Sunday, August 14, 2011



I guess that the website can't really be called "undercrank" if I'm including slow motion video which would be overcranking the camera. This is some video that I took during Raleigh's 4th of July fireworks display at the state fairgrounds. I started with the idea of just getting a lot of close up shots during the 15 minute fireworks show but quickly realized that in just 5 minutes I had already recorded 20 minutes of 30fps video at 120fps. Being used to spending 30 minutes to get 10 seconds of time lapse video I was unaccustomed to being so unhurried to find the right framing for the video and had time to mess around a little bit.

I was using a Casio FH100 which is a little $200 point-and-shoot that has the ability to record 120fps at 480p, 240fps at 330p along with 480fps and 1000fps at resolutions that would only be useful for experimentation. I was actually very impressed with the picture quality that the camera put out, and it seemed to have a decent built in lens. I was pleasantly surprised to find that when I intentionally put the camera out of focus, the bokeh created by the sparks of the fireworks had a pleasant round shape due to the shape of the aperture of the lens when it is wide open.

Intrigued by this effect, I recorded the rest of my video out of focus. I think it helps focus more on the colors of the fireworks and makes the whole thing a little abstract. Unfortunately, everyone to whom I've shown this video has been bored to death. I still enjoy it though and will try to build on this if I have time to go out to the fair again this year to make another video.