64/365 Time-lapse: the present-day C41

One of the real pleasures of working on a new project is the opportunity to learn new stuff.

The trip to Nepal to document the work of a charity in Kathmandu later this week offers just that opportunity.

This weekend has seen me consume tutorials in three-key lighting, and test time-lapse sequences like the one above.

The time-lapse practise revealed a few things I had overlooked.

By definition time-lapse takes time. That in itself is a therapeutic thing, perhaps even a meditative process (if you’re going to stand there waiting for the camera to carry out the task). At the very least it demands patience.

Creating a time-lapse sequence also demands looking at the shot in an entirely different way. What are the moving parts? Is there contrast? What is hidden when we glimpse at an everyday view? What will a time-lapse sequence reveal?

I love that aspect of time-lapse: it forces me to look at something from a different perspective — time. The perfect antidote to the ‘everything now’ world we experience today.

The production process — set up the camera for x-number of hours, import it into Premiere Pro and apply some colour correction — applies the sames brakes on the creative process as shooting 35mm and sending it to the lab for developing. I never imagined I’d ever need to recall the coded process for developing colour film — C41. I’ve missed that.