Tracking/dolly timelapse

[sooper8fan]

I love a good timelapse, but what's even better is a timelapse that pans, tilts or tracks. The only thing I can think of to achieve this is moving the camera ever-so-slightly between each frame....my inspiration for these shots is Ron Fricke and his many, many beautiful shots in films such as Baraka and Chronos. I know he rigged an electronic device with a bike chain of sorts to do his stuff, but it there any other way for us regular people? (regular for now, incredible some day )
I think I noticed somebody did a panning timelapse in Pulse Of Life. Anyway, any and all input is appreciated...thanks!

[kentbulza]

This is the pinnacle of that technique:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103301/

But you must see it in a theatre on 70mm.[/i]

[sooper8fan]

kentbulza, do you know where I can get a copy? I'd love to see it...what does the title come out to in english?

[Alex_W]

that would be cool to experiment with. Is this how you get the jerky effect you sometimes see in musicvideos? Do they just use very short intervals?

[kentbulza]

A Year Along the Abandonded Road. It's Norwegian. It's brilliant.

But I don't know where to get it on DVD. Maybe Andreas has an idea? Hey...speaking of Norwegian movies, who can get me Flåklypa Grand Prix on DVD?

[focusmatic]

there's also this one which i'd love to see :

http://www.80000shots.net/htdocs/index.html

a TEN YEARS timelapse....not bad!!!!!

[Shion]

These products may be of interest to you:

http://www.harbortronics.com/

-Bon

[Justin Lovell]

you can truck up and down with a good 4x5 photography tripod, or any tripod with a good crank arm. Just crank the arm in consistent incriments (ie, inbetween every frame captured crank the arm once).

Provides really smooth up and down motion, combined with a pan/tilt can give some really dynamic small movements easily.

j

[romeojesus]

in the beginning of my video

http://www.entourage-business.de/download.html

I did some zooming during a timelapse (skyscraper shots)

chriostian

[Evan Kubota]

I've done a little bit of single-frame stuff incorporating some camera movement like zooms and pans, but the issue is that there is no motion blur so it always looks 'choppy' or too discrete. Not to my taste. If there was a rig that could move the camera slightly as the frame was captured to get a realistic blur that would be cool (some ILM-produced fantasy flick in the 80s used a similar technique for stopmotion).

[Justin Lovell]

no motion blur so it always looks 'choppy' or too discrete

Try frame blending in After Effects or almost any NLE nowadays. or motion blur the shot (again after effects).

Unfortunately or fortunately (depending what you want), this may soften up the image and 'remove' or blur some of the grain as a result.

[sunrise]

Hey...speaking of Norwegian movies, who can get me Flåklypa Grand Prix on DVD?

Do you need subtitles or a dubbed version?

michael

[Alex]

A Low cost tracking device can be achieved with a mitre box turned upside down, a common wood bannister, and something to lay the bannister on top of.

I actually brought such a device to a store once and did these really cool single frame tracking shots of Christmas trees that had been dressed for Christmas. I was able to shoot single-frame available light tracking shots with Kodachrome 40 by doing one second exposures at around f4.0 to f5.6 per frame. I would then move the mitre box a pre-determined increment and shoot the next frame.

No additional electricity needed, a "green" tracking method so to speak,
um, except for the wood, although I was able to use already existing pieces to make mine.

I ended up with some of the prettiest Kodachrome 40 images I have ever shot. Three of the shots ended up in my "Goodbye Kodachrome" film that I have entered in the NOMOS film contest this year. I think the reason th shots came out so nice was I was able to combine a low ASA stock such as Kodachrome with a nice middle of the lens F-stop and I was able to let each frame expose for a second or two. Since the shot was single frame, there was no movement during the frame, so I got the best of all worlds.

Sooper8fan, this will make you chuckle, along with not yet seeing the Alphabet Song, I had brought "Goodbye Kodachrome" to the recent Kodachrome screening at the Echo but there wasn't enough time to show it. (bad joke perhaps).

[sooper8fan]

Alex wrote:

Sooper8fan, this will make you chuckle, along with not yet seeing the Alphabet Song, I had brought "Goodbye Kodachrome" to the recent Kodachrome screening at the Echo but there wasn't enough time to show it. (bad joke perhaps).

Bring it to Attack on the 3rd!!! I'll be there with bells on, although I know there will a couple mroe people than the R.I.P. event. I'll let you know what I plan to wear so there will be NO EXCUSES! haha

[Alex]

I'll be there too.

It looks like I'll be selling Small Format Magazine at the Flicker Table.