Get up to speed on time lapse

February 21, 2016

There are few more dramatic cinematographic techniques than time-lapse.

Shooting a sequence over minutes, hours, days or months and compressing it into a few seconds, creates immense drama. Time-lapse allows us to witness reality through the distortion of a rapid time filter, which often reveals the essence of a situation.

Time-lapse can demonstrate:

• vehicular traffic flows in urban environments
• pedestrian traffic in exhibition and retail areas
• marine traffic in busy ports and sea lanes
• complex activity on construction sites
• industrial and manufacturing operations
• the natural world in staggering complexity

Like all forms of film-making, time-lapse requires preparation. If the span is to be days or months, one or more camera positions must be determined to ensure an unobstructed view of the subject. A camera may have to be fixed into a secure position and frequently monitored. Location approvals, a power supply, storage media / uploads and regular lens cleaning may be required.

If the time frame is within a single day, personnel and equipment must be suitable for the task. This includes ensuring that any ambient radio transmissions will not interfere with the operation of the camera/s, and the frame rate is appropriate to the action to be captured.

It takes experience to ensure that the output is as intended. A multinational construction company decided to utilise University resources to shoot a time-lapse of the erection of residential towers. With the rate of construction of a floor a week, a single high-rise tower required over six months of shooting. Once the towers were completed, the footage was found to be entirely unusable for reasons of technical quality!

Using both film and digital cameras, the founder of Digital Tsunami, Andrew W Morse has been involved in the production of time-lapse sequences, on locations around the globe, for over thirty years.

In 1983, for V/Line (Victorian government rail transport), two 35mm Arriflex cameras were mounted on a freight train locomotive, as it travelled overnight from Melbourne to Adelaide, and captured the route from the driver’s perspective.

In 1993, Digital Tsunami integrated time-lapse of people standing still on busy Tokyo elevated roadways as road traffic swirled past, for an Iwatani TVC.

In 1994, for Bilfinger Berger, Digital Tsunami shot time-lapse of a newly developed drill, cutting rapidly through concrete.

In 1997, the dynamic activity of Hong Kong was captured in time-lapse for Bloomberg television.

In 2006, for BioDiesel (a renewable fuel brand), Digital Tsunami shot time-lapse of the Australia Day ferry race on Sydney Harbour.

In 2009, for Anisa (US freehold owner of a manufacturing plant in Tianjin, China), Digital Tsunami shot time-lapse of container loading at a busy shipping port.

In 2011, for Australian Monitor International (a division of Hills Holdings ASX:HIL), Digital Tsunami photographed activity around the AMI stand at the Integrated Systems, Europe (ISE) exhibition held in Amsterdam.

In the same year, Digital Tsunami also shot time-lapse sequences of electronic door assembly for Wah Yuet (a division of global security brand Kaba) and the “Symphony of Lights” architectural illumination and laser show on the Hong Kong skyline, devised by Laservision.

In 2014, a time-lapse of Sydney Harbour Bridge was shot from Milson’s Point boardwalk. The sequence was compiled from multiple Canon 5D cameras, including one mounted on the Edelkrone Sliderplus Pro Time-Lapse slider with the Action Module Kit.

In 2015, for Hanas New Energy, dramatic sequences of wind towers, power plants and regional offices were captured in China and Hong Kong.

These dynamic sequences can be integrated into video presentations, exhibition displays and websites. The powerful visual impact will convey the dynamism of a brand, both explicitly and implicitly.

As so much visual content is available to all of us, every day, the ability to attract and hold the attention of an audience is intensely competitive. Extreme impact is required to achieve this.

Combining time-lapse; with edgy forced perspective tilt shift; stunning drone aerials; in addition to the proven success of testimonials and effective story-telling; generates engagement, viral promotion and business opportunities.

 

About Digital Tsunami

Since 1996, (soon after the world wide web launched in late 1994), Digital Tsunami has applied significant creative and technical expertise to multi-media, multi-lingual, multi-national campaigns for clients across an extensive range of sectors.

Digital Tsunami has 19 years of delivering innovative, online and offline digital solutions, and it’s founder has 36 years of worldwide film and video production expertise.

To discuss your time-lapse, photography, video, print and online requirements, contact Digital Tsunami today!