Eadweard Muybridge

He was an English Photographer who used multiple cameras to capture motion. In 1872 he was hired by Leland Stanford, the governor of California, to prove the assertion of "unsupported transit". This was whether all four of a horses legs left the ground at the same time, whilst galloping. Muybridge was able to prove that they did all leave the ground with a single negative, however not as previously thought. They did not leave the ground out stretched as in the paintings, but whilst tucked under the body of the horse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8X0sHS0g8A

Muybridge was able to capture this negative through the use of multiple stills cameras, which were lined up along the edge of the a race track. Each camera was then actuated by a taut string that was stretched across the race track and attached to the shutter. This was so when the horse went past it would tug on the string and the film would be exposed.

After Eadweard went on to take photos at the University of Pennsylvania. These pictures generally involved the study of people and true human form. Here he used a bank of cameras which usually surrounded a subject/s so that he could study them different POV's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjVaWaHCBxI

Eadweard also invented the Zooproxiscope, which projected images from a rotating glass disk in quick succession this gave the impression of motion.

http://www.kingston.gov.uk/browse/leisure/museum/museum_exhibitions/muybridge/machinery_and_equipment/zoopraxiscope.htm

What is it???

Bullet time is the registerd trade mark of warner bros.(Matrix's distrubitor) and refers to the digitally enhanced stimulation of variable speed photography used in films, adverts and even video games. Basically it is a type of slow motion or time lapse technique. However it allows the you to film imperceptible and un-filmable events, such as bullets. It also allows the point of view of the viewer to move around a scene at normal speed while the objects in the scene are slowed down.

Bullet time was originally achieved photographially by surrounding the subject with cameras. these would then take a pictures simulataneously or sequentially depending on the desired effect. the frames would then be arranged and displayed in sequence to create a orbiting viewpoint.
For many years, it has been possible to use computer vision techniques to create and render scenes with novel viewpoints sufficient enough for bullet time type effects. More recently, this has been formalised into what is none as free viewpoint television (FTV) which is bassically the live action version of bullet time.
Bullet time within the Matrix was pre-designed using CGI, which was then used as a guide to set up cameras on a track using laser targeting behind a green screen creating a complex curve through space. The cameras were then triggered at very close intervals from different viewpoints to create extreme slow motion. the frames were also scanned by a interpolation software to create even more frames to slow it down further and increase fluidity. They could also drop frames to speed up the action.

Getting Started

I have no clue how to go about reseaching this project, so... i'm just going to type 'Bullet Time' into google and find out what exactly it is.

One of the links that came up was wikipedia, which gave me a description of what bullet-time is and where the term comes from. It also gave me a historical background and a list of where the concept has been applied in film.

http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_slice_photography

So i'm going to use this as a base to start my Research.