds for granted for far too long. Now they're making me smile, too.

I've booked a lunch from the new The Sydney Picnic Company, delivered right to my picnic spot in a lovely hamper. It's packed with food from top Sydney providores, and soon I'm tucking into king prawns with Sichuan pepper, roast chicken and sourdough baguette.

Cockatoos screech overhead, the Manly ferry hoots and a bride poses in the shrubbery.

A lovely location and a Valrhona chocolate brownie to finish.

Hallelujah!

In the late afternoon, I check into the Pullman Quay Grand Sydney Harbour.

If I'm going to be a tourist in my own town, where better to stay than a newly launched hotel right on Circular Quay?

Seagulls drift past my guestroom window and, across the harbour, the giant face of Luna Park grins back at me.

Pullman has become Australia's biggest 5-star hotel brand and will double the number of its hotels worldwide by the end of the decade.

Bring it on, I say. There are white roses on the bedside table and my espresso machine gurgles pleasantly as it delivers a much-needed coffee.

From my sliver of balcony I look down on a constant shuttle of ferries, while people parade under the palm trees towards the Opera House.

Later the hotel's ECQ Bar - an eyrie that twinkles at the twinkling lights of the harbour - is just the place for a cocktail of mango, rockmelon and a blend of liqueurs.

The bartender is coy about the contents, but calls it "an angelic mix", and I can't argue with that.

Next morning I awake to another fine day. The problem with the Pullman is that, while it has linger-worthy beds, its fabulous location draws you outside.

Soon I'm parading in the early morning sun past the Museum of Contemporary Art.

In The Rocks, sandstone buildings are prettier than I remember.

Buskers fiddle and juggle and I buy a photo of old Sydney at the street market.

For lunch, I seek out the newly revamped Glenmore Hotel, popular with Sydneysiders in the know, and overlooked by tourists.

I bag a table with a view right across roofs and quay to the Pullman and the Opera House.

The atmosphere is convivial as diners order big fat potato wedges, teriyaki salmon tacos and satisfying schnitzels.

As I tuck in, I realise I'm a true convert to the idea of a weekend away without going anywhere.

Forget those tropical paradises. Heaven is right here.

Brian Johnston was a guest of Accor Hotels and Destination NSW.

Follow his travel blog at www.thoughtfultravelwriter.com
 

Go2 - SYDNEY

Getting there: Virgin Australia has flights to Sydney from Albury, Canberra, Newcastle, Coffs Harbour and Ballina Byron. Ph 13 67 89 or see virginaustralia.com.au

Staying there: Pullman Quay Grand Sydney Harbour has one-bedroom garden suite rooms from $359 a night, twin share, and one-bedroom harbour-view suites from $389.

Ph 9256 4000 or see pullmanhotels.com/Australia

Eating there: The Glenmore, 96 Cumberland St, The Rocks. Ph 9247 4794 or see theglenmore.com.au

The Sydney Picnic Company. Ph 0420 943 670 or see sydneypicnic.com.au

More: Ph 9240 8788 or see sydney.com

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Sydney Airport backs calls to ease cap

Sydney Airport has swung back into profitability as passenger numbers grew and revenue increased. Source: AAP

SYDNEY Airport wants the government-imposed cap on hourly aircraft movements raised to improve the operation of the airport.

Sydney Airport chief executive Kerrie Mather says the airport still has plenty of spare capacity, with only 61 per cent of all take-off and landing slots currently in use and that lifting the cap is a "very sensible suggestion".

"By allowing more flights per hour in the peak hours, without even increasing the number of flights per year, the ability of the airport to recover from disruption would be dramatically increased," Ms Mather said at Sydney Airport's results presentation on Wednesday.

"This would improve on-time performance, with benefits for passengers, airline costs and national productivity.

"The environment would also benefit from lower carbon emissions due to reduced circling and reduced ground holding."

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell and tourism bodies have called for the 80 aircraft movements an hour limit at Sydney Airport to be raised to 85.

However, federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese has said previously the cap and the curfew must stay.

Ms Mather said an increase in the hourly cap would also reduce the effect of aircraft noise on Sydney residents.

"Total noise would be reduced as a result of reduced circling," Ms Mather said.

"But perhaps more importantly, the opportunities for noise sharing would be increased as more of the flights take place in the peak hours and fewer in the off-peak hours when noise sharing is possible."

Sydney Airport reported a net profit of $179.2 million for the 12 months to December 31, from a $239.9 million loss in the prior corresponding period.

The calendar 2011 result was affected by a $361 million charge relating to the sale of company's stake in two European airports. Excluding the charge, net profit was up 47 per cent from the prior year.

Revenue in 2012 rose 1.3 per cent to $1.06 billion, with takings from the airport's retail, property, car rental, ground transport and commercial services all up from the prior year.

Sydney Airport said it spent $215.2 million on capital expenditure in calendar 2012, part of a four-year $900 million program to expand passenger terminals, car parks, and add extra aircraft parking stands, gates and apron space to boost capacity.

Ms Mather said 2013 had started strongly, with international passenger numbers up 3.9 per cent so far.

The company declared a full year distribution of 21 cents per stapled security.

Sydney Airport closed up six cents at $3.20.

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Architects make their mark on Sydney

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Source: The Daily Telegraph

IT looms as the most iconic building to be constructed in Sydney since the Opera House - judging by the architectural royalty lining up to design it.

Four of the finest designers on the planet have been shortlisted to build James Packer's $1 billion six-star Crown Sydney resort at Barangaroo, each promising to gift the city a dramatic masterpiece of world renown.

The Daily Telegraph understands that while there is no prize for the winning design, the commission from the construction could be worth $10 million to the successful firm.

The four, including famous designer Renzo Piano, who graced London's skyline with The Shard, have been given until April to present their concept plans to Crown.

Their objective is simple, as expressed personally by Mr Packer, who is eager to leave his mark on his home town - make it the talk of the world.

"Sydney deserves one of the world's best hotels and with these amazing architects I'm confident we will see the most iconic building constructed here since the Opera House," he told The Daily Telegraph. "I want this hotel resort to be instantly recognisable around the world and feature on postcards and memorabilia promoting Sydney. That's how you attract international tourists, create jobs and put Sydney on the map."

Mr Piano already has his fingerprints on Sydney's CBD skyline, having designed Aurora Place, the award-winning office tower and residential block on Macquarie St.

The Italian also conceived the high-tech post-modern Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Where his quirky designs break the mould, his competitors for the Crown Sydney contract are adept at breaking height records. The Chicago-based Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture firm sits atop the apex when it comes to soaring towers, with co-founder Adrian Smith designing the world's tallest man-made structure - the 829.8m Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

What do you think of these ideas, are they right for Sydney? Tell us below

Source: The Daily Telegraph

That is soon to be surpassed by a tower he designed, the proposed 1000m Kingdom Tower to be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Concepts for Crown Sydney also will come from NY firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and UK group Wilkinson Eyre Architects, who between them have produced the Shanghai World Financial Center, the remarkable Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, and Hong Kong's iconic International Commerce Centre (the fifth-tallest building in the world). Each of the firms have been given  creative licence that adheres to Crown's height restriction of 235m, making it one of Sydney's tallest buildings.

The design must include at least 350 rooms - 70 opulent suites on the upper levels of the 65-storey building, 100 private luxury apartments, two fine dining restaurants, luxury retail, spa and beauty facilities, an executive lounge and multiple levels of VIP gaming. This will include Crown's branded experience known as the Mahogany Room, Chairman's Club and 10 Sky Private

Gaming suites, plus VIP "Crystal Club" facilities and an outdoor view deck.

Rooms will have a massive footprint of 47-50sq m, while the complex will sit on 6000sq m.

Three of the four firms have already toured the Barangaroo site, with the fourth expected in town in the coming weeks.

Designs must be in by April. Representatives from Crown, the Barangaroo Delivery Authority and builders Lend Lease, will award the winning design in May.

Expected to lead that team is Crown director Todd Nisbet, who Mr Packer poached from giant global casino company Wynn Resorts in 2007, where he was responsible for all project development and construction operations in the US and Macau. He has been charged with the planning, architecture and construction for Crown Sydney.

"The four architects have been advised they are competing for the right to design Crown Sydney. All of them view this as a fantastic opportunity to create a truly global statement that will become synonymous with Sydney," Mr Nisbet, Crown's Executive Vice-President for strategy and development, said.

Construction of Crown Sydney is scheduled for 2014 if planning approval is granted.

It would open in 2018, with the casino to get its licence the following year when Star City's 12-year exclusivity arrangement comes to an end.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

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