4K Time Lapse Videos With The Panasonic HC-X1
Crystal City Arlington
I spent a few days in Crystal City, a busy area just across the river from Washington, D.C. While I was shooting lots of B-Roll I wanted to make sure I also spent time getting a bunch of time lapse shots in a crowded city setting. I wanted to share a few things from my shoot (you can see the best shots in the video below).
The Panasonic HC-X1 has a cool 4k Time lapse feature. And the good part about shooting in 4K is that when you transfer it into a 1080 video, you can zoom and pan and tilt and do all sorts of stuff without losing any video quality.
HOW TO 4K TIME LAPSE ON THE PANASONIC HC-X1
For all of the daytime shots, I was out around lunch time when the streets were the most crowded. This also meant that I was clearly visible with my big rig of a camera. When you look like a pro, people come up to you and try to get on camera, and others get upset because they think you are filming them specifically, so keep in mind people will approach you.
One of the keys to these time lapses was setting up the scene. I didn't just put the camera anywhere on the street. I tried to frame different things. The idea was if a still image looked good, then a time lapse would look good.
Another key to time lapse with the HC-X1 in particular is keeping the camera out of the way of people. The tripod legs have to be fairly wide for stability and the camera is big. Don't set up in the middle of the sidewalk and have people walk around. Find an area where people aren't walking, like next to a tree, or behind a sign and try to get your shot that way. The sign in the image below was a great "people blocker" and set the scene for the time lapse giving it a title "Crafts Market".
The other thing I do when doing shots like these is I stand around looking at my phone. Looking busy. Looking like I'm just waiting. In a time lapse video you can't see anyone's face, but they all walk by thinking they are going to be on video, so I don't like to draw attention.
Once all the day shots were accomplished I decided to go back at night. There were lots of lights as well as a summer concert, so I knew I'd have some cool shots. I never realized however how beautiful night time lapses look on the camera. The low shutter speed means you can get bright night shots, shots you can't get using the camera at night in regular mode.
At an event people are more comfortable with cameras around. So people were very friendly to me. However at 1 point a security guard asked what I was doing. I said I'm filming the city lights for YouTube (the truth) and that I'm not filming people (the truth). I asked if that was allowed, and he just walked away and said nothing. Then he looked at me from behind a pole. I was sketched out so I kept moving.
I like to always keep moving whenever I'm shooting any video. Time lapse. B-Roll. Anything. Once you are in place for a while, people get weirded out.
Anyways, so that was the story of my time lapse adventure in Crystal City. I think the shots looked pretty awesome. What did you think? Let me know in the comments.