My (possibly insane) plans to shoot an "IMAX" timelapse movie... :)

[Tom Lowe]

I wanted to get your opinions on an idea I have been kicking around for a while now. I am moving closer to actually doing this, so I thought I would seek some advice now, before the "point of no return."

I am thinking of embarking on a serious 14-month journey around the American Southwest, doing nothing but shooting timelapse on the new Canon 1Ds Mark III 21MP DSLR. My plan is to shoot around 200 timelapses (mostly at night) and then cut a 45-minute timelapse film, in the tradition of Chronos, Baraka, etc.

The first people I would want to show it to, once I have a lot of footage, is IMAX. The 21MP frame of the 1DsM3 seems perfect to be blown up for IMAX screens. Some might argue that it doesn't have the resolution to hold up on IMAX screens, but I think the 1DsM3 can hold its own against standard 5-perf 65mm, which blows up nicely enough for IMAX.

I realize my chances of impressing the IMAX people are very, very slim, so my next plan would be to attempt to sell the 45-minute movie to Discovery HD, PBS, HDnet, etc.

If THAT fails, I will still have 200 awesome new clips to add to my Getty stock footage account. So I figure, I can't really lose, even if I put $50,000 or so of my own money into this project.

Logistics: My plan is pretty simple - drive around in my SUV and shoot, shoot, shoot! I will try to camp more than stay in hotels, to keep costs down. I will also be sending in many of my clips to Getty from the road, to help defray the cost of the trip.

Backups: My main concern is somehow losing footage. Either my car gets stolen, or I somehow lose or damage my backup drives. For this reason I want to put into place very strict and fail-safe measures for backing up my footage on the road. Some ideas: always backup to two harddrives, plus two optical discs for every sequence. I would keep the harddrives with me until they are full, then mail one to a relative. The optical discs (hopefully blurays) would be mailed periodically to other relatives in different states. The more often I backup and mail discs, the less footage I could potentially lose. I might also look into getting an online backup account, like Carbonite, so I can upload clips from my laptop. I will probably try to get a wireless card for my laptop - maybe verizon? I don't know how the upload speeds are on those cards.

Insurance and equipment: I figure I will need really great insurance on the SUV and equipment, mainly in case they get stolen. I will also try to get the very best, bullet-proof warranty on the photo gear, in case the camera fails in the field. What is the best way to insure the camera itself?

I feel very confident about the shooting and editing, but the one thing I am not certain about is how I will attempt to sell this bad boy once it's done. I guess I have a lot of time to learn about that! I will probably try to cut a 5- to 10-minute short or reel this winter... something I can start to show to people. Well what do you think of this plan? Can you see any obvious flaws in my planning? What am I not thinking of that could go wrong? Have I lost my mind?

 

[Babu Kantamneni]

Go man!

 

[Fredrik Callinggard]

My philosophy is do what you feel is right and have to. Normally something comes out of that, generally good and if not, it ends up good anyway somewhere along the line.

Everything is an experience


Fredrik

 

[Curran Giddens]

Go for it!

I guarantee that you will have at least one customer. I will pay at least $39.99 for a 1080p on Blu-ray. I love the Chronos, Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi type stuff....

 

[Noah Kadner]

Yeah I'd go for it man. IF the resulting film is brilliant, has a cool celeb narrator, amazing score etc IMAX might just go for it. Just remember that most IMAX films are about cool imagery second and have at least some sort of story in mind first.

Noah

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

I suggest getting portable solar chargers for your journey.

You are great at what you do. Go for it, Tom.
Another customer here...

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

Master to 1080 HDCAM SR and Discovery Theatre should want it.

 

[Ruairi Robinson]

I wanted to get your opinions on an idea I have been kicking around for a while now. I am moving closer to actually doing this, so I thought I would seek some advice now, before the "point of no return."

I am thinking of embarking on a serious 14-month journey around the American Southwest, doing nothing but shooting timelapse on the new Canon 1Ds Mark III 21MP DSLR. My plan is to shoot around 200 timelapses (mostly at night) and then cut a 45-minute timelapse film, in the tradition of Chronos, Baraka, etc.

The first people I would want to show it to, once I have a lot of footage, is IMAX. The 21MP frame of the 1DsM3 seems perfect to be blown up for IMAX screens. Some might argue that it doesn't have the resolution to hold up on IMAX screens, but I think the 1DsM3 can hold its own against standard 5-perf 65mm, which blows up nicely enough for IMAX.

I realize my chances of impressing the IMAX people are very, very slim, so my next plan would be to attempt to sell the 45-minute movie to Discovery HD, PBS, HDnet, etc.

If THAT fails, I will still have 200 awesome new clips to add to my Getty stock footage account. So I figure, I can't really lose, even if I put $50,000 or so of my own money into this project.

Logistics: My plan is pretty simple - drive around in my SUV and shoot, shoot, shoot! I will try to camp more than stay in hotels, to keep costs down. I will also be sending in many of my clips to Getty from the road, to help defray the cost of the trip.

Backups: My main concern is somehow losing footage. Either my car gets stolen, or I somehow lose or damage my backup drives. For this reason I want to put into place very strict and fail-safe measures for backing up my footage on the road. Some ideas: always backup to two harddrives, plus two optical discs for every sequence. I would keep the harddrives with me until they are full, then mail one to a relative. The optical discs (hopefully blurays) would be mailed periodically to other relatives in different states. The more often I backup and mail discs, the less footage I could potentially lose. I might also look into getting an online backup account, like Carbonite, so I can upload clips from my laptop. I will probably try to get a wireless card for my laptop - maybe verizon? I don't know how the upload speeds are on those cards.

Insurance and equipment: I figure I will need really great insurance on the SUV and equipment, mainly in case they get stolen. I will also try to get the very best, bullet-proof warranty on the photo gear, in case the camera fails in the field. What is the best way to insure the camera itself?

I feel very confident about the shooting and editing, but the one thing I am not certain about is how I will attempt to sell this bad boy once it's done. I guess I have a lot of time to learn about that! I will probably try to cut a 5- to 10-minute short or reel this winter... something I can start to show to people. Well what do you think of this plan? Can you see any obvious flaws in my planning? What am I not thinking of that could go wrong? Have I lost my mind?

I think your main concern should be "what is this film ABOUT"

because if you don't have that figured out, you WILL end up with just a bunch of stock footage.

Baraka, Koyaniskatsi, Powaqqatsi - all these films are clearly about something other than just making pretty pictures...

What's your theme?

 

[Tom Lowe]

Ruairi, I know what the theme is. But I'm going to keep that quiet for now.

BTW, do you guys think I could legitimately claim that, as of right now, if this goes into production, it will be "the highest resolution digital movie ever shot"? At 21mp per frame, I am not aware of any digital cinema cameras that match it. Maybe someone is shooting something like this on a Hasselblad, but I am not aware of it.

 

[Joel Kaye]

I feel very confident about the shooting and editing, but the one thing I am not certain about is how I will attempt to sell this bad boy once it's done.

I don't think there's any reason to wait until you're done to show them the idea. You can show a one or two minute demo at full quality before you launch into production and they'll probably give you some good feedback. Imax funds projects before they are shot all the time, right?

 

[M Hsu]

most excellent ideas start with : "ok, this might be crazy but what if...."

 

[Jeremy Teman]

Tom,

I would get together a small reel, treatment, plan, etc. to show potential investors, IMAX, etc. before going out and spending a bunch of your own money. If they like the idea, they will probably fund the project. If they don't they you might not want to spend $50K and just keep adding to your stock gradually. I also imagine many investors and/or IMAX wouldn't be too keen on having a completed film thrown at them. They would want to give input, etc.

Good luck

 

[Ruairi Robinson]

Ruairi, I know what the theme is. But I'm going to keep that quiet for now.

Fair enough.

Why not shoot a trailer before going all out and doing the whole thing?

 

[Peter Majtan]

I would not underestimate IMAX. They are quite keen on anything reasonably good as there isn't many content creator's focused on this format.

But there is one point. I do not accept IMAX in the "gigantic" screen installations. For that kind of impact I can just sit in the first few rows in a normal cinema. For me IMAX is the dome-variety. The "original" IMAX. Once You have been enveloped by such a image that fills Your entire FOV without any planar reference of focus - it is unforgettable.

And what You are planing on shooting seams almost designed for dome-IMAX. I think they would love this project...

Good luck!

 

[amrrahmy]

u seemed a bit paranoid with the backup. having a backup camera and some batteries and some flash drives, would be a wiser decision.
and i thought the d3 would be better for what u r going to do?(it's not by the # of mps)
and dont forget to get some mounts for ur tripods to move the camera on them.

 

[number6]

Don't forget to take your RED to document the "making of". Also, if you haven't got all your visuals pre-planned, why not ask for Sou'westerners to put up images of places they've been to steer you toward an area to find your oun slant on it?


Following my oun suggestion, I would put up something locally but problem is, there's not much here that's IMAX-worthy. A hundred or so miles west of here might qualify though

 

[Davide B.]

Tom, do you know if the shutter on the Canon will be able to hold up through all this? Don't they have to be replaced/retooled after a certain number of exposures?

45 minutes x 60 seconds x 24 frames = 64,800 exposures. If you're film is going to be 45 minutes then at minimum you're going to be releasing the shutter almost 65,000 times right? And that's not including the hours of footage you shoot that you may not use.

According to B&H it can handle 300,000 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/518204-REG/Canon_2011B002_EOS_1Ds_Mark_III_SLR.html). But I'd double check just to make sure. You wouldn't want to be out in the field, away from a service center, when the shutter goes out.

davide

 

[Dan Hudgins]

Music or narration?

Music or narration?

Ruairi, I know what the theme is. But I'm going to keep that quiet for now.

BTW, do you guys think I could legitimately claim that, as of right now, if this goes into production, it will be "the highest resolution digital movie ever shot"? At 21mp per frame, I am not aware of any digital cinema cameras that match it. Maybe someone is shooting something like this on a Hasselblad, but I am not aware of it.

If you pick a story that can be read and the images go with the narration you might have something people can sit through and keep some interest, maybe Muir or someone.

The final music will have a tempo, knowing that would allow you to set the frame rate to have the action go with the music.

 

[Bruce Allen]

Sounds good. I'd break it into 2 stages though:

1. shoot cool high-quality 5-10min demo reel

2. try to get some funding based on that demo so when you do your epic journey you can afford more than one camera. And maybe some a motion control tracking system so you can move the camera instead of doing just pans.

I'll PM you... I think I know someone I think you should have lunch with once you've made your reel.

If you do killer stuff and have a great presentation, I don't think it'd be impossible to get funding, really.

Your equipment costs are minuscule compared to shooting IMAX film. Main cost is your own time, travel, living costs, etc.

But what happened to your cool narrative project?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[Tom Lowe]

Bruce, I am going to focus on this timelapse stuff, because it's what I am most interested in right now, and as you say, the cost of shooting something like this is ridiculously low. Gas, food, motels, etc. Only 5 years ago it would have been absolutely impossible to shoot a quality "IMAX" movie digitally on a budget like this. It's amazing to me that you could legitimately say that you shot "the highest resolution digital movie in the history of cinema" for 50 grand.

Yeah, I should be able to put together a pretty stunning 10-minute reel this winter, at which point I could show it to the IMAX people, investors, production companies, etc. I just feel like I would rather be a guy who goes out and DOES something first, than one who TALKS about what he's going to do. The more I can show IMAX, the more they might take me seriously, I think.