This is going to be warts and all.

There are a number of time lapse shots that I want for the film and recently I’ve been learning how to make them.

My first practical information came from Illustratographer’s tumblr, so following the information therein, I shot my own.

On looking at my results, I did a little more digging and found some links such as this. Very informative. Anyway, this is my first test:

So, what have I learned for next time?

• Get your timing right: I decided to shoot from one hour before sunrise to one hour after, so why did I start shooting two hours before instead? Oh. Which leads neatly to…
• Make sure your battery is fully charged: mine ran out partly through the shoot; changing the battery meant a slight shift in the camera’s position.
• Keep your camera’s settings the same throughout: I went with a wide open aperture, which was great for the darkness, but not so smart in the light. I compensated with neutral density filters of increasing strength that unfortunately resulted in odd light and colour changes between shots.
• I need to experiment more with editing.
• It’s all in the planning: I can’t emphasise it enough; consider what you want to see, how long you want it to last and plan accordingly.
• Test, test and test again before signing the project off. I’m near the end of the film’s first cut, but I imagine I’ll be doing many more time lapse shots before any of them make it into the edit.

As I say, this is a first effort. Between now and the next, I’ll be looking at a lot of other people’s work for guidance.