Mike Finley

I've been wanting to do a time lapse video of a bathroom remodel for a long time. I got the enegy up again about 4 months ago and went on another search for a video company to do it. I don't get how hard it is to find somebody to do this. Most of the companies I called don't answer the phones, I left messages and never heard back from 1/2 of them. Those I heard back from either couldn't do it or wanted to do some goofy pretend method where they would come out to the jobsite every few days and tape 10 minutes and then edit it to look like a time lapse.

All I want is somebody to stick a camera in the corner of the room near the ceiling and leave it there and let it take a frame every once in awhile. I don't see what the big deal is, but I can't find a single person willing to do this.

I even looked into doing this myself and was going to buy a damn camera and do it, but I found out a video camera capable of doing this is actually a very expensive camera that only a pro would own.

I'b about ready to try another round of trying to find somebody to do this, any thoughts on this would be helpful especially if you know why I'm having such a hard time finding anybody to do this.

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bathroom remodeling - Denver, Lakewood, Littleton, Arvada, Westminster, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Englewood Colorado.

Ed the Roofer

Google: Time Lapse Video Camera.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...e+video+camera

Does this help.

Ed

How To Make A Time-Lapse Video With Your Digital Video Camera

Getting the most out of your digital video camera can mean being able to create some really cool stuff. You just have to step outside the manual a bit and find the cool things you can do with your digital video camera and your editing software.

We have all seen them in a movie or a TV show, those very cool shots where they speed up time and capture a long segment of time and condense it into a very short amount of video. My very favorite example of this technique was an arty movie of many years ago that was called Koyaanisqatsi. (view trailer) In that movie they had some very interesting segments where they did time lapse effects to show driving on a bridge, flowers growing, clouds flying by and so on. Another example is many of the TV news stations nowadays have a camera that captures the day’s weather and then they process it down to a 20 second clip to show the clouds and weather racing by on screen.

Well this technique is not just a tool in the hands of the movie makers or the big TV stations. You can do this with your digital video camera gear too. I will go into two ways that you can accomplish this effect and get some cool results for your next video project. This one is worth playing around with in order to find the right settings to get the most dramatic effect.

Technique number one is to use the camera itself to do the time lapse recording for you. Almost all digital video cameras have the ability to do an interval recording. What this means in a nutshell is that you tell the camera how long you want to record for and how long in between recordings and it will go on autopilot for you for as long as the battery lasts or the tape runs out. This is what those cameras at the convenience store do, they record a few seconds of motion every 30-60 seconds giving the overall view of the traffic in the store over time.
Now if you want to capture some time lapse in your digital video camera you will need to get into your cameras menu and find Interval Recording (or in my case Int Rec, as I use a Sony PD 150 for my camera) When you select this option you will decide how long of an interval between shots you want and how long to record each time. If you are trying to capture something that takes a long time to occur and in which not much happens quickly you will want to set the interval at around a minute and the record time as short as possible on your camera. An example would be if you wanted to record a day in the life of a flower or the clouds rolling by in the sky. Suppose however that you want to capture an event that has lots of action and occurs over a much shorter time frame. Then you would want to shorten the interval between recordings and increase the time of each recording. So in this case you might record every 15-30 seconds and record up to 2-3 seconds of video each time.

I used this technique to capture an afternoon of work being done by a team of carpenters on my house remodeling project. The result was a flurry of activity as workers raced hither and yon nailing boards, carrying equipment and building walls. I have added it to my photo collection of the project. (Hey I had to live through the project so I might as well have a great record of it for posterity!)

Now suppose you have one of the great software video editing packages on your computer to work with your digital video camera. Now you can do it in post as they say in the business. You can record any length of video you want (subject to the limitations of your tape length) and then import it into your editing program.

Sidebar:
I use Adobe Premiere Pro for my editing jobs, but I have also used Avid DV Express, Final Cut Pro, and others in the non linear editing world. These are all great programs and are very powerful products that can create some very professional looking videos. You don’t have to have these products to create your own videos but if you are serious about digital video editing it might be a good idea to take a look at these options.

I digitize my raw video of the scene I am doing time lapse on into my computer (big hard drive, video eats up GB’s of space) and then import the clip into my time line. From th3e timeline you can then select the clip with a right click. From there you will be given a menu with options depending on the software you use. Select the option that says “duration”, “speed” or something similar. Change the speed of the clip so that time will speed up considerably. If you have an hour of video in the clip and want to shorten it to 2 -5 minutes then you need to increase the speed of the clip to 3 or 4 thousand percent of normal. This will require your software to render the clip at the higher speed and may take some time top process depending on the speed of your computer.

Once you have rendered the video clip at the new speed you will want to play it to see if the movie flows evenly or if you will want to readjust the speed setting to make it better. Sometimes you may want to shorten your raw video and adjust the speed down somewhat in order to get a smooth flow of action. Once you have rendered the clip at the new speed you can now cut and splice it as you see fit with the speeded up action intact. There are some things you will record that might only need a slight speed change, take for instance some digital video of your kids playing sports. Double or triple the speed of the clip and show it to them and you might have them rolling on the floor.
You can also use these techniques to capture the growth of a flower or plant over the course of days or weeks. Simply set you camera in exactly the same place at the same time each day and record an interval that works each day fro however long you want to document. May be you get the seedling just breaking soil and follow it all the way through turning into a full grown plant.

Another interesting idea is to capture the path of the moon across the night sky. Set up your camera on a tripod in a spot that can see the path of the moon for several hours. Set the camera to interval record and put the moon on one side of the frame so that it will pass across the frame as the night passes. This one may require some testing in order to get the exposure and framing right as well as the right interval to record at. Most likely you would want to set the interval as long as you can and the record time as short as you can but do a test run first to see what works.

I can’t stress enough that using your digital video camera can be great fun and you can achieve some cool results. Play around and test. You just might find yourself creating some very creative digital video to share with the rest of the world.

Kevin Rockwell worked as a network TV cameraman for 20 years shooting news and sports. Now a devoted fan of digital photography and video he works to gather information, tips and news for digital camera users. Oh and he loves to shoot pictures of cool and interesting things all the time

Cole

Mike, this isn't too hard to do yourself.

It doesn't take a professional grade camera to make it come out great.

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Midtown Tulsa Remodeling

RobertCDF

It just takes having a camera that will do it... Mine does not though But I do have access to some that do ... However I cant borrow it for 2 weeks for an entire project . And like it was said... It can be done in post. But then you have to change your tapes every 60-90 minutes.

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Robert Shaw
Colorado Springs Custom Decks
Colorado Custom Decks
Custom Composite Decks

mickeyco

I have no idea why no one will call you back, but I have some ideas on how to do it pretty cheaply. You could buy a time-lapse VCR, $129.00 (http://www.scdlink.com/Details.cfm'ProdID=1857&category=16) and a color security camera (or use your own video camera hooked up to the VCR), then record the tape (I would guess that the tape would play in a regular VCR and already look like a time lapsed video) to DVD (if you have a DVD recorder or bring it to Wallgreens and have them do it.) for editing on a PC. You can go directly to PC from VHS but it's a pain and the quality isn't great. At this point you could edit it yourself or try to find someone to do it for you. You may not even need to edit it (aside from title etc.), I couldn't find exact specs on the unit but it says 1280 Hour Time Lapse recording so it might actually be able to set it up so you wouldn't have to cut frames.

Another method would be using a web cam, the more expensive ones produce great quality video and pictures. There's tons of free ( http://lundie.ca/fwink/ ) and cheap software that will take pictures at a specified interval and save them to your hard-drive as pictures (it can also upload them to the internet), then you can use software (MS Windows Movie Maker (it comes on most PC's with XP)) to assemble the pictures into a video for the computer, internet or burn to DVD to play on a home player. The down side is it has to be hooked up to a PC (could use a laptop or clunker you have lying around) and that might not be so easy unless it's your own house.

I would think the most important thing would be making sure the camera is mounted in a good position so it catches what you want and is not blocked by workers working (40 hours of a$$ crack probably won't sell jobs), that it's mounted solidly so it doesn't move and maybe a piece of glass in front to catch the dust and clean without disturbing the camera.

Here's my time lapse video, you'll see how quickly it goes from day to night.

http://www.mickeyco.com/movie/mov.html

Just kidding, I did it for my girlfriend, long story, but I did win a prize for it.

Saw the pictures of your trailer, looks great!, although I didn't see any monkey enhancements, maybe on the other side?

Stone Mountain

My best friend's son does exactly that. He would be happy to give you a quote. However, you'd have to pick up the tab for airfare and accomodations when he flies there from here in Sunny downtown Canada!

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dougchips

Your computer should be able to do it with an external cam. I use to play with the feature about 10 years ago, you set the frames per minute and let it go wild.

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Mike Finley

Okay guys, unless you've never been on a construction site, I ain't putting no computer in a bathroom remodel for 3 weeks.

The time lapse VCR is an interesting thought.

I'm more inclinded to write a check to somebody at this point. I'm less and less inclinded to spend any of my time doing work arounds anymore. I like it more and more to find somebody who does something for a living and let them do it. I can yell at them if I don't like it too that way.

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bathroom remodeling - Denver, Lakewood, Littleton, Arvada, Westminster, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Englewood Colorado.

reveivl

Seems to me that you don't have to put the computer in the bathroom, just the web cam part. Run the wire through the wall/ceiling wherever you can and go to town. (There must be wireless out there too)

I hear you, though, on the "let someone else do it, while I earn money doing what I do" part. It's been years since I worked on my truck, it's cheaper in the long run to let someone else deal with it.

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"Too much is always better than not enough"--J.R. "Bob" Dobbs

Mike Finley

Exactly. I'm long past the stage of the home made work around that looks like a home made work around. I'd much rather pay the piper now and have professional production, editing, sound... etc...

I think customers can recognize quality immediately. Even if they know nothing about you, they can quickly get a feeling about your company by what they see with a first impression. For me professional logo design, graphics, signage, trailer art, photography, printing, etc... it's all expensive in the short term, but well worth it for me in the long term.

I did finally find one video company with a video similar to what I am wanting on their website portfolio, so I'm going to start with them and see what happens. Thanks for all the idea though, there is some good ole American ingenuity in them.

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bathroom remodeling - Denver, Lakewood, Littleton, Arvada, Westminster, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Englewood Colorado.

Ed the Roofer

Mike,

There was an article Journal for Light Construction magazine several moths ago, regarding cutting edge web site technology. The one media company I remember them being the supplier of the video/DVD content on the web sites they profiled, was Lawerence Media Group. I have them saved in my favorites on my work computer, but they immediately show up with a Google search for that name, else I would provide the exact link for you.

I initially did not realize that was the direction you were heading in from your first post. They have many example sites listed in their portfolio, which seems to consist of a high quantity of CCN contractors, by the way, and the effect and quality was absolutely astounding for one with high speed to view.

The article also listed full implementation costs, which were in the ballpark of around $ 10,000 to $ 12,000 for one roofing contractor, named Maggio Roofing, which he felt was worthwhile and produced the results anticipated.

Ed

mickeyco

I agree to certain point, my problem is almost every time I hire something out I'm not happy with the results, "if you want it done right, do it yourself", could be I'm too picky or just have bad luck when it comes to hiring people. Although I did have good luck with a garage service over the winter, one of the tension springs broke on the coldest day of the year. I thought about doing it myself, found this guy on the web, he came out the same day, did the job quickly and the price was great, I couldn't have been happier. So I guess there are some qualified people out there.

I noticed the link I posted for the $129.00 time-lapse VCR is dead (worked when I posted it), but you can go to http://www.scdlink.com and search for "time lapse VCR" and find several but I notice the cheapest one is now $179.00.

Mike Finley

I used to be the same way Mickeyco, up to about 4 years ago, I was always frustrated and pissed that no matter what I was willing to pay I couldn't find people to do it as good as I could.

I changed one thing and it has made all the difference.

I learned to communicate in no uncertain terms, clearly, almost to the point of annoying the sh*t out of people of exactly what I wanted and exactly what I expected out of them. I learned to demand the details.

I used to be one of those guys who would be hands off, give the guy what I thought was respect and space. He's a professional, he should understand and deliver exactly what I want. That was a lifetime of assumptions that always ended in disappointment.

Now if I wanted gutters I would ask all the details I can think of... you're going to clean up any debris after the job? You're going to take it with you? The gutters will be what exact color of green? Do you have a sample? They will be fastened where exactly on the eves? Show me where...

Watch the lights go on in these guys heads as they suddenly start to get it. Watch as they suddenly realize they might have been better off asking more questions of me before they gave a price. When I see that look I ask them - did you figure all that into your price? Do you need to adjust it? If they do that's fine, I'm willing to pay for what the extra work above and beyond what they might normally do is going to cost.

I always would much rather go into any situation with everybody with eyes wide open and everybody knowing exactly what is expected of everyone.

I even carry this over to selling our jobs. I have a place in our contract labeled "Customer Responsibilities".

I simply can't do everything myself and get where I want to go, so I had to adapt and change how I approached getting what I wanted.

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bathroom remodeling - Denver, Lakewood, Littleton, Arvada, Westminster, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Englewood Colorado.

woodmagman

So you are the bath contractor right......asking proffesionals for advice....right. You get, what is good advice....right..Your not willing to put a 1000 dollar computor on site for 3 weeks but you are not happy when a pro camera dude shows a very good and practical way to do what you are asking. Mike let the dudes do their thing and complain if it does not turn out. Time lapse is just that... you could do it with a digital camera by taking 10 or twenty pictures then looping it all together to make a mini show. It all still shots any way so take one picture and copy it 20 time every twenty minutes. You will get the same results..Some times even a pro needs to take advice from a pro..even if it means giving up a little control..
To keep control buy a 1000 dollar digital SLR, a tripod and and tell the customer no messing around in the unfinished tub until your done or you put the shiny butts on ebay.....Pay for the camera

MKamis

Be sure to end the video with the homeowner walking in, looking around, then fade out as they get ready to sit down on the can!

Second Look

Have you tried posting on Craigslist, or contacting the film department of a local arts university? Some aspiring director would probably love to make money while at the same time creating a unique work for their portfolio.

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Second Look home improvement www.SecondLookHome.com
Handyman and Home Repair Specialist in Rhode Island
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lowell5slide

hey mike go to mandy.com I think you will find what you need.

JamesNLA

I'm SOOO sorry, I just saw this post. For what it's worth, not too long ago I owned a video production company. I am also a camera man and editor. If you need help with this, I can walk you through this very simply. It's really not that hard. And you don't need a 3500 Z1 to do this. Most of the consumer units will have an option for that. Anyhow, I'd be more than happy to assist you. I know what you want to do, and have started this on a few projects for an online portfolio and DVD for potential clients.

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JamesNLA

Why would you take a stack of photos from a SLR, THAN have to edit them - arrange them - THAN import them into an editor, hope the images are from the exact location, Than what?????

That is NOT how to make a time lapse clip...not at all...

Take 15 minutes of video, speed it up 5000%....now you have about 10-15 seconds of time lapse video. Leave the stills for the photogs.....

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"....And then we all switch places when I ring the bell"
-Adrock

Mike Finley

I have considered just purchasing a digital video camera and getting the raw frame by frame myself, but when I looked at the camera manufacturers websites to find a camera I could not find any consumer units with this option.

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bathroom remodeling - Denver, Lakewood, Littleton, Arvada, Westminster, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Englewood Colorado.