There’s an art to great time lapse videos. There’s even a feature length film devoted to it called Koyaanisquatsi.

Here’s a nice montage (below) of great time lapse video utilizing one of the best sets in the world, New York City.  What makes it so interesting to watch is all the action in the foreground.  Without any action, there wouldn’t be much to interest you.  What’s also interesting to me is that it takes a long time to create a quick time lapse shot and it doesn’t take that much time at all to shoot a high speed video which in turn takes much longer to play.  We are talking opposite film making here.

Metropolis – A New York City Timelapse from Will Boisture on Vimeo.

 

If you are in the mood for more, here are 25 examples of great time lapse shots.  Great Time Lapse Footage

At deweymedia we add time lapse shots where it makes sense, but it’s important to make sure there’s a logical reason to show a time lapse shot.  For instance, showing a theatre filling up, but not showing it in real time….   or high speeding a football stadium filling up.  Throwing in a shot for the sake of having one may make good art, but they it takes time to design a good one (need to address issues such as: where is the sun moving over the course of the shot, foreground action, etc), and you need to have a good reason to make it.  Also, because you take a camera out of commission for a good amount of time, it better be a good use of that time.  That’s one less camera you can use, and that represents opportunity cost.