Rollercoaster shoot coming up . . . . . and down...

T

Thomas_h

New member
Hi,

I'm doing a piece on a new rollercoaster in june. The rollercoaster is being put together in one month (june 1. - june 30.) and I'm going on the first ride with some roller coaster fanatics.

So I have a couple of questions.


I want to do a time laps recording of the build. I'm thinking renting a firestore and then set my camera to interval recording, and let it record for 24 hours or so.

But what about exposure? I reckon if I'm doing 10 second intervals, I should just hit autoiris? Don't know about ATW cause I probably have to put the camera indoors filming out of a window. So should I just go with 5600K?


Then to the other part. The ride.

I have no idea how steady I can hold the camera. Does anyone have any experience with this?
 
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This sort of time-lapse might actually be better suited for a still camera. Sounds silly but there's no reason to tie up a DVX and a Firestore to merely capture the occassional frame. Others may disagree but the resolution of a DSLR is (usually) bigger than HD in resolution.

I realize this presents a whole other workflow, so (if you do go w/ a DVX) using the autoiris will hose you real bad. As it tries to compensate for changing light, sunsets, cloudds, etc. the exposure will drift all over the map. The result will be a very spastic fluctuation over time as you play it. Proper exposure is even a big deal when shooting stills for time-lapse.

My guess is that Auto Tracking White Balance might have the same effect. A single cloud could cause a shift in color temp and will throw off the 'flow' of the time-lapse sequence. Set a white balance and stick with it, fixing color temp changes as gradual color tweaks over time {in post}.

i.e. When this city goes dark at night, you lose sun (obviously) , all the sodium vapor streetlights come up and there also has to be a major change in exposure. I only make one exposure change near the end of sunset, white balance stays always the same and later has to be tweaked either as a PhotoShop batch or in After Effects, Shake or any other number of applications.

Probably more info than you asked for but if you're going to do time-lapse, might as well do it right. Hopefully, someone disagress with this approach.
 
oops actually this should've been in the HVX forum. Can a moderater please move it?

Anyways. Thanks for the answer. Well I really don't want to bother with the DSLR workflow. I have no idea how I would work that out. I'm working at a news tv-station, so time is money.

So I guess I just have to expose the scene and cross my fingers that it won't change completely 30 minutes after?

I only have to use it for 20 seconds or so.
 
I shot a documentary on roller coasters with Vincent Price and I guarantee you that you will want to mount the camera. The human body is a good shock absorber for some situations, but not on a roller coaster - not even the smoothest. Yeah, you'll get some footage and maybe even some sequences that are marginal enough to use, but a mount attached to the first car is the way to go. I also did a time lapse and shot it with a still camera. It was shot on film, but the principles still apply.
 
Cyclone:

Wow. I think I've actually seen that Vincent Price video somehow. If not the whole thing - at least some clips. I bought one of those weird 3D still cameras from the '80's (can't remember the now-defunct brand, maybe Nishika?) and he 'hosted' the tutorial video that came bundled with it.

I believe it was shot on film around L.A. and he did some pretty tongue-in-cheek delivery (even though he seemed to be having fun with it).

i.e. "When the camera's ready to take your next 3D photo presentation, the red light will appear.... Oooohhh.... I love the color RED."
 
Sorry, I couldn't help but edit the title of this thread slightly.. :)


How fast does a rollercoaster actually get built? is 24hours going to be enough?

- Mikko
 
"Wow. I think I've actually seen that Vincent Price video somehow."

Yeah, that was probably it. He poked fun at screaming and being scared. The time lapse in the film was of Colossus at Magic Mountain and took about 4 months to build.
 
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