In a movie or a TV show, we've all seen them all, those very cool shots where they speed up time and catch and condense a long segment of time into a very short amount of footage. My favourite example of this technique was an arty film called Koyaanisqatsi many years ago. They had some really interesting segments in that film where they did time lapse effects to illustrate driving on a bridge, rising flowers, flying clouds and so on. Another example is that many of the TV news stations already have a camera that catches the weather of the day and then processes it down to a 20 second clip to show the clouds and weather racing on the screen.

Well, this strategy isn't just a weapon in the hands of the major TV stations or movie producers. With your digital video camera gear, too, you can do this. For your next video project, I will go through two ways in which you can achieve this effect and get some cool results. In order to find the right settings to get the most dramatic effect, this one is worth playing around with.

Technique number one is to make the time lapse recording for you using the camera itself. Nearly all digital video cameras can do an interval recording. What this means in a nutshell is that, for as long as the battery lasts or the tape runs out, you tell the camera how long you want to record for and how long it will go on autopilot for you between recordings. This is what those convenience store cameras do, capturing a few seconds of motion every 30-60 seconds, providing the overall view of the store's traffic over time.

Now, if you want to catch any time lapse in your digital video camera, you'll need to go to the menu of your cameras and find Interval Recording (or, in my case, Int Rec, as I use a Sony PD 150 for my camera) when you select this option, you'll decide how long you want to record an interval between shots and how long each time. If you want to catch something that takes a long time to happen and in which not much happens quickly, you'll want to set the interval to about a minute on your camera and set the recording time as low as possible. An instance would be if you were to record a day in a flower 's life or the clouds in the sky rolling by. However, suppose that you want to catch an incident that has a lot of action which takes place within a much shorter time span. You will then want to shorten the recording period and increase the duration of each recording. So you could record every 15-30 seconds in this situation and record up to 2-3 seconds of video each time.

I used this method to catch an afternoon of work being done on my house remodelling project by a team of carpenters. As staff ran hither and yon, nailing boards, carrying machinery and constructing walls, the result was a whirlwind of activity. I added it to my project photo album. (Hey, I had to live through the project so that I could have a perfect record for posterity as well!)

Now, suppose you have one of the great video editing software packages on your computer for your digital video camera to work with. You can do it now in the post, as they say in the business. You can record any video length that you like (subject to your tape length limitations) and then import it into your editing software.

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For my editing jobs, I use Adobe Premiere Pro, but in the non linear editing environment, I have also used Avid DV Express, Final Cut Pro, and others. These are all fantastic programmes and are very strong products that can produce some videos that look very professional. You don't need to have these items to make your own videos, but it may be a good idea to take a look at these options if you are serious about digital video editing.

I digitise my raw video of the scene where I spend time on my computer (large hard drive, video consumes GB of space) and then import the video into my time line. You can then right-click the clip from the 3rd timeline. From there, depending on the programme you use, you can obtain a menu of options. Choose a choice that says "length" or "speed" or something like that. Adjust the velocity of the clip so that time will accelerate considerably. If you have one hour of video in the clip and you want to shorten it to 2-5 minutes, you need to increase the velocity of the clip to 3 or 4,000% of the normal. Depending on the speed of your computer, this will require your programme to make the clip at a higher speed and will take some time to complete the task.

You may want to play it after you have made the video clip at the new speed to see whether the film flows uniformly or if you want to re-adjust the speed setting to make it better. Often, in order to obtain a smooth flow of action, you may want to shorten your raw video and change the speed slightly. You can now cut and splice the clip as you see fit with the accelerated action intact until you have made the clip at the new velocity. There are some items that you can capture that will only require a small change in speed Science Posts, such as some digital footage of your children playing sports. Double the pace of the clip or triple it and show it to them and you will have them rolling on the floor.

You may also use these methods over the course of days or weeks to capture the growth of a flower or plant. Simply set your camera in exactly the same position each day at the same time and record an interval that works every day for as long as you want to record. Maybe you just split the seedling soil and pursue it all the way by growing it into a fully grown plant.

Capturing the moon 's course across the night sky is another fascinating thought. Set up your camera on a tripod in a position where the moon 's path can be seen for several hours. Set the camera to record the interval and position the moon on one side of the frame so that as the night passes, it will travel through the frame. In order to get the exposure and framing right as well as the correct interval to record at, this one can require some checking. You would most likely want to set the interval as long as you can, and as short as you can log the time, but first do a test run to see what works.

I can't emphasise enough that it can be great fun using your digital video camera and you can produce some cool results. Playing around and checking. You might just find yourself making a very creative digital video that you can share with the rest of the world.

Check http://www.timelapsepeople.com for more details.