To me that’s backwards! Humans, Autochthony, Earth, and a home for us all at the end of the Universe.

October 23, 2011 11:15 AM

Time lapse videos can be breathtaking, lovely, and a joy to watch… but they can also show you something you may not have thought about before. Before I even read the caption for Murray Fredericks’ video called "IRIDIUM", I knew it was filmed in the southern hemisphere. Can you guess how?

If you live in the northern hemisphere — and odds are very good that you do — then you may have noticed the motion of the Sun and stars looked a bit odd. For example, as you watch the Sun set at the beginning of the video, it does so at an angle moving from the upper right to the lower left. The stars do too. When they rise, they move from the lower right to the upper left
To me that’s backwards! VIA: BadAstronomy.

This short is part of a larger project, known as SALT (Artist statement, project description - PDF);
From apocalyptic red Martian-like landscapes to the surreal hypnotic beauty of a limitless sky reflected on the lakes surface. As Murray goes about his daily routine with discipline and attention, these surroundings convey a simple and emotional story.

One man, alone on the surface of the earth, in the middle of the universe.

Time-Lapse short produced at Lake Eyre in central Australia as part of the SALT project.
saltdoco.com
Cinematographer Murray Fredericks, Producer Michael Angus, Editor Lindi Harrison.
Music 'Iridium' by Aajinta - Dean Frenkel, Jason Day, Michelle John

posted by infinite intimation (14 comments total)

Beautiful.

One of my lifelong dreams is to travel the world making wonderful time lapse panoramas.
posted by Freen at 11:21 AM on October 23, 2011

From TFA: Hmph. It occurs to me that in the quote above, I assume the driver’s side of the car is on the left. Between writing that, and still feeling weird watching videos like IRIDIUM, I guess I still have lingering traces of northern hemisphere bias.

Last time I was there people were driving their cars from the passenger side in England too, which I'm pretty sure is in the northern hemisphere.

Also, I can't believe he neglected to mention that tropical cyclones spin the wrong way down there.
posted by localroger at 11:56 AM on October 23, 2011

Not to mind flushed toilets.

And, yet again, I get reminded that Google Earth for Linux is broken as I zipped in to look at Lake Eyre. Stupid fonts being all stupid corrupted.
posted by Samizdata at 12:26 PM on October 23, 2011

the caption or perhaps the constellations.
posted by b33j at 2:14 PM on October 23, 2011

Wow. I had tears in my eyes watching this.
posted by exhilaration at 2:22 PM on October 23, 2011

Beautiful indeed ...

Given the huge interest in making these time lapses, a company here in Japan has just brought out what they are calling a 'Recolo interval recorder' [Japanese site, but basically understandable]. It's a little camera with a control panel on the back that allows you to set intervals from 1 sec to 1 day, and once you set it firmly somewhere (it includes a little tripod) and turn it on, it will store the images in sequence as an .avi movie file.

It doesn't have anywhere near the image quality of the kind of camera used in the movie linked in this thread, but it's a fun way to get into the genre.
posted by woodblock100 at 3:25 PM on October 23, 2011

His other stuff is pretty cool- he's only got 10 videos on vimeo, and I could think of worse things to do with your procrastination time.
posted by titanium_geek at 5:23 PM on October 23, 2011

Oh! I also wanted to say: you must have super quick internet video loading capabilities, because reading the captions is what I do when waiting for the video to load!
posted by titanium_geek at 5:24 PM on October 23, 2011

I watched a screening of SALT on SBS a couple of years ago. I remember being so fascinated by the way he was affected by the isolation of being out there, alone, and with nothing to do but to lay in his tent whilst his cameras did their thing.
posted by Silverdragonanon at 6:01 PM on October 23, 2011

Just stunning work! So glad you posted these.
posted by leslies at 6:11 PM on October 23, 2011

Beautiful indeed. But.. as Doug Jones notes in the Bad Astronomy comments, five minutes or so in, the sun rises at lower left and moves to upper center/right. Furthermore, the camera angle is from north of the sun, which doesn't fit with the location of Lake Eyre, even in summer (it's roughly 28 degrees south). That bit's been flipped.
posted by Ahab at 10:16 PM on October 23, 2011

Stunning work! I love that such an 'empty' landscape can produce so much beauty and awe. It's also fascinating to read (on the saltdoco site) about how he works and how the environment affects him. Great find, thanks.
posted by {quick brown fox} at 2:36 AM on October 24, 2011

infinite intimation: "If you live in the northern hemisphere — and odds are very good that you do — then you may have noticed the motion of the Sun and stars looked a bit odd."

No, I didn't notice any of that - are there people who actually notice such things? My hat is off to you! I think the giveaway that this was filmed in the southern hemisphere was the Southern Cross whizzing by at around the 50 second mark.

Samizdata: "Not to mind flushed toilets."

Actually, that's not true. I know, my heart was crushed when I found out.
posted by falameufilho at 7:31 AM on October 24, 2011

Ah, I am not so observant (nor knowledgable to know by sight), that was quoting Bad Astronomer, who writes the Bad Astronomy blog, which is actually good astronomy... it's one of those "says one thing means the other" that kids these days love on the simpsons (who went a long way to propagating the toilet bad Coriolis effect [oh, neat, "science on the simpsons", maintained by Mr. Burns).
posted by infinite intimation at 9:01 AM on October 24, 2011