Telling stories through time lapse photography has been a film convention since the early days of cinema but creating time lapse sequences has traditionally been very difficult and time consuming to make, restricting their use to highly qualified videographers. With the help of recent developments in time lapse technology, now anyone can easily create time lapse videos to use in their own story telling. Though most of our focus in the film industry is placed on what is in front of the camera, many of us are becoming curious of what goes on behind the scenes of our favorite movies. This has led industry professionals like costume designers and production crews to increasingly use time lapse to showcase how their diverse talents contribute to the creation of the cinematic universes we see on the big screen.
For instance, Art Director, Jacinta Leong, who has worked on films like Alien: Covenant and Pacific Rim: Uprising initially set up a Brinno time lapse camera on her set to document the progress of the set’s construction to create a digital scrapbook of her work. She never expected to receive more than 8 million views when she uploaded the videos to YouTube. It was not only a great way to share weeks and months of behind the scenes’ progress to the film’s fans in a matter of minutes but it also became part of her resume to share with future employers. Time lapse videos can also be utilized in inspections to document a set’s adherence to safety codes and procedures without the need for scrolling through hours and hours of video. Art department coordinators can utilize time lapse video to ensure continuity in a scene without having to playback footage frame by frame. A few TV production crews are also known to mount time lapse cameras on the side of a set to capture the on and off camera antics of actors so that they can create fun videos for cast wrap parties.
In less than 10 minutes, a time lapse camera can be mounted on the edges of a set and programmed to take photos in customizable intervals to capture everything that happens during the film production. Specialized time lapse cameras, such as the Brinno TLC2000, have batteries that can last for months and they don’t require any extra wiring. The footage can then be easily uploaded and shared via social media.
For more information about Brinno’s various time lapse camera models please visit: www.brinno.com
