The After-Effect of a Great Timelapse
There’s something about a great timelapse video that always leaves a viewer pensive and awestruck. This one by talented Cinematographer Shawn Viens of Reel Earth Productions is no different. But what is it about a timelapse that triggers such feelings?
Perhaps it’s the ability to capture so much in such a brief moment. We get a sense of the world’s natural processes in a different, but no less relevant, temporal realm. We watch the world through alien eyes and yet it makes absolute sense. It’s a strange world where randomness and order collide.
On the one hand we lose our sense of individual identity as we become mere cogs in the complex mechanism of humanity. To-ing and fro-ing to what we believe is our own beat, but systematized and predictable when seen from above. On the other hand, a single tribal relic, ruin or man-made feature can appear seemingly constant through the passage of time and changing of elements. The imagination boggles at what we would see in a time-lapse that lasted a decade or a century. A timelapse released in 2110, captured by satellite. What about a timelapse of the Gods… watching the formation and deaths of the stars. I digress on a whimsical fantasy.
Most time lapses use wide-angled lenses, which help the cinematographer to capture as much of the surroundings as possible. A wide-angle also slightly distorts the image to make it a touch fish-eyed. This makes what’s in front-centre appear larger than life, and what’s in the background and edges appear more distant and thus all the more epic. It’s a special treat if the Cinematographer has constructed a moving shot. These can take hours or days to perfect and require a motion-control system.
The guru of timelapse – he is in his own league by absolutely miles – is Director/Cinematographer Ron Fricke. His two films Chronos (it’s in the name) and Baraka are masterpieces. Get them on Blueray. Baraka, capturing 27 of the world countries on film, is a feature-length film without a single piece of dialogue. And yet it might be the most beautiful work ever shown on screen. No exaggeration.
But as the topic of this article is timelapse, here’s a sample from Chronos.
[...] The video beautifully depicts the velocity of life in the capital of Japan, which is often the case with timelapse videos. [...]