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100 years in 2 hours

A time lapse movie showing a countrys passage thru the century
  (+6, -1)
(+6, -1)
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I had this idea at the turn of the century – I thought it would be a nice gift to the people at the turn of the next century.

Set up hundreds of cheap digital cameras around the country with internet connections. Have the cameras viewing everything from mundane suburban street scapes to amazing natural environments to cities and monuments. Have the cameras take a couple of shots each day and download them to a central database. After 100 years (or shorter if people can’t wait) put together an awesome time lapse movie of the century past.

MickZ, Aug 04 2004

Related Idea http://www.halfbake...poral_20Photography
note link to "A Year Along the Abondoned Road" [csea, Oct 04 2004]

Video gallery with various time scales, complete with corny sound effects. Some are simulations. http://www.playingw...ize&searchCriteria=
I particularly like "Alaquash". [Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

7 Up to 42 Up http://www.frif.com/new99/42up.html
Long term documentary project - greatest doco ever made... [ConsulFlaminicus, Oct 04 2004]

Baked? http://www.ukspeedc...as.co.uk/index1.htm
sorta. [egbert, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

(??) Sam Raimi has same idea as MickZ, gets it to internet first http://www.cnn.com/...aimi.centurycam.ap/
[calum, Oct 04 2004]

Future Shock https://en.wikipedi...g/wiki/Future_Shock
[Voice, Jul 15 2022]

[link]






       <my $0.02> The way I look at it, it doesn't matter. Have someone take the GPS co-ordinates, and take a picture every year. (or two and have one video of summer, one of winter) +
swimr, Aug 05 2004
  

       Scratch cheap digital camera and replace with decent camera in weather proof case etc - even in the tens of thousands of $, still relatively low cost.   

       GPS co-ords - too course a time frame and shots at slightly different positions - time lapse will be all over the place.
MickZ, Aug 05 2004
  

       Better than a time capsule.
harderthanjesus, Aug 05 2004
  

       I gave you a +   

       I think the final film would need careful editing though to avoid it becoming boring. Some Monuments and natural environments tend not to change too much even in 100 years. Good one though
britboy, Aug 05 2004
  

       I would like to see a glacier filmed this way. +   

       Fantastic idea! A bun!
<100 years later>Fantastic idea! A bun!
energy guy, Aug 05 2004
  

       Actually, [contracts], I think your math might be off. Your missing a couple of zeros. One shot a day means 365 shots a year. X 100 years = 36,500.
If you break this into frames (divide it by 24x60x60), you get a 25 minute long film.
energy guy, Aug 05 2004
  

       Instead of GPS(coordinates can be off 20-30ft) have a permanent concrete marker set up. The marker would have a base set up so you can mount a camera, take a picture, and pack it up till the next day to avoid theft. Upgrading to new camera technology would only mean taking the mount and having it resighted so the new camera will be just as accurately placed as the old one.
destructionism, Aug 05 2004
  

       //permanent concrete marker//
Large numbers of these already exist in the UK. They are maintained by the Ordnance Survey for triangulation purposes. They tend to be at the top of hills, so they would give a great view and would be ideal for this purpose.

For UK-based half-bakers, there is a tv program on at the moment which does exactly this idea. They show stuff like glaciers flowing, and rivers carving valleys. It's done with CGI, but it looks very realistic. It's narrated by that bloke from Newsnight, the one who's not Paxman.
spacemoggy, Aug 05 2004
  

       George Washington ordered concrete markers on the then boundaries of Washington, D.C.,. One is now in the parking lot of a Baptist Church in Alexandria. It would be fun to see a time lapse of the city growing up and dividing and the buildings going up and down but the technology, as stated would change too much to film it.   

       I like the computer simulations of such which seem to me to be accurate enough for my enjoyment. Give the historians the task of keeping it authentic.
dentworth, Aug 05 2004
  

       Likewise, an aircraft could fly a grid over a target and snap several shots to cover a large area. The pictures can be processed to find a shot that was taken in exactly the same spot as others before it. In this manner, an aerial view of a city expanding or something to that effect can be made.
destructionism, Aug 05 2004
  

       I heard something on the radio last month regarding a film maker who wants to do this.....
normzone, Aug 05 2004
  

       I think this would work best built into the tallest building in a city. Have the architects design a small room with a big fancy door on the top floor, engraved with a description of what's inside. A camera built to last (digital, no moving parts, etc.) points out a window aiming downward and takes a high quality picture every day.
Worldgineer, Aug 05 2004
  

       Cat-racts? Miaow.
spacemoggy, Aug 05 2004
  

       Great idea. Would evolve pretty quickly into the ultimate reality show, as hundreds of people had the same idea of chronicling their own lives and jostled for position in front of the camera at the 'shot time' each day.   

       Sort of like a fast forward "7 Up" documentary [link]
ConsulFlaminicus, Aug 06 2004
  

       A friend of mine kinda baked this for Radio 4 a few years ago, rushing through the history of the world in one hour. The 20th century lasted for about 15 seconds.
Fishrat, Aug 06 2004
  

       Did s/he use sound? That's odd.
Worldgineer, Aug 06 2004
  

       The UK is already littered with cameras that could do this (Linky).
egbert, Aug 06 2004
  

       //Did s/he use sound?// That's exactly what he did.   

       //That's odd.// Yes, it was.
Fishrat, Aug 08 2004
  

       This was practically done with the World Trade Center in NYC .... practically.
dpsyplc, Aug 08 2004
  

       Outstanding idea. Simple yet interesting.   

       Reminds me a bit of the Qyoanaasquaatski movies. Anyone?
django, Aug 17 2004
  

       [contracts] I was using the french translation. [bwv61] no, indeed not, but the idea of masses of people flowing through compact urban spaces, in a machinic way, vaguely has something to do with (the absence or compression of) time and repetition as we know it today. I think these movies revealed a very contemporary notion of lived time, which is no longer "chronologic" but more spaced out and no longer "progressive". I think MickZ's idea is based on a rather modernist notion of time.
django, Aug 17 2004
  

       Actually some avant garde films are a baked opposite of this idea. A two hour film feels like a hundred years.
energy guy, Aug 17 2004
  

       Generally that happens when the artist is either completely full of himself and needs every ego-stroking moment of music playing while we watch pretty much nothing happen or when the artist is lazy.

As for the idea things are changing so fast these days I'll honestly be surprised if the project is even possible. Back in the day a person saw maybe one major technological improvement in his lifetime. A new kind of spring on a carriage here, a different sluce gate there. Now a major improvement makes it to market, it seems like, every month. It's happening too fast for the old to die off and let the young get started on the new program.
Voice, Jul 15 2022
  

       // ...people had the same idea of chronicling their own lives and jostled for position in front of the camera //   

       It could be better if if you took many shots each day, but remove all moving objects. It takes some trickery because you want all the shadows to look like they were taken simultaneously, but I think I've seen composite photos like this showing a street completely empty, when in reality it is always busy.
scad mientist, Jul 17 2022
  
      
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