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Hey guys,

 

New here. I'm a filmmaker mostly specializing in feature narratives, but recently have been hired by an advertising firm to help with a Marriot commercial.

 

They want a time lapse video of a wall, outside the window of a hotel room, in the Marriott, where they will be installing some sort of big mural for the company over 5 days.

 

I have a Sony A7s with Atomos 4k recorder, and plan on renting a cine lens, AC power unit for the camera body and 4k recorder for the shoot specifically.

 

I'm hoping to run a few tests before the shoot, as they are renting a room in NYC for 5 nights where I will set up the camera, and I have one shot at this.

 

Can anyone recommend settings, apps, etc. for this? It will obviously be day and night over a 5 night span shooting outside a window, and needs to look amazing. ANY help I can get would be deeply and sincerely appreciated, I should have time to run some test shoots with your advise before next Monday, Sept 28th, when the shoot begins.

 

Thank you,

G

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How long do you want the final time lapse to be? Will they really be installing the mural 24/7 for 5 days, or just installing it during daytime hours (so you only have to shoot in daylight hours)? Are you planning on utilizing any motion (sliders with motion control, etc.)?

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For any long timelapse you'll definitely want some motion in there to keep it interesting.  Motion sliders are one option but since you seem to be into renting equipment you might consider renting an A7R2 so you can shoot 42 megapixel stills.  This will allow you to crop down to 4K (8 megapixel) in software to zoom and pan around the time-lapse without the need for any additional motion hardware.

 

Here's a guy on DPReview that recently posted a big timelapse montage he did using the Sony A7, post-processing in Lightroom, then adding the motion in PanoLapse:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3901511

 

I haven't done this myself yet on my A7R2 but it looks like a pretty neat option because you can zoom in to 25% of a 42MP image and still get 4K resolution (or zoom in to 12.5% if your final output is 1080p).  Of course some of the more advanced motion sliders I think could give you rotation control as well which you obviously can't get from cropping.

 

Now if you really want to impress them, rent a second camera and create a camera obscura in your hotel room, like the photgrapher Abelardo Morell did in his book Camera Obscura:

 

CO-Manhattan-Looking-South_96_slide.jpg

 

CO-Central-Park-Fall_08-800x624.jpg

 

 

I don't think anyone's ever shot a giant wall-size time-lapse camera-obscura.  Could look really cool.. and show off the hotel room at the same time as the mural :).  I dunno if the technique he uses to black out the windows and create the opening is something you can learn just by googling, but if I had a hotel room in NYC locked off for 5 days with some cool view outside I'd want to give it a shot..

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Hey guys,

 

...They want a time lapse video of a wall, outside the window of a hotel room, in the Marriott, where they will be installing some sort of big mural for the company over 5 days.

 

I have a Sony A7s with Atomos 4k recorder, and plan on renting a cine lens, AC power unit for the camera body and 4k recorder for the shoot specifically....

 

...Can anyone recommend settings, apps, etc. for this? It will obviously be day and night over a 5 night span shooting outside a window, and needs to look amazing. ANY help I can get would be deeply and sincerely appreciated, I should have time to run some test shoots with your advise before next Monday, Sept 28th, when the shoot begins.

 

 

My documentary group uses the A7RII and the Kessler "Second Shooter" 3-axis motion control head on a Kessler motorized slider: http://store.kesslercrane.com/products/motion-control/second-shooter/second-shooter-3-axis-bundle-w-stealth-slider.html

 

We shoot 42 megapixel stills using the A7RII silent shutter mode to avoid wearing out the mechanical shutter. In general I'd suggest using stills not 4k video for time lapse because of the extra resolution, color depth and dynamic range it gives you. We commonly shoot .jpg stills on longer time lapses but sometimes use raw stills on shorter ones. We use this cheap intervalometer: http://tinyurl.com/p9gpozk but the Kessler Second Shooter has a built-in intervalometer which we intend to use. There is also a Sony in-camera intervalometer app, but I don't like it since it won't use the A7RII silent shutter:  https://www.playmemoriescameraapps.com/portal/usbdetail.php?eid=IS9104-NPIA09014_00-000003

 

Using a motorized slider to add motion to a TL is nice but it complicates the shot and restricts your available framing and positions. You must have a close object in the foreground otherwise there's insufficient parallax to show motion. Yet the object must not meaningfully obstruct the composition. All of that should be practiced ahead of time before any real event. 

 

TL can be very tricky so I can't over-emphasize the need for prior testing before the real event. 

 

We convert the image sequence to video using Apple Quicktime 7 Pro and the technique discussed here by MacBreak Studio:

 

We de-flicker the video using Flicker Free by Digital Anarchy, a plugin for FCP X: http://www.digitalanarchy.com/Flicker/main.html

 

Much more sophisticated LR processing is available via LRTimeLapse: http://lrtimelapse.com/

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