The Long Process of Capturing Time-Lapse Footage of Growing Mushrooms

The entire genre of time-lapse photography is a game of patience and preparation, but creating short films involving the life cycle of a  mushroom is on an entirely different level. When 24hrs worth of frames can equate to only a few seconds of footage there is not a lot of room for mistakes.

 As part of the footage filmed for Netflix's Fantastic Fungi Wired takes a behind-the-scenes look at the work of Louie Schwartzberg, one of the cinematographers who spent 15 years capturing beautiful footage of various mushrooms. Patience and planning do not even begin to describe what it takes Schwartzberg to create these, claiming 1 out of 10 odds for success during the growing process. Entirely shot indoors on elaborately created sets, each time-lapse is a macro-scale vignette into the life of these tiny Fungi. 

Schwartzberg is a pioneer in time-lapse cinematography. Claiming to have been shooting time-lapse film 24/7 continuously for over three decades. His work can be seen in all kinds of nature documentaries throughout the years having worked extensively for National Geographic and Disney Studios, and most recently for Netflix. If you want to learn more about Schwartzberg's career from TED talks, guest staring on Oprah, and his 3 season series Moving Art on Netflix. You can check it all out on his website.