TIME-LAPSE RESEARCH THAT SEEMS TO BE GOING NOWHERE........
(outofmyarse notes 01)
The idea of producing a panoramic time lapse has been buzzing around in my head for so long that i now find myself being repetitive and reiterating the same ol - same ol in different ways and not quite going ahead anywhere. While Wissam and i have had brief conversations about finding monetary value in such a venture, i am not quite sure what such a technique has to offer other than enabling navigational freedom across an on-screen composition... i am not ruling it out yet... am hopeful that it can lead to somewhere interesting.
I decided to go back to basics and see if i could come up with a simple time lapse. I chose the view from my window to test the software and camera. This is what i came up with...
I started thinking more about the initial approach that got me interested in this direction ~ primarily the idea of 'spatial integration and temporal variation' and seeing an approach that Michel Gondry had taken in one of music videos i wondered whether splitting up a basic 720x576 composition into linear strips that show temporal displacement can be a possibility or not. Again in discussion with Wissam, i learnt about the time displacement tool in aftereffects that could be handy to acheive this effect. To make sure this technique works ~ i need to shoot another time lapse for a longer duration so i have enough footage for displacement between day and night.
Another very interesting find and possible direction of this study is what animator/filmmaker Jane Aaron has done with her film. I had read about her projects 'A Brand New Day', 'In Plain Sight' and 'Remains to be Seen' in Bendazzi's Book - 'Cartoons: 100 Years of Cinema Animation' in which the following has been said about the latter;
'The film however, opens the door to research into the perception by the eye, by the camera and by the visionary intervention of drawing. the landscape and the drawings inserted into it are filmed at the same time - frame by frame. This results in a 'loss of reality' for the landscape (the rhythms of which have become distorted because of speed) and 'increase of reality' for the drawings (which are characterized by soft and 'believable' movements) The spectator is led to perceive that both worlds are possible and to consider an easy interaction between them'
(pg 253, Bendazzi)
What i personally find fascinating about this approach or 'juxtaposition' is the fragmentation of the image vieweing space that presents an audience with a sense of dual reality on the same plane, in which one reality can exist in a seperate temporal world and spatial world (3d, live footage, traditional animation techniques) or both temporal and spatial. I couldn't find anything on Jane's work on the web other than the following on http://www.vmfa.state.va.us/osp/film_videoR1.html
Remains to Be Seen ED-126
5 min / color / 1982 / JA / 16mm
Middle school through adult
This intriguing film by Jane Aaron raises a question about the difference between art and reality. Using animation within a live-action framework, Aaron constructed an inner, drawn screen that was then placed in a photographic source environment. "Animated" action takes place within "real" action. This is a challenging and entertaining film that is especially interesting to film study classes.
In the second one i.e the time lapse of the prayer time on a Friday Afternoon, i was hoping to get a lot more action, but i guess the heat must have been so unbearable, that a lot of the devotees decided to pray inside as opposed to the sprawling
cacophony of moving bodies that usually develops during this time of the day
Here are just a few sketches of other scenarios that i imagine could be used to show spatial and temporal variation within the space of a single image.
