Time-Lapse Research

I decided to do some more research on time-lapses as it is a main aspect I would like to incorporate in the video.

The article is taken from:
http://www.highballblog.com/2010/08/make-time-lapse-video-edit.html

"A time lapse video consists of footage that is rendered in higher speed than that of the original frame rate. It's basically a clip in which everything moves at high speed - or consider it to be the opposite of slow motion video.

The best subjects or actions to video shoot for time lapse are the ones that take time to unfold/develop. There's a ton of stuff like that around you. Here's a list of the most popular things to capture for time lapse video:

• Weather changes - clouds forming and moving, mist and fog, rain, snow layer building up over time.
• Light sources - sunset and sunrise, sun's travel on the sky, the moon, the stars (especially Polaris time lapse), night transforming into day, beams of light penetrating the clouds, etc.
• Fire - a fire consuming the logs and ending in smoke or a fire that grows bigger as fuel is added.
• Tide - the ebb and flow of the ocean or sea.
• People - crowds moving in an open space.
• Construction work - a wall being build, a tall building being erected, crane booms swinging back and forth - all of a sudden a construction site becomes interesting to watch.
• Car traffic - cars running on the roads at night in fast forward mode look cool.
• Artwork - a painter (artist) creating an oil painting or crayon drawing. Computer graphics creations may fall into this category as well.
• Blooming flowers - a rose unfolding it's petals for instance.
• Moisture (water vapors) rising from a lake early in the morning.
• The road ahead shot from a moving vehicle - a rapid glimpse of an entire road trip/journey."
  
  PRACTISE
  The research has given me insight into just how much of choice of time-lapse I could have, for example, people and crowds may also be a good idea as well as traffic and light sources. I decided to try it out myself with a tripod and my pocket camcorder and here is the result, sped up.
  
  

  Time-Lapse practice 1 from Imani Pratt on Vimeo
  

  As you can see the recording is slightly shaky during the clip, that was due to my dog almost knocking down the tripod! But anyway this is more of a subtle time-lapse and I'm hoping to get a way better result than this when filming, slightly more dramatic - from night to day maybe.
  

Another filming technique I would love to have is stop-motion. I love the way this video effect kind of shocks the viewer in the way that it presents objects as being able to appear themselves. I would like to have this technique during the 2nd part of Kemi's rap/bridge part in the song, this would go nicely with the bit where she says "clock ticks the time away" and you hear the ticking in the background, except I think there could be a different object(s) that could I tried to get some suggestions for various objects/visuals that may symbolise time via facebook to help me out, but I still haven't discovered any of great use to me.

I decided to do some more research on time-lapses as it is a main aspect I would like to incorporate in the video.

Stop-Motion Practise from Imani Pratt on Vimeo.

Stop-Motion Practise from Imani Pratt on Vimeo.

On Twitter I did get a great idea I could use: Pictures!
For example pictures of the protagonist from the past to present, I think this would work well because not only does it suggest that time has passed, it also suggests that a journey has taken place and thus opens the viewers mind up to another possible journey the main character will go through - perhaps a journey of relationships as opposed to life.
I'm pretty happy with the whole concept, but I'll probably keep exploring more ideas for it that I could use later =].