making a timer for a bomb scene

[xfoo]

for a short i am making theres a part where i need a composite between a shot of a bomb with a timer on it counting down from 60 - 0 in seconds and another scene with someone running through a building trying to find it in time. i have thought of 3 possible ways of going about making the timer but dont know which would be the easiest/ most effective.

FIRST WAY - use 4 7 segment led's with the proper ic's tocontrol them and a pulser for the timeing. - PROBLEM : i have made a timer with a single 7seg led but it was just a 0 to 9 counter.... it was going forwards and not to 60. what i need is to go from 60 to 0 in seconds, and it would be nice if i could have the milliseconds too.

SECOND WAY - using the 4 7 seg led's, the ic's to control them, and a parllex basic stamp. i have found a few places on the web that show you how to make a regular clock using a basic stamp soo i was thinking of maybe going with this and trying to modify the program soo instead of displaying hours and minutes it shows seconds and milliseconds but counting down instead of up. PROBLEM : i have done some basic things with a basic stamp (servo control, blinking led's) but never anything this complex, i just want to know if anyone has any suggestions for doing this, if its even possible to program in such a way.THIS ONE WOULD ALSO LOOK THE COOLEST BC
OF THE BASIC STAMP IS A CIRCUT BOARD :)

THIRD WAY - do the whole basic stamp set up but film it with the 7 segment leds off then in post go into apple motion 2? or adobe after effects? to make it look like the led's are lit up and set as a timer. is this possible? would it be difficult? i have alittle experience with these 2 programs, but have used flash for a few years soo i know alittle about animation.

can anyone give me any suggestions for any of these ideas? or give me a possible idea of your own? any input would be much appreciated :)

thanks!

[novelt]

shoot a scoreboard and overlay it or use a cooking timer with an LCD screen.

[M.A.D]

there is a clock that I have that is a see through LCD clock:
Pic of Clock (http://www.brookstone.com/bs_assets/images/shop/thumbnail/399923_t.jpg)
It is fairly cheap and you can shoot a WELL lit green screen (paper, whatever is a solid color) behind it and later key it out

I have tried this for a time bomb effect and it worked perfectly

HOWEVER: This clock timer is minutes and seconds so you will have to take an hour of footage and speed it up to get your 60 seconds

Suggestion: Take shots of the clock at every 7 or 8 minutes (it is best not to do it by 10's) that way you do not have this huge file

M.A.D (Sorry about the bad picture)

[xfoo]

hmm sounds good... but i will have shots of him tryin to diffuse it and from diff angles... prolly some pov's, over the shoulder, and probrably a spinning shot with the camera focused on him and the bomb going around all of it in a big circle, and some other random shots... wont it be alittle hard to key it in after effects? m.a.d, do you have a clip of it soo i can see how it worked?

btw... i think i have the whole basic stamp idea figured out. i have all the parts but everythings at school in the Digi Elec lab and i am not allowed to "take into my own hands" until i finish it and my teacher can then write it up as a independent study project... soo im gunna go about programing it as a 60 second reverse countdown timer on monday... hopefully i can figure out a way to have milliseconds too but that seems alittle too much to wish for :)

[xfoo]

i remember in the movie speed (or might off been speed 2) there was a time bomb of somesort with a timer... does anyone remember what this timer looks like?
and in everyones opinion, what would look cooler... a basic stamp circuit board with 2 7seg leds for the numbers as the count down attached to the fake bomb composited through out the 60 second scene with the scene itself (of a guy entering a building, running frantically looking for the room the bomb is kept in) OR an analog clock set one minute from 12:00 showing the second hand clicking down being attached to the same set up composited into the same scene...

[-zach-]

a basic stamp circuit board with 2 7seg leds for the numbers as the count down attached to the fake bomb composited through out the 60 second scene with the scene itself (of a guy entering a building, running frantically looking for the room the bomb is kept in)

This one looks cooler... Just make sure that the entire bomb scene, when finally edited, is real time. I hate when movies say, Oh, 1 minute, and the bomb is diffused in ten. If you can fit it into 60 seconds that would be so cool. And make sure when you cut back to the bomb, seconds have been taken off so that it's not still at 40 seconds when you only have 20 seconds left of the scene.

Couldn't find a picture of the bomb in Speed

z

[Neil Rowe]

..why not just buy a cheap electronic precision stopwatch , and affix it to the "explosive device" prop whislt only showing the LCD screen portion of it while its doing a countdown? you you could likely just remove the outer casing so its just a bunch of wires and silicon wafer board and it it with ever so little help it would be unrecognizeable as a common stopwatch. put some alligator clips on it with some red wires coming out and cover some of it in duct tape and your set.

[Edgen]

you could always do this:

http://www.kirupa.com/developer/mx/countdown.htm

then, take the footage, and composite onto the 'bomb' or whatever it is. Set up the right angle, the right time, and adjust the countdown to whatever you like. If you are cutting back and forth, you may have to render 5-6 different clips all at different times.

And, of course to change the dramatics of the timer, each shot have a closer shot so you'd have to adjust each of the AE clips.

Is this even close or did I go way out there? (which I tend to do)

/j

[xfoo]

last idea is plausable but its not LED style display.

[Shaw]

You could always try to find away around the bomb timer. After all, who in their right mind would make a bomb with an LCD display for the timer?

[Edgen]

last idea is plausable but its not LED style display.

well, that's the joy of flash. If you scroll down, you'll notice that each number is a movie clip, and you can change the font to match a "count down timer" font. You can adjust the size and the amount of decibel places. Everything should work fine. (errr. at least I would think so)

and yes... ha!! Excellent point. I suppose timers on bombs are cliche'd.

You could always 'time lapse' a large display clock, and just play the footage backwards.

/j

[Petrus]

True. Often the timer & bright display is bigger than the bag of explosives...

I just saw the movie "Core" on TV. There they had five 200 megaton H-bombs to be used to restart the earth's core which had stopped rotating (!!??). The journey to the center of the earth was full of problems, one of them making the complicated detonating systems work. Why would they have complicated safety systems (double keys, codes etc.) for setting off the H-bombs on a mission like that, where there is no chance of those bombs falling in the wrong hands? It is just that a time bomb must have a large counter, nuclear bomb must have these double keys etc or they do not look "real". Which is far from real real.

[Petrus]

Another thought, how about making a chemical timer for a change? Acid eating away a piece of paper in a glass vial with pencil marked seconds. Would look more belivable to my eye than a LED countdown timer... How does the hero deal with that?

[Logan LeBlanc]

http://www.weplay.com/track/stopwatches/

Try these

[thematthewbone]

i think i agree with Petrus.

try something new instead of the "countdown" clock. i think it has been played out a tad bit and maybe something fresh would be a little bit more believable.