Transform the Church in Twenty Seconds

CLICK HERE to see the time lapse video discussed in this entry.

The setup for the Hilltop Community Church Singing Christmas Tree Presentation involves the raising of a 30-foot steel tree structure. Setup is done in a single day, which creates a great opportunity to create an entertaining time lapse video. I created such a clip in 1999 using Boinx's iStopMotion on a Mac PowerBook G4. The file size crashed the program, but I suspect that a newer computer could handle the job. The idea is to hook the camera up to the computer running software that grabs a frame every minute or so. The problem is that there is too much that can go wrong. If the computer crashes or if the software is set wrong, there is no retake until next year.

So I tried a new approach this year. Loading a 32GB SD card into a camera, I was able to continuously record four hours of construction. I imported this onto my computer, which created an 85GB video file. Using Final Cut Studio, I zeroed in on the desired speed for the time lapse effect. Just to be safe, I rendered that shot at a few different speeds before deleting that epic file. If you have equipment that can handle the file sizes, I recommend this approach over using time lapse software.

Here are a some more tips:

Stability
Set up your camera away from foot traffic, tighten your tripod, and post a few "don't touch" signs. Set your camera on manual so the iris and focus don't change on their own durning the recording.

Changing Media
If your media can't accommodate the length of time you need to record, it will work to change tapes or cards. The gap in the recording will be covered by the time-lapse effect. Just make sure the camera and tripod are tightened down so the camera doesn't move in the process.

Power Supply
Plug it in. Changing the battery is bound to upset one setting or another.

Editing
Cut the lunch breaks. In the example video, there were two breaks in the work. I cut them to maintain the constant pace. Since everything is chattering around, such cuts go unnoticed.

There are other creative uses of time lapse to explore. For example, you can shoot time lapse of sunrises and sunsets featuring your church. Play around with this technique and you might just find yourself creating some spectacular videos.

Comments:  Have done some timelapse work?  Let us know what you have done and/or add a link below.

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