Undokai Timelapse

September 11th, 2009
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We had the seasonal fall undokai (運動会, or Sports Day) at school on Wednesday, and I grabbed a golden opportunity. I asked for permission to shoot a timelapse video from the 3rd floor of the school building nearest the athletic grounds. When I had secured permission, I asked if I could borrow a tripod from the school and they found one. (Mine is currently living elsewhere and I’m attempting to purchase a Gorilla pod to replace it anyway.)

On the morning of the event I placed the camera and started recording just after the morning staff meeting. I locked the classroom door and left the camera to slowly capture one frame every ten seconds. After we finished cleaning up and before the post-event celebratory drinking party, I went back to stop the recording and retrieve the camera. I was more than pleased with the results. What do you think? Cool, right?

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Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Video

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  • Christina
    Man, your school has some nice background scenery there!
  • Yes, indeed. That's the gorgeous Funaori Seto area of the inland sea that
    you're looking at. As you can see, it's pretty high traffic and it has some
    strong currents. (Strong currents gave it the name, actually. Funaori is 船折
    in Japanese, and translates roughly to "boat folding.") It is a wonderful
    place to live. I'm lucky that the athletic grounds are out on the water like
    that, huh?
  • Christina
    Definitely lucky. I am, sadly, not living in such a beautiful part of Japan, unless you have a particular fondness for steel mills and other factories. There are some nice parks around, at least.
  • We've got shipbuilding factories and salt factories, but I just happen to
    live on the other side of the island from most of them. Whereabouts do you
    live in Japan?
  • Christina
    Kitakyushu, famous for being cloudy and hence not getting nuclear-bombed (well, Kokura is, at least). Kyushu is awesome! (completely sincere)
  • Christina
    Also, being a Kyushu person, it took me far too long to realize that your Hakata was not the Hakata I was thinking of.
  • Yeah - that's pretty common. I should have thought about it before I chose the site name, huh? I get loads of people thinking I'm in 博多, when I'm actually on 伯方島. We're famous for salt....that doesn't actually come from here. Ha ha ha.
  • how cool!!!! :D I wish I could do this at my undokai... sadly I don't have the proper camera :(
  • Hey there! Welcome to the blog and thanks for commenting. Just make sure
    that if you take any videos or photos at your undokai that you protect the
    school and students' privacy and watch what you put on the internet. After
    all, they are minors, and it's not cool for anyone other than their
    guardians to publish their images without permission. I'm not being
    accusatory at all, by the way - just passing along a friendly responsible
    suggestion. (I'm a PA now, so these kind of things leap to the front of my
    mind more often than previously. Ha ha - forgive me if it came off
    condescendingly or anything. It wasn't!) PS - Nice blog!
  • Awesome video man! How long did it take to edit all the pictures together??
  • That's the best part! My camera records in timelapse mode, so I don't have to put the pics together manually. It's an automagical "set it and forget it" type thing.
  • Tom
    Good stuff! Ah, it would be nice to have a camera that can shoot time lapse. What kind do you have Deas? Was it something that cost anything extra?
  • It's a Panasonic HDC-TM300 video recorder.
  • This may sound weird, but as I was watching this video I realized a strange appreciation for life and how much we take for granted. The liners passing through the narrow water ways, the people moving about with such energy. The sky. Wonderful.
  • That is a really wonderful compliment. I'm glad that the video brought that
    thought out. Thanks for sharing it!
  • great video, I kept watching the ships in the bay!
  • Thanks for the compliment! I like watching the ships, too.
  • Chimiko
    Stupid question... But how did you know your camera wouldn't be stolen if it was "set it and forget it"?
  • Good question! I locked it in a classroom for nine hours. You need a
    security card to get in.
  • Chimiko
    Okay... That was totally my fault for not reading the post careful. Thanks for answering.
  • gregontherun
    Very nice, Deas! I think I watched more of the ships coming and going then I did the athletic grounds.
  • Thanks, Greg. I think that's true for a lot of people! I know I kept
    watching the ships and the movement of the water at the beginning. It's
    cool!
  • I love the boats.
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