Wrestling timelapse (view this story)

Details

Category: Sports
Media: Video
Turnaround time: Less than a day

Description of story

Timelapse video from high school wrestling. This was an experiment of sorts, to shoot a timelapse video that really wasn't. At least in terms of time having lapsed.

Feedback requested

I'm up for any feedback that folks have time to give. I feel guilty I haven't submitted more stuff to finding the frame, it's a great resource and place to see work. Thanks for keeping this up and running.

Gear used in production

Couple Nikon d300's
quicktime
Premiere Pro.

4 comments - Login to comment

Rep: 444
Eric Seals March 6, 2012, 12:38 p.m. permalink

Hi Ben,


That was great!!  I wasn't expecting the variety you had in this.  Usually the time lapses I see are all done from one angle or perspective.

Loved the opening with the wrestler shoes then going into the kid with the superman shirt, great way to kick off this piece!!

Loved the mix of visuals you had from nice overalls to fan reaction to the wrestlers on the mat.

Love the fan at :16 seconds going up and down cheering on his son or whoever he's rooting for.

Glad you kept this short at 1:31, we've all seen time lapses that seem to go on forever.

Three quick things;

1. At the :22 second mark when we are seeing the overall panning right to left I wish it was just a little bit slower.

2. After some time the music just became to repetitive. Even though the visuals were strong having the music lower and bringing in more ambient noise of the crowd, the refs whistle, etc would have helped.  

3.  Did you think about having a few voices of wrestlers and a wrestling mom? Might have made for some good sound bites underneath the time lapse? Them talking about how intense it is, why they love it etc. 
I ask because I did a piece last summer of a mud day in Detroit where kids splash around in big pits of mud. I too have all music in the short piece and someone on here had mentioned about having two or three sound bites and I thought that was a good suggestion.

Technically...how did you pull this off?  Did you have your cameras on tripods with a interverlometer set to fire at a specific amount of time? 

Nice job!!!

Eric



Rep: 4
Submitter
Ben Garvin March 6, 2012, 7:12 p.m. permalink

Thanks for the great feedback, Eric. I don't know how you have the time but appreciate it! Good ideas and advice on all your suggestions. I regretted the music choice as soon as I finished editing it :) 


I shot this with a couple cameras. The only shot I used the built-in intervelometer is the overall. The others I just shot when I felt like it. The feet, for instance, I just held down the motor drive. but the images of folks cheering or wrestling I shot about every second but more often when something cool was happening. Which in affect makes that moment last longer in the film, maybe even slow down a bit but not enough to be noticed. Compiled the images with QuickTime, exported as full movies and brought them into Premiere Pro. I shot basic quality jpeg on medium (likely could used 'small' setting). That's one stumbling block I've found with stuff like this is the massive size of the files. It can make editing really frustrating. 

Here's another similar thing I shot last year that I spent more time on, a timelapse of the MN Twins' opening day at their new ballpark:

thanks again for your helpful feedback. all the best,
ben

Rep: 444
Eric Seals March 7, 2012, 5:57 a.m. permalink

Yes I remember seeing that Twins time lapse last year. That was awesome!


This timelapse, tilt shift video was the 1st one I saw three years ago and it still just blows me away you gotta watch it!

MetalHeart
https://vimeo.com/2317118

Rep: 19
David Brooks March 7, 2012, 5:31 p.m. permalink

This looks great! I agree with Eric on including more of the shouting and quotes from the audience... but then it got me thinking so why not just do a video? I'm not trying to be a jerk, especially since we will be sleeping in the same room in a month or so :) but I know how daunting a task timelapse can be and you could have accomplished the same thing, with less effort just shooting video...? But what do I know I actually liked the music.

BTW- your Twins opening day timelapse is a masterpiece, extremely well done, the look and feel really works for baseball and for opening day in particular!


Login to comment

Likes3 likes

You must be logged in to like this story

Others who like this