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The most incredible time-lapse video I’ve ever seen

76 points| deusclovis | 13 years ago |danoah.com | reply

38 comments

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[+] andrewvc|13 years ago|reply
It's an interesting genre, the time-lapse while pan in HD with hyperbolic music. But I'm just burned out on them. Something about these videos just seems overwhelmingly self important and cheesy.
[+] stevewilhelm|13 years ago|reply
To me, these types of videos feel artificial, like a Thomas Kinkade painting[1]. I have been in the high Sierras and the Himalayas at night and the sky never looks that way.

Same goes for the use of HDR with dawn or dusk clouds.

[1] http://s831.us/17Gp81H

[+] mgmeyers|13 years ago|reply
Agreed.

I was convinced it was going to end up being a commercial for some new car.

[+] theon144|13 years ago|reply
>In layman’s terms… he used a camera. Not a camcorder. A DSLR camera. And he put each individual picture together on a computer to make it into a video.

That's... exactly how time-lapses are usually done. Not sure where the amazement comes from exactly.

[+] ChuckMcM|13 years ago|reply
So what he gets is closer to what you would get with real cinematography gear than you do with even pro-sumer type camcorders which code to a particular video format.

Unlike others I'm not raging anti-HDR, my eyes tend to see in HDR and so these images can look more "real" to me than images which have more limited dynamic range.

I do however really dislike the motion compensation TVs that make movies look like video. That suggests making an impressionist painting look like a polaroid is a "good" thing when part of the art is the look. Why I don't get the same negativity about HDR I don't know.

[+] jonemo|13 years ago|reply
I don't have a favorite movie or a favorite book or favorite band. But I have a favorite time scaled video. It shows an owl. Make sure the quality is set to 1080p and you are in fullscreen mode, or you'll miss half the action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji_x8RU4zIo&NR=1

It's just an animal doing what it's doing, no post processing or dramatic cuts. Yet, watching all the details of what's happening in the short sequence amazes me every time I watch it. It's also the only thing I ever had on my screen that made my cat show a reaction (she treats it like a wall otherwise).

edit: Had conflated time lapse and slow motion. Fixed the text and will never come to Hackernews while having my mind filled with other work again. Ever.

[+] wlesieutre|13 years ago|reply
While the owl is neat, slow motion is basically the opposite of time lapse
[+] acrim|13 years ago|reply
If you like this then you should check out Baraka, this film has a few shots that were inspired by it. The follow up - Samsara - is also excellent.
[+] StephenFalken|13 years ago|reply
Back in 1985, Ron Fricke, the same director of Baraka (1992) and Samsara (2011), created the most impressive time-lapse film ever made till then. It was called Chronos and it's available online [1]. It's very interesting to watch how the moving pictures match the soundtrack to capture the essence of Time [2].

[1] http://youtu.be/1K9N9flhOx4

[2] http://youtu.be/1K9N9flhOx4?t=25m24s

[+] rimantas|13 years ago|reply
Indeed, the first thought after seeing that stone arc was "Baraka".
[+] epaulson|13 years ago|reply
The author writes: "If you can, watch in in HD. This one needs to be watched in HD."

There's a regional TV, furniture, and appliance store here in Madison that has an LG 84" 4K TV on display (resolution - 3840 X 2160P) and they're using this loop, along with some similar indoor shots of big shopping mall atriums and cities at night as their demo.

If you can view it on a 4K TV, that's the way to watch it, not just HD.

I asked the salesman what's driving the TV, because I didn't think BluRay had the bandwidth to do it. They said they were running the demo loop off a hard drive, and they didn't have any other content that specifically used the full 4K resolution. (He tried to sell me that the upconversion would make my existing 1080P devices look better.) Their price was $16,999 for the TV, and they told me they had actually sold one. Way beyond what I can afford, but I left wanting one.

[+] bhauer|13 years ago|reply
Does Vimeo even have an ultra HD mode? It looks decent on my desktop monitor (2560x1600), but I'm fairly certain Vimeo was just streaming me 1080.
[+] rorrr2|13 years ago|reply
There are cheaper 4K TVs out there

Seiki SE50UY04 50" = $1,200

Sony XBR 55X900A 55" = $5K

Sony XBR 65X900A 65" = $7K

LG 84LM9600 84" = $10K

[+] syassami|13 years ago|reply
I was just thinking it would be cool to turn your desktop into a slow moving time lapse (extends throughout the day), many of the shots in the film would make a nice wallpaper.

I have too many side projects ATM, someone go build this!

[+] hfsktr|13 years ago|reply
While I was watching I couldn't tell (on some parts) how it was different from just filming. I understand there are probably differences with quality but beyond that? Not saying it wasn't good just might not be my thing.
[+] eCa|13 years ago|reply
You have a combination of very long time between shots (eg the people walking on the beach), and very long shots (eg the flowing river, where each individual shot probably is ~20-30 seconds). Most of this is impossible to shoot as regular video.
[+] glomph|13 years ago|reply
Time-lapses are very cool, but this one is pretty generic and has lots of the flaws people spend a lot of time trying to avoid in theirs. It has some very disconcerting focus changes and unreal looking edges, as well as some very uncanny stark lines.
[+] unknown|13 years ago|reply

[deleted]

[+] danbruc|13 years ago|reply
You can right-click on the video and select »Watch on Vimeo« but this is not really obvious.
[+] xyproto|13 years ago|reply
Wish it was on youtube instead,I could not watch it on my tablet.
[+] mmariani|13 years ago|reply
Which tablet do you have? I just watched on my iPad with iOS 6.1.2 running mobile Safari. The video looked awesome and the experience was quite smooth.
[+] mikeratcliffe|13 years ago|reply
Wow, that makes me homesick for Moab and Arches in general.
[+] whiddershins|13 years ago|reply
I wonder if he bothered to license the music.
[+] K2h|13 years ago|reply
music is - Thomas Sunshine (Adagio in D Minor) by John Murphy

theme from scifi movie sunshine