Critical Evaluation

The Central Question to my research was, "Where did 'Bullet Time' come from and how has it developed?", therefore I needed to start by finding what exactly 'Bullet Time' was. To do this I began my research online.

I did this by using a search engine and typed the words “Bullet Time” into it. It then showed me over 28.000.000 results which related to my search, the top one being a Wikipedia page, 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. However it is common knowledge that you can not take everything on a Wikipedia page for fact as the information is collated and edited by its users therefore the information may not be true. That meant I would use the information found as a basis for my research.

One name that came up on the Wikipedia page for being the forefather of the “bullet time” technique of Time slicing was Eadweard Muybridge. I then typed his name into ‘Google Books’ to find out whether he had written any books about how he took the famous horse photograph. It turned out he had, the book was called ‘Animals in Motion’ written by Eadweard Muybridge himself. In the book he explains how he settled the argument “unsupported transit” (whether all four of horse’s legs leave the ground at the same time while galloping). In the book he gives detailed explanations of how he went about capturing the negatives used to prove the theory. This method research I believe is more trustworthy than using Wikipedia as you can be more certain that it is the author’s words and hasn’t been changed by someone else over time. Therefore if Eadweard Muybridge wrote this in 1957 then you can be assured it will be the same words here in 2010.

I then sought to find out how it had been developed between Muybridge and the Matrix. I did this by looking at the list of examples on the Wikipedia page and tried to find them using Search engines and the Video sharing site YouTube.com. This turned out to be extremely successful way of researching how “bullet Time” had developed, because even the clips had been made years before the internet was invented, someone somewhere had uploaded it on to the internet. Using the clips I was then able to ascertain how technology and the techniques progressed over time. I also started to see the same names popping up over and over again. The most prominent would be Michel Gondry who directed many music videos and adverts during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. I then used an internet search engine to find out his background. A site that caught my eye was Director-file.com which gave me a biography as well as an interview with Michel, which gave me information on his influences. Again I think interviews are generally a trust worthy research method as they are actually words that the person said, however it has been known that some magazines/internet sites make up interviews for an array of different reasons. This meant I couldn’t rely purely on this website. So I went back to the search engine and found another site which I could then verify the facts. This site was IMDb.com which is an extremely reliable site when it comes to movie related information.

I then decided to look directly at the ‘Matrix’ as this was the film which first coined the term “Bullet time” I did this again by searching on the IMDb site as I knew it would be able to give the information of who worked on the film as well as information about plot, awards, reviews, ect. This helped me to find out who was responsible for the special effects on the film. This turned out to be John Gaeta. I then looked to see if I could find out where he got his inspiration for the visual effects from, I found this in an article on the CGsociety’s website. Here he mentions a guy called Paul Debevec, “Gaeta knew what he wanted to do – not just create virtual backgrounds as had Paul Debevec for his film “The Campanile Movie,” which had inspired him”. Therefore I decided to find out what Paul Debevec’s technique was. I did this by again typing his name into a Search engine and his website was the top result. This enabled me to get accurate information about how Debevec created his film and how it was relayed in to the matrix. This was because it was his official website therefore I could relatively sure that it was trustworthy.

Though this information was helpful in telling me how the realistic backgrounds were created, as they were filming a studio, it didn’t help me work out how they were able to create a virtual camera that could travel through a scene. In fact stumbled through this while searching through videos on YouTube for different examples of how bullet time has been used. I found that a vast majority were being uploaded by a single user so I decided to look at their channel. Here I found a link to a website for a production company that specialises in the “bullet time” technique. Therefore I decided to look for contact details. I then rang the company up so that I could find out what techniques they used to capture. I got through to a technician who explained that they used a rig that used a mixture of still and motion cameras, which I replied “just like the matrix?” which is when he went on to tell me that the matrix used their founders technique a rig set up. Their founder, Tim Macmillan, incidentally is believed to be the creator of the ‘Time Slicing’ technique. So I decided to do some research into how he came up with the idea, which I found on the Duckspool photography website. No w that I had found out how the effect had been created a developed up to the ‘Matrix’ I wanted to find how it was going to develop into the future. I did this again by looking at websites and using Wikipedia for guidance.

What I have learnt from this Project is that not all research methods are necessarily trustworthy and that may also need to use more than one form of research to find out all the relevant information. For example the use of sites such as Wikipedia should be used with caution if at all as the information on such site can be corrupt. Therefore I should have probably not used Wikipedia as much as I did to start off with, though it did help to steer me in the right directions. YouTube was a great tool as it helped me to see examples of how the effect was used in films and how it developed and became slicker over time. I could have strengthened my research by adding a practical side; this may have in turn increased my understanding of how it worked. However this proved to it would be too costly and I was unable to find the right equipment. Also if I had found TimeSliceFilms earlier in my research I would have loved to have tried to get a placement with them.

Bibliography

• Muybridge, E.(1957), ‘Animals in Motion’, London: Dover Publications.

Filmography

Film

 Zotz! (1962), rooftop fight including "slow-motion" dodging of a pistol bullet[7]
 "Wink of an Eye" (196? episode of the original Star Trek television series) is entirely based on bullet-time: The villains exist exclusively in hyperspeed and attempt to utilize it to take over the starshipUSS Enterprise and her crew.
 The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), Inspector Clouseau practices kung-fu with Cato in slow motion
 Trancers (also known as Future Cop, 1984), features two slow motion scenes involving Jack Deth's actions. One of them involves him saving Helen Hunt's character from being shot.
 Buffalo '66 (1998)
 Lost in Space (1998), features a scene similar to bullet-time: When ship enters hyperspace, all the action freezes, but the point of view moves slightly in an arc.
 Wing Commander (1999), performed poorly at the box office, though the trailer gained some notice for its inclusion of the film's bullet-time scene, showing people, and a spilling cup of liquid, captured in mid-air.
 Titus (1999), contains a simple bullet-time scene near the end, as Lucius kills Emperor Saturninus
 Michael Jordan to the Max, in the opening sequence of this IMAX documentary, Michael Jordan executes a slam dunk in bullet-time while practicing at the United Center.
 Swordfish (2001), opens with a scene where an exploding claymore-like bomb propels steel ball bearings across a city street. The virtual camera dollies parallel to the street as the carnage unfolds.

Television

 Speed Racer (1967-8), opening sequence
 Super Bowl XXXV (?), CBS employed a system of cameras that allowed for bullet-time-like effects on its broadcast. This system proved to be the difference in upholding a replay challenge on a Jamal Lewis fourth quarter touchdown by showing that he clearly broke the plane of the end zone. The bullet time was accomplished using cameras only, without any computer interpolating.
 Futurama episode "Three Hundred Big Boys" (?), the animated series features a scene in which Fry enters a state of hyperspeed after consuming one hundred cups of coffee. In this state, he is able to observe individual wingbeats of a hummingbird.
 The Fairly OddParents (season 1) episode "Power Mad!" (?), Timmy, in his video game, was attacked by ninja bunnies which throw carrots and it is in bullet time. Also in The Fairly OddParents: Wishology (?), Timmy was in a spoof on the Matrix with some bullet time.
 Angel (2003+), select episodes following Season 4's "Home" (4x21) have featured stylized bullet-time action sequences.
 Smallville (?), many episodes use bullet time
 Jimmy Neutron episode "Maximum Hugh" (?), Jimmy's Dad consumes marshmallows while in slow motion, bending backwards when Jimmy throws them at him, recreating a key bullet time scene from The Matrix.
 2007 NBA All-Star Dunk Contest (2007), replays of the dunks were shown in bullet time, so while the dunk contest participants are in mid-air, the camera goes around them and then slam dunked the ball.
 American Dragon: Jake Long episode "The Hong Kong Longs" (?), during a 1972 flashback scene, Fu Dog jumps almost to the roof, and then the camera pans around the room while Fu is frozen in mid-air.

Music videos

 Accept's "Midnight Mover" (1985)
 Suede's "The Wild Ones" (1994)[8][9]
 Bjork's "Army of Me" (1995)[10]
 The Rolling Stones' "Like a Rolling Stone" (1995)[11]
 Sting's "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot" (1996)[12]
 Smoke City's "Underwater Love" (1996)[13]
 Alan Jackson's "Little Bitty" (1996)
 Coolio's "C U When U Get There" (1996)
 Meat Beat Manifesto's "Helter Skelter '97" (1997)
 Van Halen's "Without You" (1998)
 Garbage's "Push it" (1998)
 "Guilty Conscience"'s music video (from The Slim Shady LP) features Dr. Dre and Eminem speaking as good and evil consciences to three different men frozen in bullet time
 Korn's "Freak On A Leash" (1998)

Webography
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_time
• http://www.timeslicefilms.com/#1
• http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4564&page=2
• http://www.debevec.org/Campanile/
• http://www.duckspool.com/duckspool/tutors/tim_macmillan/tim_macmillan_main.htm
• http://www.imdb.com/
• http://www.youtube.com/
• http://books.google.com/

Timeslicefilms Live-to-air rig

http://www.youtube.com/user/timeslicefilms#p/a/f/0/HVw74P__GFU

This is a video of Timeslicefilm's new rig which allows them to record "bullet time" effect and process it instantly so that it can be viewed more or less straight away.

Free Viewpoint Television

FTV allows the viewer to control the viewpoint and generate new views of a dynamic scene. This means the focus of attention can be controlled by viewers rather than the director or film maker. However this could ruin dramatic suspense caused by not being able to see the whole picture.

Professor Masayuki Tonimoto, who is a researcher in Japan has been promoting the use of Free Viewpoint Television with his technique of Ray Space Representation. Which is a development of Paul Debevec's 3D image Modelling and rendering techniques.

"This method allows it to render virtual views from arbitrary positions without any geometry information. Furthermore the generated image is photo-realistic."

However this is not the only way to create FTV.

How is it created?

1. Firstly cameras are placed around a subject, be it in a studio or a sports stadium.
2. The data from each of the cameras is the collated into a single codec, none as MVV (Multiview Video) which is then compressed so that it can be sent to the viewing device.
3. The users viewing device then uses the codec to access the relevant views so that new views can interpolated.
4. The new footage (which is a mixture of original footage and interpolated images) is then viewed on either a 2D or 3D display.

I believe that this form of viewing television will break into the mainstream, as i don't think it is suitable for viewing or capturing Drama or soaps. However i do see it being used to capture and view live events, such as; Sporting coverage or Music concerts. It could also find it's way into CCTV.

How bullet time was created in the Matrix

John Gaeta used a mixture of techniques to create the final product that is "Bullet time".

• Firstly each of the "bullet-time" sequences were filmed in a Studio in Australia using Green Screens

• The object (usually an actor) was then surrounded by an array of Still and motion cameras. this is the technique developed by Tim Macmillan. Each still camera took a single frame, either at the same moment or in sequential order. This depended on the desired effect. The Motion cameras were used to record the moments leading up to and after the "bullet time" moment, to give fluidity when moving in and out of the effect.

• Image Interpolation was also used to create extra frames so that they could slow down and speed up the action or the speed in which they panned round an object. This was so that they could have more control over how they edited the footage, while maintaining a high level of quality.

• To create the background to the scenes, they used Paul Debevec's technique of 3D image Modelling and Rendering. They did this by taking photos of the locations they wanted to use, For example the Rooftop locations of Sydney, Australia.

The Finished Product....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXAXyuShGUo&feature=related

Paul Debevec

Debevec was a researcher in Computer Graphics at the University of Southern California. He is Known for his work in high Dynamic range imaging and [more importantly to "bullet-time"] Image-based Modelling and Rendering.

In 1996, his research thesis was in Photogrammetry. This is where the 3D shape of an object could be collected from a group of stills taken from different angles. This lead to him embarking on a task in 1997 where he created a "Bullet-time" style flyby of UC Berkeley's famous Campanile tower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPhGEiM_6lM

This was created by firstly taking pictures of the tower and the surrounding area from all sorts of angles. These were then in-putted into Debevec's Image Rendering software. This then created a 3D model which was then rendered and added to real video footage.

Many of the team that created the Campanile film went on to work on the matrix film, including Paul Debevec himself. this technique was used to create the rooftop backgrounds of many of the "bullet-time" scenes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhxbYTMNMxo&feature=related

John Gaeta was quoted saying...

"Once I saw Debevec's movie, I knew that was the path"

Michel Gondry

Michel is a French film-maker who is noted for his innovative visual style. He began by producing music videos for his band 'Oui Oui', this then caught the attention of the artist Bjork and he was ask to direct many of her videos. This included 'Army of me' which used the techniques which were a predecessor to "bullet time"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyEJxzQM24Q

This technique is called View morphing, where you set a single camera around a static object and then morph the two together. Image morphing techniques can generate compelling 2D transitions between images. This works on the same principles Image Interpolation works on the matrix films by creating more frames between the ones you were able to capture.

Michel also used this view morphing in the 1998 Smirnoff Vodka advert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vj4jppqwkw&feature=PlayList&p=5FE358E3F43BADBC&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=52

This is where it is believed the whole idea for "Bullet time" came from. In the advert there are many instances where the technique is used. the most notable is at the beginning where the man jumps through the air and time appears to stop.

By the this time I believe Michel had moved on to using more than one camera in his set up, though still using the technique of View Morphing.

Tim Macmillan

The inventor of the time slicing technique of using Multiple cameras on a single rig. The first was devised in 1980 when he was in University and wanted to try and find how to take a photo of an object from different angles at the same instant in time.

His first "camera" consisted of;

• A length of 16mm film negative
• Above this he placed clear perspex spacers in order to give focal length
• Above the spacers he placed a length of opaque cinematic 16mm tape (with a pin hole drilled into each frame)
• A simple shutter was then placed over as a way of exposing the tape.

The result was a perpendicular tracking shot through space and time. A PARADOX!Since this rudimentary and low cost way of getting the desired effect, he has since developed his rigs. These now consist of an array of Still and motion cameras, which can be set in virtually any formation to get the desired effect. Macmillan's favourite being;

• Linear, which is where all the cameras track across the scene, providing a nice way of revealing elements over the duration of the scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZZy-ujf528

• Converged Linear, which provides a perfect way of spanning large areas, going big on the camera move whilst fixating on a certain points of action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGBk9Wxxjqw

• Curved, this provides the greatest amount of rotation around a subject, a-la Matrix style

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUBvt98uTTQ

Each of these video clips are work by Timeslicefilms, which was founded by Tim Macmillan. They are currently the leading production company that deal with "Bullet Time" capturing techniques.

http://www.timeslicefilms.com/#1

The Matrix

'The Matrix' (1999, dir. Larry and Andy Wachowski) was where the term 'Bullet time' was really made famous and where the way the concept was significantly developed.
'The Matrix' is a 1999 science fiction-action film starring Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne, Carrie-anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano and Hugo Weaving. It was released on March 31, 1999 in the USA and was the first installment in a very succesfull trilogy. It was Distrubted by Warner Bros and made a Gross Revenue 0f $463,517,383 from a Budget of $65million.

Plot Summary:

Thomas A. Anderson is a man living to lives, by day a boring computer techie and by night a computer hacker known as Neo. Neo had always questioned his own reality however the truth was far beyond his imagination. He then learns that he is being tracked by the police and is then contacted by a legendary hacker known a Morpheus, eho then awakens him to the real world.

Visual Effects

The Visual Effect Supervisor of 'the Matrix' was John Gaeta, who started the Research and testing for the film in 1996, while also working on the film 'What Dreams may come'(1998) which won an Oscar for it's visual effects. He Also won a BAFTA and an Academy Award for his work on the first Matrix film, along with various Visual effect Awards for the other films in the trilogy.
In 2000, after inital success of the original 'Matrix' film, Gaeta was asked to become the senior Visual effect Suppervisor on the remaining films in the trilogy, which were to all be filmed in a new multi-million, custom built, effects complex called ESC. The centerpieces to these films were to be terms coined by Gaeta, 'Virtual Cinematography' and Virtual effect'.These are basically umbrella terms for cinematographic techniques performed in a computer graphics enviroment.
In fully synthetic scenes of the Matrix sequels, all aspects including; principal actors, elaborate performances, dynamic events and scenery were all computer generated through a process of "image based" rendering technigues. This process is usually anologous with virtual reality and not film making.

More History

There have been many times in history where the concept of bullet time has been used.

In the late 1960's the concept was used frequently in cel animation. For examle in the title sequence of 'Speed Racer', the character is seen jumping out his car, it then pauses and the view point pans round in a 90 degree arc around the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YTq7AJm_GI

The first music video to use the concept was 'Army of me' Bjork which was directed by Michel Gondry. It occurs 37secs into the music video and shows the girl driving the truck from dead on, the point of view changes profile shot via 90 degree arc around the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeAZ9DQZFz8

Michel Gondry also used the concept the music video 'like a rolling stone' Rolling stones, here he has taken pictures from different POV's of the same subject frozen in time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCz8-1RPJF4

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