I seem to be addicted to slow motion video at the moment. It may be the imminent release of the Red with its promised 120 full frames per second, or maybe I’ve just been watching too much Mythbusters. But all this high speed video showing up on TV has me excited. I’m willing to submit the world to almost endless slow motion criket or drag racing if the end result is my own 1000FPS video camera.
Motionographer just set me off again with these beautiful PSAs (1, 2) by Duckling. Intimate high speed camerawork joined with fantastic post production delivers the required road safety message with the poise of Sony’s Bravia spots but without the gore Australians are submitted to by our government sponsored propaganda.
The reverse-time gambit is getting a little played out, but only because it’s so very effective. Also linked from the Motionographer is Coldplay’s clip for The Scientist, which takes the same concept but wraps it in soppy pop ballad and unrealistic crash physics. It hardly matters though, as Rabbit In Your Headlights did it best, and David Lynch’s Bambi ad for the PS2 copied that best… Really, if it involves a combination of cars, explosions, slow motion or time-reversing it’s been done before, so we might as well just enjoy the pretty pictures.
Pleix’ “Birds” filmclip for Vitalic’s awesome Poney, Pt 1.
Fatboy Slim’s Gangster Trippin’, the logical extension being Helios‘ recent Nokia 6265 Explosion Ad.
Unkle again, with Reign.
Want to do it yourself? This Rarevision article is a little dated, but covers the basics.
But the purpose of this article is not to point out the benefits of true progressive scan 24 frames per second. It’s to talk about something I haven’t seen a lot of on the web, which is how to achieve great slow-motion photography while shooting a 24p project.
Some of you may be thinking, “it hasn’t been talked about because it’s really not that big of a deal.” Well, the truth is that many filmmakers put great emphasis on visual style, and the limitations of cheap cameras (even 24p cameras) have restricted the creative potential of visual filmmakers. The ability to shoot slow motion sequences is part of that potential, and is an issue that needs addressing.
Ok. I think I’m done with Slow Motion videos for now, but if I’ve missed any important ones please hit the comments.
So true. Though, for some of us real low budget types, even the red is
kind ofreally expensive.There are some digital still cams that shoot 60fps that I recall seeing. Clearly, though, the quality isn't HD, but it can be good enough for a little live mixing.
The Red definitely is expensive for the low budget creator. Considering the stated price point though, if/when it achieves a wide release the rental fees should be extremely affordable.
The Red will hopefully force all of the other camera manufacturers to examine their pricing, and that would be great for the low budget types.
There are indeed digital still cameras which shoot 60fps. I may have access to one, so if possible I'll do an article to see how it stacks up to DV-based slow motion.
I remember some classic music video (meaning, something I saw a lot of times when I used to watch MTV) but can't focus on the name nor the band.
REcently posted on antville, this one:
http://ticklebooth.com/2006/08/berko-in-the-rare/
Nice one DeK! That's beautiful. Too much slow motion stuff seems to focus on "perfect" setups. It's nice to see some grunge and mess in that Berko vid.
Despite the nice short depth of field in most shots, I bet it was boiling hot for the actors to get enough light on the set for that framerate.
for clever use of backwards video check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ci-BecLfJI
Aaah yes, I'd forgotten about that video. Very simple concept carried off nicely.
Although you can't help but think how great it would look in proper slow motion 🙂
In the ducklink showreel:
only the total sequence of the collision cars is a "real" slow motion, the faces of girl and boy with glass sticks at the foreground are real-and-SFX shot-mixes. Especially the victim-boy's head in the windshield (but i think you've known this too :))
But yeah i absolutly agree slowmo is real cool.
GO mythbusters and i know what you mean about slow mo it ROCKS!!!!