The National Day Parade festivities on Thursday lasted for more than four hours, but you can watch it all unfold in a special time-lapse video that is under four minutes.

The Straits Times placed three cameras - one on the stage at The Float @ Marina Bay and two on the rooftop of the 32-storey Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore - to snap a photo of the parade every second for four hours, starting from 4.30pm.

Executive photojournalist Benjamin Seetor and photojournalist Gavin Foo stitched the video together using about 5,400 of the 23,728 shots that were captured. They spent about five hours producing the 3min 13sec time-lapse video.

Mr Seetor, 39, said: "It was our first time doing a time-lapse video of the entire NDP, and from multiple angles too."

The video showed the action from various vantage points - from a performer on the ground looking at the thousands of spectators to a bird's-eye view of the dazzling formations on the ground.

It was the longest time-lapse video Mr Foo has worked on using photos from so many cameras.

"It was challenging because everything had to go smoothly. The batteries had to be charged and the weather had to be good," he said.

He said the highlight was watching the flag fly-past close-up during the singing of the National Anthem - when the camera was almost at eye level on the hotel rooftop.

"Most of us will see it only from the ground," Mr Foo said.

ST picture editor Stephanie Yeow said: "We aim to do something special every National Day. Last year, we produced the NDP gigapixel - a high-resolution panorama of the crowd watching the show. That was very well received by our readers.

"This year, we decided to try something that we have not done before. And time-lapse videos are very popular with readers, who now consume a lot more content on their mobile phones. I hope our readers will like our special project for this year."