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Using Time Lapse Photography as a Storytelling Device
By Kyser Lough
Journalism and Mass Communications Department
Murray State University
JMC 690 Comprehensive Project
May 2013
Dr. Debbie Owens
Mr. Wm. Gross Magee
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 2
Abstract
The rise of digital media use in the print journalism field has allowed members of the media to
explore new and innovative storytelling methods. One of these methods is time lapse video, in
which a series of images are taken over time and then assembled into a compressed video
version. A month-long construction of a building can be shown in minutes, giving the reader a
digestible format of the story. The author of this paper and accompanying video explores the
use of time lapse as a storytelling device through coverage of a basketball game at Murray State
University. With time lapse, the video is able to show more than just the game itself-- time
compression allows for much more to be explored in a reasonably consumable amount of time.
After editing, eight hours of pre-game, game and post-game activities were compressed into
just less than 5 minutes of video that was viewed online nearly 4,000 times. From this, it was
concluded that time lapse can be used effectively as a storytelling device for the media.
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 3
Introduction
Time lapse photography involves making a series of images over a length of time and then
playing them back in a compressed manner to show the passage of time over a shorter period.
This technique has been applied to many stories, including when photographers with the Los
Angeles Times set up cameras along the 12-mile route the Space Shuttle Endeavour took as it
was transported from the Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center.
Instead of covering the event with a series of still images or video clips, the photographers
chose to create a time lapse video that showcased the entire weekend journey (Chan, 2012).
The story of the shuttle being moved was enthralling enough on its own, but the use of time
lapse really made it stand out in a unique and appropriate way. With the newspaper having a
website full of multimedia capabilities, it wasn’t hard for the journalists to host the video and
showcase it. The traditional use of time lapse photography has been in an area where there is
almost infinite time and plenty of change to find-- Nature. A collection of videos on the BBC
website lists more than 50 time lapse videos of nature ranging from sunrises to emerging
flowers to a spider building its web (BBC). Urban landscapes also are a frequent time lapse
subject, as they showcase just as much motion and change over time. Cities from Kuala Lumpur
to Chicago to New York can be seen alive with motion through time lapse (Jaffe, 2012).
What the media, especially the staff at the LA Times, have done is take the method and apply it
to their own “nature,” the nature of news reporting. It fits the medium very well, since a
journalist’s role is to take a large amount of information and compress it down into something
the reader can consume and understand.
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 4
Time compression in news storytelling of any kind is even more critical in modern times where
audience attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted:
The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, warned news writers of the multitasking
and split-focus audience they are facing. She said, “today, it's rare to give anything our full
attention. Our focus is fragmented and diffused, whether we're conversing, eating, working,
minding our kids—or imbibing the news” (Jackson, 2008, p. 26). She goes on to cite an
Associated Press study that showed the news consumption of 18- to 34-year-olds was “shallow
and erratic” (Jackson, 2008, p. 27).
This information not only reinforced the idea of using time lapse to compress a larger story into
one that might interest a larger audience but also showed the importance of how the time
lapse itself needs to be brief and entertaining to hold the attention of the audience throughout.
I propose that as the media transitions into more of a multimedia emphasis, time lapse can be
an effective tool to tell a story in the mass media.
Research Steps
After deciding to further explore the use of time lapse in the media, I began searching for more
examples and found two more storytelling time lapses-- one of a thanksgiving parade and one
of a men’s basketball game (Islam & McLendon, 2012; White, 2010). The basketball video
intrigued me the most because I had already created a single-camera time lapse at a Murray
State University men’s basketball game (Lough, Time-lapse: Murray State basketball game- raw
video, 2011). It was very simple, and the raw video was only interesting if the viewer had the
attention span to sit through it all. This indicated a barrier and a key point to keep in mind when
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 5
attempting to tell a story through time lapse. The “gimmick” of the sped-up time is not enough
to hold an audience, it has to behave just like any other print or photo story. It has to have a
beginning, middle and end and draw the viewer in. Otherwise, the audience will lose interest
and move on since in modern news consumption “tuning in and out is a way of life” (Jackson,
2008, p. 26).
A shorter time lapse I had created of a woman painting a picture came closer to this storytelling
goal, as she was painting a portrait of her niece for her sister. The video also lasted much
shorter than the game and, while it told a story, the story was very short (Lough, Painting Time
Lapse, 2010). This indicated the length of the story also had to be long enough to tell a
complete story and not act as simply a standalone, as a feature photo may behave.
Preparation of scenes and equipment
I decided to create a storytelling time lapse centered on a basketball game at the CFSB Center
in Murray, KY. But to tell the story completely, it would need to be more than just a single
camera that recorded the game. Through correspondence with staff members involved in game
day logistics, I compiled an outline and rough idea of what all went into a game, as seen in
Table 1. It would begin at 4 p.m. as the ESPN camera crews loaded in equipment and would end
at midnight when the last cleaning crews packed up and the lights were turned off. Mixed in
would be concession stand preparations, marketing promotions placed on the seats, fans
arriving, the team warming up, the game itself and all that surround it and then everyone
leaving and cleaning up.
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 6
Image ©GoPro
Figure
1: GoPro HD Hero2 camera, the model used to
capture the time lapse.
For equipment, I chose to rent ten GoPro HD
Hero2 cameras as they allowed for custom
settings and consistency from one camera to the
next. Each camera rental cost $28, and the total
order, including shipping, insurance and tax,
totaled $375.24. The cameras also had numerous
mounting apparatus and a small profile, so I could
place them in a variety of locations. They were all
set to record one full-resolution image every five
seconds onto a 32 Gigabyte SD card (the largest size the camera could hold), resulting in just
more than 49,000 images total (GoPro, 2011). I purchased ten class-4 SD cards at approximately
$30 apiece so I could retain the original files on them for backup purposes. Video editing would
be done on a Sony Vaio laptop running two programs. First, the GoPro Cineform Studio,
proprietary software that takes the still images and assembles them into video. Second, Sony
Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11, a video-editing software that allows the user to import
and edit video, still photos and audio. It also allows the user to add text elements.
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 7
Table 1
Timeline of activities to cover during time lapse filming
Activity
Location
Appx. Time
ESPN crews loading in
Loading dock
4 p.m.
Early team shootaround
Court
4:30 p.m.
Marketing department setup
Stands, lower level
5 p.m.
Team meetings
Locker room
5 p.m.
Concession stand preparation
Concession Stand B
5:30 p.m.
Marketing inflates arch
Player entrance to court
6 p.m.
Team warmups
Court
6 p.m.
Fans arriving (interior)
CFSB Center entrance B
6 p.m.
Fans filling stands
Stands, lower level (viewable from courtside)
6 p.m.
Final team meeting
Locker room
6:30 p.m.
National Anthem
Stands (viewable from catwalk)
6:55 p.m.
Player introductions
Court
6:55 p.m.
First half
Court (multiple camera views)
7 p.m.
Halftime
Locker room, court
8 p.m.
Second half
Court (multiple camera views)
8:20 p.m.
Media coverage
ESPN cameras, print media table
8:40 p.m.
Fans exiting arena
Stands (multiple camera views)
9:30 p.m.
Concession stand closing
Concession stand
9:30 p.m.
Cars leaving parking lot
Parking lots (viewable from Stewart Stadium)
9:45 p.m.
ESPN crews loading out
Loading dock
10 p.m.
Cleanup crews
Stands (multiple camera views)
10 p.m.
Final shot
Exterior (viewable from Stewart Stadium
12 a.m.
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 8
Game Day
On Thursday, February 7, 2013 I staged the project. With proper access granted from the Media
Relations professional for Murray State basketball, I was able to place cameras in many
locations, as seen in Figure 2.
With a clear, mapped-out schedule of what I would be capturing and when, the event itself was
rather smooth to capture. This included reminders to check batteries or change cameras or
even just make sure everything was still rolling. An advantage of the time lapse process is
skipping an image or two while a battery is changed will fly by so fast in the final product that it
won’t really be apparent.
Six of the ten cameras were powered through USB adapters and did not need to be checked,
but the other four had to have batteries changed out throughout the event. All of the memory
cards were sufficient to capture enough images without filling up, but just barely. The decision
to use full-resolution images captures every five seconds was largely based on whether or not
they would all fit onto a memory card.
I attracted a little bit of attention, mainly from media members including a cameraman for
ESPN who gave me the idea to put cameras on the media themselves.
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 9
Base Image ©Murray State University
Figure 2: Approximate placement of cameras during time lapse (see legend below)
1. Outside the facility to capture the cars arriving and sunset
2. Inside the “ready room,” where the athletes met before and after the game to discuss
strategy with the coach
3. Inside one concession stand
4. Along the catwalk that runs close to the ceiling
5. Behind one of the glass backboards, facing the court
6. Behind the ESPN camera crew to capture their work
7. Courtside, on a media table
8. On a goalpost, facing the student section
9. Roaming at various locations, such as the main entrance
10. Roaming at various locations, such as by the player entrance arch
----Indicates camera placement
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 10
Assembly of video
The real challenge came after the event, when I had nearly 50,000 images to assemble into a
concise, packaged video. This is where the story had to emerge. Thankfully, the event itself had
a beginning, middle and end so I started there. Once the events were laid out, they needed to
be cut down. With so many different shots and angles, it was possible to keep interest flowing
by cutting from one clip to another instead of lingering too long on one scene. Where my
previous efforts involved just one camera, this gave me flexibility to keep the story fresh and
varied.
Another challenge was audio. The cameras only captured still images, no audio was included. A
narrator would have been a good way to explain what was going on, but I wanted the images to
stand for themselves. Therefore, I chose to use stock music with the occasional overlay of
ambient game audio I captured using the Voice Recorder app on my iPhone 5. Some narration
was provided through on-screen text, but I tried to keep it minimal.
From my previous videos, I knew it was going to be tough to show the actual game action.
When players are moving swiftly up and down the court, a photo every 5 seconds isn’t going to
really give a feel for the action. As I was assembling the video, I decided to insert several still
shots of the game to help drive the story and add impact. I used panning effects to add motion
to the images so they weren’t just static. Panning and zooming were also applied to the time
lapse clips themselves for the same reason.
A challenge that did not appear until afterwards, at least in my mind, was font and text choices.
Using the default font in the Vegas software, I added several text overlays during the video that
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 11
helped the viewer understand what was going on. Surprisingly, a lot of feedback came back
negative to the font choice. In looking back, it would have taken little time to select a font
instead of going with the default and would have added a more professional look.
Distribution and Response
The video was completed three weeks after the event, which was longer than anticipated. In a
news setting, it would need to be completed much quicker. However, it gave me sufficient time
to “tease” the video, as a media outlet might do, and put out updates on social media to try and
gather interest. In looking at myself as the media outlet, I viewed my friends as the subscribers
and their friends as the remaining population, the non-readers. The goal was to not only impact
the subscriber base but also stretch out into the non-readers. If a story is compelling enough,
then readers will want to share it with others.
I uploaded the final video to YouTube and Vimeo on February 25, 2013, and posted the links
out on my personal Facebook and Twitter pages. To my surprise, it racked up 1,000 views total
in the first 24 hours and 2,000 total views in the first 48 hours, as seen in Figure 3. More
importantly, through geographical analytics I was able to find the video shared with the “non-
reader” population. On YouTube, a map showed viewers were coming in from all across the
world, including places where I am certain I know no-one. GoPro, the manufacturer of the
cameras I rented, sent my video out in a tweet to their followers, as did BorrowLenses, the
company I rented from. While this might not be a specific goal of a media outlet, it is a way to
spread the message to a broader audience. Even despite the attempt to keep the time short to
hold attention span, I noted the average view duration never came close to even four minutes,
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 12
as seen in Table 2 and Figure 3. That was disappointing but fit the parameters of Jackson’s
studies of short attention spans (2008). The traffic sources varied, which helped show how the
video spread after my initial post. Viewers came from many different locations, and the video
had been shared in a variety of ways, as seen in Table 2.
Table 2 YouTube referral source for time lapse video, first 30 days
Traffic source
Views
Average view duration
Mobile apps and direct traffic (unknown sources)
1,654 (43.5%)
2:52
Embedded player (unknown sources)
833 (21.9%)
3:11
Homepage feeds and subscriptions
629 (16.5%)
2:09
External website
542 (14.3%)
2:32
YouTube search
53 (1.4%)
3:08
YouTube channel page
38 (1.0%)
1:41
YouTube suggested video
38 (1.0%)
2:10
YouTube – other features
13 (0.3%)
0:31
Google search
1 (0.0%)
4:40
Figure 3: YouTube statistics of time lapse video, first 30 days
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Views
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 13
The true moment I realized my proposal of time lapse as an effective storytelling medium may
be correct was when I was approached during the OVC Tournament in Nashville in early March,
2013. One of my former classmates works at a rival school and told me he saw my video and
went down the hallway to tell his boss about it-- but his boss had already seen it. I met his boss
for the first time there in Nashville, so for her to see it meant the video had spread enough to
reach those “non-readers.”
To those who provided feedback to me, I always asked “did you watch it the whole way
through?” and “did you think it told a full story?” and for the most part heard “yes” on both
counts. Many said they weren’t previously aware of how much goes into a basketball game,
and pointed out their favorite behind-the-scenes moments, which included the coach talking to
the players in the ready room, the concession stand workers stocking the stand, the marketing
team placing t-shirts on the bleachers or inflating the player entrance arch.
Conclusion
From start to finish, this was a very intense project that took more time and energy than
anticipated. I knew it was going to be a big undertaking but definitely did not think the post-
shoot work would be as in-depth. However, the final product appeared to showcase a full story
of game day at Murray State University, and because of that and the other examples
mentioned I believe time lapse can be an effective medium to tell a story in the mass media.
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 14
References
BBC. (n.d.). Timelapse photography: speeding up life. Retrieved April 21, 2013, from BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/collections/p0085nk0
Chan, B. (2012, October 15). Time-Lapse video: Space Shuttle Endeavour's trek across L.A. Retrieved
November 24, 2012, from The Los Angeles Times:
http://framework.latimes.com/2012/10/15/time-lapse-video-space-shuttle-endeavours-trek-
across-l-a/
GoPro. (2011). HD Hero2 User Manual + Warrany Info. San Mateo: GoPro.
Islam, A., & McLendon, R. (2012, November 23). I love a fast parade. Retrieved November 24, 2012,
from The Daily: http://www.thedaily.com/article/2012/11/22/112312-news-thanksgiving-
parade-timelapse-video-article/
Jackson, M. (2008, Winter). Distracted: The news news world and the fate of attention. Nieman Reports,
pp. 26-27.
Jaffe, E. (2012, December 28). The Best City Time-Lapse Videos of 2012. Retrieved from The Atlantic
Cities: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/12/best-city-time-lapse-videos-
2012/4271/
Laird, C. (2009, January 11). Basketball Time Lapse Photography. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/2790321
Lough, K. (2010, November 28). Painting Time Lapse. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from YouTube:
https://vimeo.com/56305676
Lough, K. (2011, February 19). Time-lapse: Murray State basketball game- raw video. Retrieved
November 24, 2012, from Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/20970573
Lough, K. (2012, January 3). Sunset timelapse 01-03-12. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/34541795
White, B. (2010, April 12). 2009-10 KU Men's Basketball Time Lapse. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/10887007
Video links to time lapse:
http://goo.gl/eUmip
-or-
http://goo.gl/Xu636
USING TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A STORYTELLING DEVICE 15
Appendix
YouTube statistics of time lapse video, first 30 days
Date
Views
Estimated minutes watched
Average view duration
25-Feb-13
803
2,780
3:27
26-Feb-13
1,045
3,177
3:02
27-Feb-13
272
716
2:38
28-Feb-13
169
412
2:26
1-Mar-13
501
1,112
2:13
2-Mar-13
228
574
2:31
3-Mar-13
189
455
2:24
4-Mar-13
138
285
2:04
5-Mar-13
112
265
2:22
6-Mar-13
62
118
1:54
7-Mar-13
39
90
2:18
8-Mar-13
17
44
2:38
9-Mar-13
24
45
1:53
10-Mar-13
15
31
2:07
11-Mar-13
25
41
1:40
12-Mar-13
14
24
1:43
13-Mar-13
15
24
1:39
14-Mar-13
10
18
1:48
15-Mar-13
27
33
1:15
16-Mar-13
6
15
2:34
17-Mar-13
14
21
1:31
18-Mar-13
15
28
1:55
19-Mar-13
10
5
0:35
20-Mar-13
10
20
2:04
21-Mar-13
11
27
2:28
22-Mar-13
9
15
1:41
23-Mar-13
3
2
0:49
24-Mar-13
3
4
1:30
25-Mar-13
7
22
3:11
26-Mar-13
8
23
2:59
