AP crushes competition with exclusive and innovative timelapse of the transformation of Paris’ oldest bridge

When street artist JR built an immersive inflatable cave atop Paris’ oldest bridge, AP not only showed the world what it looked like but gave an exclusive, innovative look at how it came to be.

After scoring an exclusive interview earlier this year with JR about his wild plan, senior producer Jeff Schaeffer had a brainwave: show the transformation of the bridge via timelapse. First, he and video journalist Nico Garriga identified the best viewing angle, from a luxury penthouse restaurant, and then spent weeks persuading the management to let AP install a camera on the terrace — and to let them return again and again for tests and technical visits. Garriga and video journalist Alex Turnbull had to adapt to tough weather conditions and repeated delays, as well as the organizers’ eventual decision to inflate the cave overnight, which meant filming in the darkness and getting no sleep.

In parallel, Schaeffer led challenging negotiations over copyright and archive permissions and other legal arrangements, as well as commercial and sales discussions with multiple players interested in using the timelapse.

The resulting video broke new ground for AP and tapped new techniques and tools, using timelapses and hyperlapses from multiple angles. Video journalist Oleg Cetinic also contributed video, and a multi-layered, contextual story by reporter Thomas Adamson helped showcase the videos, accompanied by photos from Michel Euler, Thibault Camus and Thomas Padilla over the course of the installation.

Even richly resourced private production companies could not match the quality and scale of the video by AP’s small team. JR himself, who has millions of online followers and access to a professional production team, asked for access to AP’s video.

Judges were impressed by how innovative the finished product was and all the difficult work necessary to get it.

For producing a visual feast showcasing a magical transformation on the Seine, Nicolas Garriga, Alex Turnbull and Jeffrey Schaeffer win this week’s Best of AP — Second Winner.