Practical Pre-Production: Time Lapse Tests

Time lapse has been a consideration within my potential music video. My original intention was to use the Canon 600D by either taking a photo every 10 seconds and combining them in post, or to film for a long period of time before speeding up the clip. However, with the new iOS 8 Update comes a Time Lapse video mode, so James and I decided to experiment with this mode and the overall quality of the footage. The first set of clips were shot on an iPhone 5S, and the second set were shot on an iPhone 6.

I was especially surprised by the quality of the footage from the iPhone 6, despite the three cloud sequences being shot through a window, the quality was still clear. Should I integrate this mode into my final music video, I would actually go outside to film the clips removing the possible loss of quality resulting from the window. As I do not have an iPhone tripod, this did limit the potential of where I can place the phone and keep it steady, hence why we used books on both occasions as a platform for these shots.

Shot 1 (iPhone 5S): Filmed at college, this was more of a test shot to see the possibilities of the time lapse mode, as we were both inexperienced with this mode. The original clip filmed for around 15 minutes, resulting in a clip that was around 5 seconds long. In this clip you can see areas of dirt on the window, as well as a reflection in the window, but the aforementioned lack of tripod and quick access to somewhere fairly high with a clear view of the sky meant that we had to cope with what we had.

Shot 2 (iPhone 5S): Excited by the possibilities of this mode, we decided that we wanted to capture the clouds during sunset, which often create vibrant and beautiful colours. Checking when the sun would set in Norwich through google (at 6:44pm), we set up this shot at around 6:15pm, leaving it for about 30 mins. As this was positioned slightly north of the sunset, the overall effect on the clouds captured was not as dramatic as it could have been if the shot was positioned further west. There is also a reflection from the glass of the two strip lights, but at the time this was necessary as we were working whilst this shot was taking place. This inspired us to experiment more with cloud movements and sunsets, both of which in my case are conventional to the indie genre.

Shot 3 (iPhone 5S): This time including people, we filmed for a very short period, perhaps 5 minutes, going backwards and forwards on our chairs. I really like the rapid and disjointed effect which is fairly similar to stop motion, and was more of the effect that we wanted to achieve in our earlier pre-production planning speed tests.

Shot 4 (iPhone 5S): Another fairly quick shot, here an extreme close up of James's hands typing on a computer. This would be a useful shot for part of a sequence, which I would like to develop further. It was also very accessible, allowing us to complete work and gain footage which can be refined. I liked the rapid, flowing movements demonstrated by his fingers on the keyboard.

Shot 5 (iPhone 6): Somewhat of a comparison shot between quality, I recreated shot 4 with the iPhone 6 in similar lighting conditions, resulting in the picture being far more vibrant and of better technical quality than the previous example.

Shot 6.1 (iPhone 6): Revisiting the clouds from earlier, here I picked a much cleaner window and recreated the shot at around midday, resulting in a brighter, vibrant sky. I love watching the transitions of the clouds, and this is definitely something which I want to develop. I ended up leaving this clip for an hour, and the battery was near unaffected by this - a clear difference to that of the battery drain of a DSLR with the shutter open for that amount of time. Another reason to develop and refine the use of this camera.

Shot 6.2 (iPhone 6): The same shot as above, but made 4x faster in post production. The cloud movements are far more rapid, and would suit a music video with quicker cuts in, creating a more impactful passage of time over a shorter window.

Shot 7 (iPhone 6): This time revisiting the sunset shot, this time I aimed the camera almost directly at the sun as it was setting, ensuring that I had a silhouette of nearby houses in the foreground to create an interesting composition. The sun gradually disappears behind the houses, leaving behind a lovely colour palette which is completely unedited; I believe that these can only be improved through colour grading. I do intend to go up to the 4th floor onto a balcony hopefully with a tripod, resulting in an even clearer, more stable clip.

Once again, as this was edited over the weekend, I used iMovie to edit these clips. As this video was fairly simple in that it was a series of cuts with the occasional title, this software was very adequate. Had I wanted to use specific colour grading or more advanced editing techniques and special effects, iMovie would have limited this possibility.

I found that a 60 minute filming period resulted in a 30 second shot, but as the iPhone used the automatic Time Lapse mode I could be sure that the intervals between each photo were exact; difficult to reproduce without a shutter control attached to a 600D. As mentioned previously, the iPhone 6 shot 1080p HD footage which looks sharp on my particular monitor. Should I integrate this technique through the double exposure, I would see the iPhone 6 as a plausible device to shoot Time Lapse sequences on.