Toronto cinematographer drawing praise for ‘Toronto Skyline Porn’

TORONTO -The 3-minute video titled ‘Toronto Skyline Porn’ is an aerial tribute to the city with an arresting beauty rarely seen, and it has been viewed 35,000 times.

Cinematographer Ryan Emond, 25, created the video using an airborne drone and modified GoPro camera.

“It has been four years in the making in that the scenes were shot four years ago. There are some really old ones and new ones that go well together,” said Emond.

“It’s sort of fluidly jumping in and out of the city – jumping around, no hard cuts.”

“He knows what he’s doing,” said Christopher Lane, coordinator of film production at the Toronto Film School. “Everything flows nicely, like a nice paint brush. It’s edited well, it’s really beautiful, it’s steady. And it’s time lapsed which is always exciting.”

“My favourite scene is the Sky Dome scene. It’s looking down, all the people are clearing out and it pulls up, tracks the GO train and shoots back into the city,” said Emond.

For artists like Emond Toronto’s skyline is a massive canvas of high rises. Currently around 130 are being built, but buildings alone don’t always make for a beautiful backdrop according to Peter Halsall, executive director of the Canadian Urban Institute

“Some high rises are just an imposition in the neighbourhood. They create shadows and are monolithic. When you build them with variations in their skin and when they aren’t as long and narrow, they can be less imposing.”

Emond has created similar videos before. He says he enjoys shooting architecture, and soon he may find greater profit from his passion. Developers and production companies have already expressed interest in his content after the viral response online.