The Mumford Time Machine
The Canon XL H1 LANC Control Interface
Hi friends. It's been a busy time around here at Please Stand By Productions. I've run into some really challenging technical problems, which I'm slowly getting a handle on. We think the issue of how best to photograph the timelapse sequences for Episode 2 in High Definition video have been solved. I have a technician who is an expert in timelapse and motion control cinematography in Southern California literally building what he calls The Mumford Time Machine. We will use this high tech device for our production timelapse shooting. (See Picture Above) I'm not referring to the fictional device in the H.G. Wells classic The Time Machine, rather, a small electronic device the size of a pocket calculator which interfaces with our main production HDV camcorder via the LANC socket. LANC stands for Local Accessable Nominal Control Bus. The LANC control system was developped by SONY and is found on many high end camcorders. This interface opens the door to computer control of our camera in such a way that very short bursts of video (0.5 secs or less) are recorded between a certain time interval which we can pre-set in the time machine computer device. Not only can this sytem control our camera, but it also can send control signals to other devices, such as flashes, and stepper motors, which in turn can incrementally pan and tilt the camera for very dynamic 2 1/2 D time compression shots. There are so many technical details involved in the production of digital movies these days. The film maker must become a master technician and then at some point transcend technology and create art ! Art and technology is not an easy mix. We will be shooting a whole series of new timelapse tests which we will post on this blog as we shoot them. I hope to have all necessary timelapse, and connector shots photographed by the end of May at the latest, then we should have picture lock shortly after.
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