Shot Suggestions
January 2nd, 2007 by Neil Nafus
How to post a shot suggestion.
Please post all suggestions in the comments section of this page. Please use the following format, it helps us make sure we get the shot you are looking for. Title and Description are the only required fields, for the other fields please supply as much information as you wish. The more information we receive the more likely the shot is to match what you are asking for. Please be sure to include your e-mail so we can contact you if additional information or clarification is required.
Title: A brief, one line description of the shot.
Description: A more detailed description of the shot. This should also include any special information required for the shot.
Materials: A list of any materials that would be needed.
Safety Notes: This is where you should list any special safety information.
Lighting: This field is for any suggested lighting setups for the shot.
Camera Angles: Please list any specific suggested camera angles for this shot.
Misc: Please list any additional information you think we may need.
Ex. 1
Title: Sodium Iodide mixing with Mercury(II) Chloride
Description: I would like to see a shot of the chemical reaction between Sodium Iodide and Mercury(II) Chloride. This is a reaction between two fluids. When mixed they produce a redish orange cloud. I am most interested in capturing the cloud formation as the Sodium Iodide is added to the Mercury(II) Chloride solution. The entire amount of sodium iodide should be added slowly but continuously. It is preferable that no splashing occurs. A room temperature of 70-80 is preferred.
Materials: Glass or Pyrex beaker at least 600ml. 300ml of Mercury(II) Chloride. 50ml of Sodium Iodide.
Safety Notes: Both fluids are toxic. Appropriate lab precautions for toxic fluids should be observed.
Background: A gray, featureless background would be preferable.
Lighting: Shot should be well lit but I have no specific lighting requirements.
Camera Angles: Camera should be focused on the portion of the beaker that holds the Mercury(II) Chloride solution. The fill line for the Mercury(II) Chloride should be visible but the primary focus should be on the lower portion of the beaker to show as much of the resultant cloud as possible.
Misc: I am interested in using this shot as a visual aide for a lecture I am giving on viscous cloud formation in fluid reactions. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Ex. 2
Title: Dust explosion.
Description: Something heavy hitting a loose material that resembles dirt. A 3/4″ nut or steel ball would probably be perfect. The dirt should be loose so it kicks up a big cloud. Similar to what you see when a mortar hits the ground.
Materials: A 3/4″ nut or something similar. A pan of dirt or unbleached baking powder? I am not really sure what would be best.
Safety Notes:
Background: A blue, green or black background would be great.
Lighting: I kind of want it to look like it is happening during the daytime.
Camera Angles: I am going to be using this as an element in a visual effect I am creating for my demo reel. The shot shows a battle field with mortars exploding. Something from the side, as if the camera is a person on the battlefield. It should show the entire cloud.
Misc:
To save you some time, here is a template you can copy & paste.
Title:
Description:
Materials:
Safety Notes:
Lighting:
Camera Angles:
Misc:
Title: Classic CD in Microwave
Description: Everybody knows the sparks and lightshow put off by a CD being ‘cooked’ in a microwave. Most microwaves has a grate coverint the front glass. If this can be removed for better viewing, that would yeild better visuals.I think that the CD should be standing upright, instead of laying flat. Probably use a peice of clay or something to hold it upright. Tho I have found a site that a person trying this, it might be helpful http://apache.airnet.com.au/~fastinfo/microwave/cd/index.html
Materials: One compact disc, one microwave (probably one that will be discarded) and some kind of stand (clay is my suggestion)
Safety Notes: The only suggestion I can make for safety is that I dont reccomend ever using the microwave for food cooking after cooking a CD in it. There are fumes released from microwaving such an object, so you dont want that in food cooked later. Plus, since there are fumes, a dust-mask should be sufficient. Theres not alot of fumes, but still, doing this in a well-ventilated area is highly reccomended.
Background: Uh, i guess back of microwave? Maybe put a sheet of black cardboard in the back of it for contrast.
Lighting: Standard lights should be fine. The light from the microwave should be sufficient.
Camera Angles: Directly in front of the microwave.
You know, you really shouldn’t take the grate out of your microwave. Each little tiny hole in it is just a wee bit tinier than the amplitude of the radiation waves used to visit total nuclear decimation on foods, which prevents them from escaping and visiting total nuclear decimation on your squishy organs and flesh. So removing it really isn’t a good idea, unless one of your great ambitions in life is to set off Geiger counters and not be allowed on airplanes. FYI.
P.S.
Title: The Extraordinary Jello Experiment of Double-’Aught Seven
Description: Drop a cube of jello (between 1″ and 3″ on a side) from a reasonable height; it behaves a lot like the waterballoons you’ve already recorded.
Materials: Jello, gravity.
Safety Notes: Jello is quite tame, actually.
Lighting: I have no idea.
Camera Angles: directly or mostly above, 45 degrees.
Misc: Since you only need to drop a wee bit of jello, you can eat the rest of it. Mmm!
Good suggestion, made for some pretty cool shots. Click here for the videos relating to this suggestion. http://www.lucidmovement.com/?cat=45
Title: popcorn!
Description: a corn becoming a popcorn..
Materials: I imagine that you could use a spoon and match below it.
Misc: Sorry, i posted this suggestion in another place, before i knew there was a proper place for it
Another excellent suggestion. You can find the videos for this suggestion here. http://www.lucidmovement.com/?p=125
Title: Incandescent light bulb destruction
Description: Let the an incandescent light bulb heat up sufficiently (a higher wattage one would probably be better because it gets hotter). Then spray a mist of water on the bulb while the light is on and thoroughly heated. The glass bulb should shatter then the filament should superheat due to contact with the raw atmosphere…I’d love to see what the sequence looks like in high speed.
An alternative could potentially something like a cup of water thrown through the air against the hot bulb.
Materials: A fairly high wattage light bulb (200W or so), a lamp with lampshade removed with light bulb positioned vertically, a water spray bottle
Safety Notes: Nothing particular.
Lighting: I have no experience with high speed photography but this shot could be tough because you’d be looking at a fairly bright light bulb and then potentially a flash of extremely bright light as the filament is destroyed by exposure to open air. Once the bulb is burn out, there will be no generated light so the after image could be comparatively dark if not adequately lit.
Camera Angles: Depending on the quality of a full on, entire bulb in view shot, a secondary tightly zoomed in shot on the filament alone could be neat.
This one turned out wonderfully. The smoke was very neat to see. Go here for the video. http://www.lucidmovement.com/?p=116
Title: Figure Skating tricks
Description: It would be cool to see a figure skater performing a jump trick. (toe-loop?)
Materials: Ice Skater, Ice
Safety Notes: Don’t fall!
Camera Angles: Close up enough to capture what going on bio-mechanically and figure out what the heck a toe-loop is anyway.
What a great site! If you get a chance to have a look at my site I direct some idents for a small TV station here in Ireland. I’m doing new ones and one of them involves dropping a ship into a swimming pool. We can’t do this practically so it will involve shooting a pool and comping the giant water splash in slo mo and boat [3D] to pull it off. Easy! Do you have any footage of giant pool size splashes in slo mo!!!!!??
Nuts I know…
Title: Prince Rupert’s Drop (or equivalent)
Description: Dropping molten glass into liquid water could potentially be quite interesting in high speed. The classic reaction tempers the glass such that is become inordinately strong in the bulb of the shock-cooled droplet, but by breaking the tale of the drop, the entire thing shatters. In slow motion the formation of boiling water drops as the liquid glass falls into water may be very eye catching.
If a suitable heat source like oxyacetylene welding equipment is available, dropping other molten substances (salt, iron, aluminum, lead, or even plastic) into water or other liquids could be equally or more photographic.
The size of the drop is another consideration; if they’re too small, they might not be very visible on film, too large and the danger factor increases. For something like molten iron, a ladle of some kind would allow you to control how much is poured versus raw drips coming from a sheet metal strip. However, both methods have artistic advantages.
Materials:
- tank sufficiently deep as to allow items to cool before they strike the bottom
- various substances to be melted
Safety Notes: You’d be dealing with molten substances so caution is required. Care should also be taken when dropping white hot molten items into anything like oil as fire is a significant hazard.
Lighting: The bubbles coming off the molten substance need to be suitably illuminated and separated from the dropped substance visually so side lighting would likely be best.
Camera Angles: It would likely be best to see the event occur side-on from an underwater vantage point, however other angles could provide some unique views.
Misc: The breakage of the Prince Rupert’s Drops could also be a suitable subject for high speed photography. And while you’ve got the water tank out, dropping anything lithium to cesium
could be great in high speed too.
Title: Ice Cube explosion
Description: Drop an ice cube into a warm.. maybe hot bowl of liquid, and watch it crack… should be sorta cool
Materials: ice cube and water and bowl
Safety Notes: n/a
Lighting: no idea
Camera Angles: 45 degree above straight on
Misc:
Title: Wint-O-Green Livesaver
Description: You know that when you crack a wint-o-green livesaver in a dark room it phosphoreses (sp?) … I’d like to see that
Materials: mouth, wintogreen livesaver
Safety Notes: n/a
Lighting: no idea
Camera Angles: straight on
Misc:
Sadly this shot is not possible with the current high-speed cameras as they are not sensitive enough in terms of light. The spark generated does not create enough light. Good suggestion though and I’ll keep in mind as new cameras come out with better light sensitivity.
For the above, (by bob dobbs, wint-o-green lifesaver), the lighting has to be pitch black. Safety notes, don’t break your teeth. Although u might be able to use something other than your jaw to break them.
Title: high speed camera shot of a lighter turning on
Description: something like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPP7WLuZVUk), but done by you
Materials: lighter
Safety Notes: …don’t get too close to the flame
Lighting: none
Camera Angles: straight on would work, unless you are inspired to do something more artistic
This one is a classic. I will be adding some new shots of zippo lighters as well as other types of lighters, just for reference. http://www.lucidmovement.com/?p=81
Make sure there is a Match Ignition also…. just for Reference
Title: Rotary saw destruction
Description: A rotary or jig saw cutting a material in high speed could be great to see in high speed. The choice of material should likely be dictated by experimentation; however, to be visually enticing it should react in someway to the forces being applied to it. For instance if wood is the chosen medium, cutting with the grain would likely cause it to splinter more clearly than cutting against it. In slow motion, this would probably look pretty remarkable. The possibilities are nearly endless; if you purposely stalled in cutting motion, the smoke coming off the incision could be amazing to see.
Other materials could be great too. If you choose some sort of acrylic, the action of the plastic melting and forming the little trailings might show up in high speed.
An aggressive blade with large incising teeth would likely produce more spectacular results than something like a carbide or diamond studded one simply because of the tooth action. However, experimentation is the key.
Materials:
- A saw of some sort. Even a hand saw cutting a piece of plywood in high speed could produce great results.
- Various blades and materials.
Safety Notes: Don’t cut any fingers off and beware of flying debris.
Lighting: All that is needed
Camera Angles: Whatever works
Misc:
Title: Tesla Coil
Description: Arcs of electricity from a live Tesla Coil would look absolutely amazing in slow motion.
Materials: 1 Tesla Coil
Safety Notes: Electricity hurts
Background: black background work best
Lighting: None
I’d love to do this one but upon looking up the costs for Tesla coils ($300-$1000) makes it a bit out of my range at the moment. I would sorely love to do some of these though, I think they could be really neat. If anyone happens to have a Tesla coil they would like to donate I’d be mightily appreciative.
Title: The amazing faucet trick
Description: Water coming out of a faucet. A bubbly stream from a home kitchen faucet might be nice.
Materials: working faucet.
Safety Notes: watch for aligators
Lighting: something nice, romantic even. A candelabra, with a bottle of cabernet sauvignon.
Camera Angles: Straight side.
Misc: Very nice site. I know I’ll be buying full res things for projects. Keep up the good work. If I think of anything else, I’ll post it.
-Roger
This was a lot cooler than I had initially thought it would be, I thought it would be neat but not as neat as it was. I was really happy with how these turned out. You can find them here. http://www.lucidmovement.com/?s=faucet
Title: Football Kick (Soccer ball)
Description: Record someone kicking a football (soccerball) from side on… fairly simple? just to see the mechanisms involved and what happens to the shape of the ball
Materials: Football and a person who can kick it…
Safety Notes: dont pull a muscle
Lighting: Not sure… fairly bright…
Camera Angles: Side on view
Misc:
Title: Potato Cannon Firing
Description: Film a potato gun firing a potato
Materials: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg5iWTYKXpQ for info on how to make one… may be too much work…?
Safety Notes: treat it like a real firearm
Lighting: N/A
Camera Angles: side on view of the gun firing, so you can see the potato exit the barell and the muzzle flash
Misc: Requires assembly and may be a safety hazard.
Description: Bubble Burst – Slow Mo of a round soap bubble popping..
Materials: Soap, water (how do you hold and burst a bubble?)
Safety Notes: Don’t be a fool wrap your tool!!
Lighting: Key light: 45 at degrees above. Fill light: just to the side with soft box.
Camera Angles: Head on
Misc: Lots of fps – This is a quick one..
Title: Supercooled Water
Description: Closeup shot of Ice forming inside Water Bottle. Put new bottle of water in freezer. Because its distilled water with few impurities it should not freeze. Shake the bottle. Ice will form. Check out “Supercooled Water” videos on Youtube for more info. There’s a really interesting one where they guy poors the water out of the bottle and it freezes when it hits the air. Turns into a chain of slush.
Materials: Fiji bottle of water. They’re square so less distortion then a round bottle.
Safety Notes: None. Perfectly safe. I just tried it with a kid sized bottle of water. Pulled it out of the freezer after maybe a half an hour. Froze over instantly when i shook it.
Lighting: Should be well lit. Maybe back or side lit against a dark background.
Camera Angles: Close enough to see ice form. It tends to form from top to bottom.
Misc:
Description: Drilling into wood
Materials: Block of Wood & Drill
Safety Notes: Always wear saftey glasses when operating power tools.
Lighting: Well Lit
Camera Angles: As close as you can get to drill bit going into wood. Maybe
head on of the wood and drill bit against a black
background to give more contrast to the wood bits flying
out
Misc: Might be interesting seeing the little bits of wood flying out as
drill drives into wood. As a kid I remeber seeing some high speed
black and white of a dental drill working on a tooth. Ouch.
Title: Water Balloon to the Face
Description: A nice close up of a willing (or unwilling subject) who takes a direct water balloon shot to the face.
Materials: water balloons, water, brave subject
Safety Notes: Be sure the water balloon is not frozen.
Lighting: mid-day sunlight, reflector board for illuminating the subject’s face
Camera Angles: Portrait-like straight framing will yield best results
Misc: Relaxed facial muscles will result in the best ripple effects. Usually people tense-up when an object is approaching their face at high velocity. It therefore helps to throw the balloon when the subject is relaxed and unaware of the projectile’s launch time. Multiple simultaneous launches are also cool.
Title: Spring fling
Description: Grab a long thin spring at both of its ends and release both and watch the effects.
Materials: spring
Safety Notes:Wear eye protection.
Lighting:Mid-day lighting with a background of sorts.
Camera Angles:Any…its a spring.
Misc: I’m not too sure but it seems to me that maybe a person is not capable of releasing both ends of the spring at the same time. I think that would make for the most interesting shot of a spring fighting its own structure. So possibly a rig of some sort to make this happen, or maybe an uneven release will create a more desired effect.
Title: Wind-up chattering teeth, in use.
Description: The classic red teeth, that when wound up, start chattering and hopping around.
Materials: Would prefer for there to be a red platform from which the shot is taken.
Safety Notes: Be careful not to get your finger caught in the ‘mouth’ – it could be startling.
Lighting: Would prefer a light source along the side, so that the chattering teeth would show up in the shadow, as well.
Camera Angles: Close but not cutting the ‘teeth’ out of the composition.
Misc: A sense of humor.
Love the website. I stop by daily.
Title: Glass Shatter
Description: Hit glass with a hammer.
Materials: Pane of glass. Hammer
Safety notes: Glass shards should be cleaned up. They can cut. Which is bad.
Background: Something that makes the glass, the shards, and the hammer visible. Which is pretty much anything.
Angles: Angled from the side, and at a diagonal from the back. (The front being the side being hit with the hammer)
Misc: I’m mainly interested in the point of impact and how the crack spreads. If you could hit the glass twice if it doesn’t break completely the first time, then great!
Title:Any sort of animals in motion
Description:A high speed shot of any animal I think would be a very interesting shot. Like the flapping of a birds wing or a cat jumping onto a fence.
Camera Angles:A profile or head on shot
Excellent suggestion and I am always trying to capture more animals in motion. Sadly the way these cameras are designed they are slightly cumbersome, some more so than others. I have a few shots of this on the site, check here. http://www.lucidmovement.com/?cat=42
Title: Sliced Jell-O
Description: Take a mold of jello, prefferably a tall mold (about 6 inches, more the better) and take a Katana to it. Slice through the jello horizontally (right-left, or left-right slash).
Materials: Jello mold, jello, sword. Probably a good hight stand to place the jello on to get sufficient swing at it.
Background: Probably black would be good.
Camera angle: Probably 3/4 angle downward shot to the jello to see the full slice going through the mold.
Title: yo-yo trick
Description: a person playing with a yo-yo
Materials: 1 person, 1 yo-yo
Safety Notes: n/a
Lighting: two lights, one on the side and one slightly behind (and on the opposite side)
Camera Angles: straight-on, from the side and slightly in front and above the yo-yo player’s hands
Misc: clips of lots of normal-speed yo-yo’ers doing trics are on youtube or http://www.yoyoing.com/videos
You’ll need a golf club, tee, and a golf ball. Hit the golf ball. Thats about it
Title: Shotgun Pellet String.
Description: A very slow motion shot of a shotgun pellet string flying through the air. I am a professional shotgun shooter and this shot has never been taken before. Does the shotgun shot string look like a cone, cylindar, a flat disk, how long is it, how wide is it? These are all question that can be answered. I believe it could help bird hunters, law enforcement, military, and professional shooters like me. We all know what a bullet looks like flying through the air but not a shotgun shot string.
I have seen only one shotgun related shot so far. http://photron.com/gallery/gallery.cfm
I’ll see if I can whip something up that perhaps shows a bit more.
Brad–depends on the swing. Just knowing what it looks like coming out of the bore, headed downrange, shouldn’t do you any good. The swing defines the shot module. You are the artist, the gun is your brush. Paint it, Brad. It would be cool to see, though.
Title: Spider Web.
Description: Film spider when it makes web in highspeed.
Misc: Patience.
Awsome site! Here’s an idea for you:
Title:Underwater firecracker
Description:A firecracker exploding underwater. I’m thinking one of those cheesy M-80 look-a-likes that have a waterproof fuse in an aquarium full of water. Tie the cracker in the middle of a piece of string, with a rock or other weight on one end and a fishing bobber or somthing else bouyant on the other end. This will hold the cracker in place in the middle of the tank. Light it and drop it in.
Materials:Fircracker, 10 or 20 gallon aquarium, string, rock, float
Safety Notes:If the firecracker is too close to any side of the aquarium it will probably break the glass. I’d try to get it as close to the middle of the tank as you can.
Lighting:Not sure… It might look cool in the dark, but I’d probably go with standard key, fill, back lighting. Bright enough to see the cracker and the bubbles in the water, but not so bright that it over shines the flash when it goes off. Dark blue or gray back ground, but not solid black.
Camera Angles: Straight thought the glass of the aquarium
Misc:It might also be cool to set some off at varying depths just under the water’s surface and record the splash. Either from the side, level with the water level, or slightly above looking down. For this you’d probably want to rig a water proof electric ingniter so the water isn’t disturbed by bubbles from the fuse.
Title: THE HIT
Description:
(Snare-)Drum covered with flour. Hit it with a stick. OR: (Snare-)Drum covered with water/milk. Hit it with a stick.
Materials: (Snare-)Drum. Flour. Maybe milk/water
Safety Notes: n/a
Lighting: ?
Camera Angles: ?
Misc: ?
GRET SITE,
bassy regards,
Benjamin
Title: Tracer Round and Gasoline
Description: Fire a tracer round at a bag of gasoline suspended from a branch
Materials: Rifle, tracer round, plastic bag, gasoline, rope
Safety Notes: We’re talking firearms and flammable liquid, take necessary safety precautions
Lighting: mid day or dusk
Camera Angles: camera close to bag facing back towards the shooter in a 3/4 kind of shot. You should be able to see the shot fired, the tracer travel the distance, and the resulting fireball from the bag of fuel
Misc: This would kick such ass, please do it. 8^)
Title: Putting Out the Fire
Description: Use water or a fire extinguisher (another shot) and put out a fire.
Materials: Hose, fire extinguisher, basic fire
Safety: Fire so can burn
Lighting: Inside or out, your choice
Camera angles: Base of fire might look good or the fire extinguisher firing
Misc: Could be cool to see fire extinguisher/fire and see how it gets put out
I’ll keep it short and sweet, I’d like to see shots involving eggs.
In whatever way you deem accessible.
Title: Euler’s Disk Spolling (Spinning and Rolling)
Description: Euler’s Disk is a simple, heavy disk that spins and rolls faster and faster as it winds down (much like a coin, but it takes much longer). The physics behind this ’spolling’ motion is surprisingly complex and difficult to analyze. (see: http://www.eulersdisk.com/physics.html)
Materials: An Euler’s Disk science toy and the curved mirror surface that comes with it. Quoted at $6.95 here: http://www.eulersdisk.com/custorder.html
Safety Notes: None (totally safe)
Lighting: Indoor, white or black background. Light will reflect off of the mirrored disk and mirror surface.
Camera Angles: On the same level as the disk, seen edge on; at a 45-degree angle (normal viewing)
Misc: For about $10, you can’t beat an endlessly fascinating, quicker-than-the-eye moving toy. It makes a very interesting noise as well, which ramps up as it falls to the end, seeming to ‘bounce’ very rapidly.
how about a video of someone sneezing they say it flys ou at 100mph or fast, i’d like to se it slowed down.
Title: Salt Water
Description: A water droplet dropped into a small mound of salt.
Materials: Salt
Water
Maybe a eye-dropper
Safety Notes: ….don’t be a slug
Lighting: CTF probably
Thanks!
LOVE THE BLOG!!!
Title:Dry Ice Bomb
Description:An explosion of ice water and plastic
Materials:water, dry ice, and a plastic water bottel
Safety Notes:its loud and a large explosion so stay back dry ice is cold wear golves can reslut in burns
Lighting:i dunno the black i guess
Camera Angles:in front of the bottel
Misc:k heres how u do it chip some dry ice into a 12 liter bottel make sure its not powdered this will make it explode alot faster. put the cap on and run away from it if i wanna speed up the explsion shoot it with a bb gun
Title:Spray Bottle
Description:Water (or any liquid) being sprayed out of a spray bottle
Materials:spray bottle, water
Safety Notes:none, it’s only water!
Lighting:?
Camera Angles:side view perhaps?
Misc:LOVE the site!!!
A drop of water in baking soda, not only would it show ‘a cool splash’ but also the kemical reaction when mixing water and baking soda
Title: Thermite Reaction
Description: Well, you’d put the thermite in a container, and ignite! Instructions here. http://www.hallpass.com/media/howtomakethermite.html
Materials: Fine Powdered iron oxide, Fine powdered aluminum, a magnesium strip, a scale.
Safety Notes: This would involve molten iron. That stuff is HOT. Don’t put it over anything you would mind burning.
Lighting: This would make its own light.
Camera Angles: Far enough to see the whole reaction, but not too far.
Misc: None that I know of.
Title: Tennis Ball on a wall
Description: You should try 2 examples using a tennis ball. You should take a racket and smash the ball while its in the air to see how much it squishes and/or you should get a shot of the ball hitting the wall.
Materials: Tennis Racket of any sort, a Wilson™ tennis ball, and a flat concrete wall.
Safety Notes: None really, just careful if you hit the ball against the wall, it might come back with some force.
Lighting: Inside or out, just bright is fine.
Camera Angles: Facing the ball with the side view of the racket, we don’t really care what happens to the racket we just want to see the ball getting hit. For the wall just rest the camera against the wall and have it facing down the side of the wall as the ball hits it.
Misc: That’s pretty much it.
or golf ball being hit by a club.
Description: I would like to see a balloon filled with different colored glitter and fine ground color pigments (without beeing too mixed among the different colours beeing pierced by a needle…
or a cast green jelly the shape of a brain bouncing of the center of a red fast spinning disc (maybe sandpaper?).
I´m not crazy, it´s just nice to fantasize in slowmotion…
love your site/Kalle
I’m searching for Reference Clips for this for a long time now cause I need to 3Danimate that at my work, maybe you could help… great site for reference, btw!!!
Title: Burning Floor
Description: black, flat floor with a small amount of fuel or another easy burning liquid on Top of it. Now take a Match and let it fall in the middle of this Floor and see how the Flames are moving.
Materials: flat,black floor; Burning Liquid (fuel), Matches
Safety Notes: Caution, Fire!!
Lighting: nothing special, just want to see the flames, and the blue fuel
Camera Angles: Flat, Close to the Floor to see the Spreading Flames.
Misc: AHHH, how do I animate that… :/
Title: Laser Weld
Description: A high speed shot of a laser pulse hitting a piece of nickel. You would be able to see the metal become molten and solidify in just a few milliseconds. A plasma plume would also be created bursting upward from the point of the weld.
Materials: pulse laser welder, piece of nickel
Safety Notes: lasers come with interlocks
Lighting: well lit with the nickel as the background.
Camera Angles: shot at 3/4 angle
Misc:
Title: Burnout
Description: a regular street car, or drag car doing a burnout or launching from the starting line or a drag track.
Materials: Car + driver, track or “closed” street.
Safety Notes: Safe distance and area to do a burn out in.
Lighting: Day time.
Camera Angles: Side of the tire, or slightly offset behind/infront of the tire, near ground level to capture the tire’s compression/expanssion and smoke, watch drag racing videos. I am just interested in the launch though.
Misc: I thought the F-250 dirt slide was cool.
something similar to this: http://www.ifilm.com/video/2857797 or more of just somone smoking up the tires.
Title: ball bouncing
Description: relatively uninteresting, but our research lab needs hi-speed footage of something following newtonian physics that’s non-biological. It’s been tough to find 500fps footage of just a ball bouncing or something being thrown. Is it possible for you to help us shoot this?
Materials: ball, or something else interesting to throw/bounce
Safety Notes: should be completely safe
Lighting: daytime
Camera Angles: fixed
Title: Water out of water in a glass.
Description: Take a clear glass, (a wine glass might work better) place it in a tub of water so it fills up. Flip it upside down in the water then lift it up out of the water. The water will stay inside the glass until the lip of the glass breaks the surface of the water.
Materials: Water, Glass
Lighting: The usual
Misc: It might look cool.
Any slow motion shots of someone tricking. Do some research, if you could find someone good in your area willing to do some moves it would be amazing to see in slow motion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricking
http://www.club540.com/
Title:jumping Hurdle
Description:An athlete jumping a hurdle. It would be a great study of human movement
Materials:athletic track (indoor/outdoor) athlete, hurdles
Safety Notes:don’t stand infront of a javelin throw
Lighting:indoor or outdoor
Camera Angles:side on and if possible 3/4 elevation
Misc: I’d love to get my own camera a compile a whole heap of human activities – I want to use them as a database for teaching animation.
Title:Fireworks explosion super slow motion
Description:I would like to see some firecracker explosions, and if possible some explosions where powerful firecrackers are attached to something.
Materials:Firecrackers ( M80,Silver salute …. and a few more)
Safety Notes:Everybody knows firecrackers are dangerous so take all the safety precautions
Lighting: a featureless background , any colour vould do but the colour does not need to be to bright.
Camera Angles:Camera should be focused on the firecrackers but let some space do see the real damage.
Misc:I would use this as educational purposes so averybody can take some safety masures when playing with firecrackers.
Title: Birthday sparkler
Description: a close up view of those crazy spidery sparks that come off of sparklers on birthday cakes, they even seem to split in mid air, like a tiny version of a real firework.
Materials: One sparkler
Safety Notes: don’t touch
Lighting: provides its own, but you would want a good amount of backlight so the contrast isn’t too high.
Camera Angles: whatever
Misc: the faster the framerate the better
Hi there – this is a cool site. What I would like to see is the starting sequence of an “coke-bottle rocke”. Here is how to – It is fun and I can gladly provide you with detailled photos!
Title: coke bottle rocket start
Description:
You take a coke bottle (0,5 liter) and make a whole into the lid. This whole must me about the size of a valve from a bicycle tube. You have to fix the valve into the end of an air-pump.
Then you open the bottle, fill it about 1/3 with water, close the lit, turn it around and “close” the little whole with the valve. Pump up pressure to about 5 bar and let the bottle go. It will “ride” on the water beam and can reach 10 to 15m.
Materials:
Coke-bottle
Valve from tube
Thin wodden pole
some duckt tape
Safety Notes:
do not try when its very windy or with a lot of people around (security area around the starting point should be around 30meter)
Lighting: daylight
Camera Angles: straigt on the starting procedure.
Misc: Oh boy – I would love to see this. If you decide to do so please try it with different water/pressure variations. Coke bottle have a certified sturdiness up to 10 BAR.
Title: Sprinter
I would like to see shot of the 100 m Sprinter at start. I always wonder the Athletes reaction as the starting gun fires.
Title: projectile into non newtonian fluid
Description: shoot a projectile into a non newtonian fluid (ie cornstarch and water) fill a plastic water bottle with cornstarch and water and fire at it with a bb gun or pellet gun or even a 9mil
Materials: corn starch, water, projectile
Title: sneezing person
Description: i would like to see a person sneezing.
Materials: a person
Safety Notes: don’t sneeze on the camera
Lighting:daylight or a very bright light
Camera Angles:
Misc: looks like fun to me.
Title: vibrating wire/string
Description: capture the multiple vibrations of a struck or plucked wire/string. as a musician i intellectually know that for example, a piano string vibrates at multiple frequencies not just it’s fundamental, but i’ve never witnessed it. i’d love to actually see the various vibrations traveling back and forth along the string.
Materials: wire/string – long enough to see vibration frequencies
Safety Notes: make sure the string is well fastened, don’t hit yourself with the striking mallet
Lighting: probably best to use a dark wire against a light background
Camera Angles: straight on with the wire crossing horizontally across the field of view. wide-angle lens perhaps to capture as much of the length of the vibrations as possible?
Title: match making plasma in a microwave
Description: Lit match in a microwave with a jar over it held up a little with some room for air to get in (by bottle caps or something) microwaved and the flame will become a ball of plasma and rise to the top of the jar.
Materials: Match something to stick in, Jar, supports to hold the jar up, Microwave
Safety Notes: Jar may shatter when it begins to cool, creates some toxic gasses
Lighting: none other than light inside the microwave
Camera Angles: outside the microwave
Misc: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM6NLKY2SHk good example
Title: Falling Fabric
Description: It would be nice to a see fabric falling from a high place either crumpled and opening or just falling
Materials: some type of fabric,preferably a light material
Safety Notes: Don’t fall off a bridge or get a fabric cut…I donno
Lighting: It would be really sweet if there was extreme chiaroscuro in color or black and white.
Camera Angles: Shoot the fabric falling from above and then to the side.
Misc: There should at least be one shot of a heavy material falling threw the fabric like a large rock or something along the lines.
Title: Popping water balloon treated with hydrophilic/hydrophobic material
Description: All of the current high speed shots i’ve seen of the water balloon popping trick show this sort of splashy surfaced blob of water suspended in space. I thought that coating the interior of the balloon with a hydrophobic/hydrophilic material might significantly reduce the shearing motion of the balloon against the water, and result in a much smoother floating blob of water.
One particular ‘popping action’ i haven’t seen is hanging the water balloon and snipping it way up at the knot, possibly allowing the material to more evenly ‘unfurl’ (So that’s two suggestions in one i guess)
Materials: Balloon, water, something sharp, hydrophobic substance for interior of ballon (silicon, oil maybe, ask the chemistry dept). probably just squirt a dob in and smear it around before filling? i don’t know.
Safety Notes: Don’t inhale the balloon
Lighting: Yes
Camera Angles: Side
Misc: Enjoy!
Title: Popping smoke filled bubbles
Description: Take a drag of a cig, blow a bubble with the smoke, and pop it. Could be cool to see the bubble popping in flight vs one popping while stuck to a surface
Materials: cigarette, bubble stuff, etc.
Safety Notes: quit smoking!
Lighting: Yes, please
Camera Angles: Whatever works
Misc: might be cool to do it by a small candle to watch the smoke get pulled into the convection of the flame
Title:ballons smashing
Description:a water balloon suspended by a string is struck by another water balloon of smaller (or larger) size.
Materials: two filled water balloons, string, point of suspension
Safety Notes: keep the camera dry
Lighting:
Camera Angles: from a vantage point that is directly perpendicular to the plane of the motion of the second balloon so that the moment of impact can be analyzed fo conservation of momentum or for verification of Newton’s third law. (We would get to watch both ballons get bopped)
Misc: A standard reference in the background to measure distance would be cool, but by no means imperative.
Try to ensure that the centers of mass of the two balloons are aligned, so that when the impact occurs one balloon does not obscure teh view of teh other and so that gravitational effects can be ignored for the moments immediately before and after the collision.
tesla coils are occasionally part of a high school physics lab set-up. You may be able to contact a nearby teen-age geek and ask him or her to put you in touch with their physics teacher. I have no doubt that any physics teacher would be overjoyed to have some footage of the tesla coil in action in slow motion.
Title: chip pan fire / explosion
(use a looooong pole with a cup on the end)
Description: the classic cup of water over a chip pan fire
Materials: heavy duty propane burner, cooking oil (or whatever is most flammable) a chip pan / pot
Safety Notes: stand weeeeeeeeeell back
Lighting: front
Camera Angles: focused on fireball, but include chip pan in shot
I fund this video on youtube and I be surprise for the last tre second, if you stop the video and move the bar, you see a shadow or a condense residual from the balloon.
is amazing and I don know if if a residual imagine o a real residual umiditi.
please see the video and maby trye is easy to reproduce, but with a hight spead camera you can find the aswer.
thanks again for the amazin videos.
see ya claudio
Title: cat ear twitching, or animal scratching
Description: A shot of a cats top head, whilst he/she twitched his/her ear. Or a dog or cat scratching them selves.
Materials: Animal cat or dog
Lighting: nice and bright
Camera Angles:from above, or from side
thank you
Title: lightbulb
Description: a super highspeed shot of a lit lightbulb where you can see the electricity going through the filament.
Materials: 1 100w clear light bulb
Safety Notes: don’t get electrocuted
Lighting: none
Camera Angles: 1
Misc:
Title: lightbulb
Description: a short super highspeed shot of a lit lightbulb where you can see the electricity going through the filament.
Materials: 1 100w clear light bulb
Safety Notes: don’t get electrocuted
Lighting: none needed
Camera Angles: 1 is fine
Misc: free?
Title: Oil Into Water
Description: Just dropping oil into water and watching the oil settle to the top.
Materials: Olive oil, water, clear glass.
Safety Notes: None.
Lighting: I wouldn’t know.
Camera Angles: From the side.
Misc: -
Title: Cat playing, cat meowing, or just more cat things
Description: I think it would be really interesting / entertaining for you to shoot a cat meowing. Or perhaps just running around after getting a new cat nip toy.
Materials: Catnip
Safety Notes: None
Lighting: Any
Camera Angles: Any
Title: The production of plasma!!!!
Description: you prop a match vertically in the centre of the microwave with the rotating glass plate removed and light it.
Before the flame goes out you put a glass over the match close the microwave door and press start at full power. a couple of minutes should be enough.
To avoid the glass shattering you can heat it up.
this video is pretty much what i mean: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6732382807079775486
Alternatively you could just us a plasma lamp.
Materials: A match, a glass and a microwave.
Safety Notes: When the plasma… happens it will significantly heat the glass, usually resulting in it shattering. MIND FOR SHRAPNEL!
also, i am unaware of the health issues, cancer,infertility and so on.
Also, “The reaction creates NO2 which is mildly toxic”
Lighting: kinda tricky in a microwave.
Camera Angles: a macro shot of the glass.
Misc: As the production of plasma would be pretty fast, the fps should be as high as possible.
A detailed recording of matter reaching the supposed ‘fourth state’ is surely a good example of “The world you’ve seen, as you’ve never seen it”
go on DO IT DO IT DO IT!!!
Title: Shot of a person’s pupil constricting
Description: Start with the lights off for a number of minutes (so the pupil can dilate), then roll the camera, flip the lights and capture the pupil constricting
Materials: Person (preferable with large eyes), Room with no windows, One light source.
Safety Notes:
Lighting: Nothing too direct (to reduce blinking)
Camera Angles: close-up on the eye
Misc:
Title: Electric Globe
Description: You know, one of those electric glass globes that when you touch, all the electricity goes to your hand. Just seeing one of those in slow motion would be neat. Also, (this would be dangerous) if you fired an arrow through it, that would look so cool. You might have to have the arrow grounded by tying some sort of cable to it and tethering the cable to the ground. Access to a kill switch would help prevent electrocution.
Materials: Electric globe
Bow and arrow
Cable
Extension cord
Safety Notes: Don’t get electrocuted…
Lighting: Probably a dark room with only the globe on. A black background seems like it would be the best.
Camera Angles: Arrow coming in from off screen from either the right or left.
Misc: Please?
Title: Diet Coke and Mentos.
Description: Citrus Mentos and Diet coke make an explosive pairing.
Materials: Diet coke 2 liter , 1 pack of Mentos.
Safety Notes: just move out of the way because once you drop them in the “explosion of coke” is instantaneous.
Lighting:well lit.
Camera Angles:none
Misc: none
Title: Arrow fired from a bow
Description: arrow in flight, from the point of release until it clears the bow and is in flight a few feet beyond. You will see the arrow flex sideways, oscillating left-right as it leaves the bow string and clears the bow, this is actually called archers paradox. It would also be interesting to watch the movement of the bow limbs as the energy from the limbs is transferred to propel the arrow into flight. A comparison of the 3 different basic types of bows and how the bow limbs react: Longbow, Recurve Bow, Compound Bow. How the arrow reacts with the traditional finger release compared to a release aid. How the arrow reacts to a solid frame like a long bow, compared to a modern compound bow where the arrow sits against a tension-adjustable plunger to help the arrow recover more quickly from the “flexing”.
Materials: Longbow, recurve limbed bow, compound bow, arrows of different material: wood, aluminium, fibreglass, carbon fibre.
Safety Notes: only people who are well practiced and very competent with the bow should be used for this. Follow normal shooting safety protocols. Don’t use bladed hunting arrow tips. Ensure that the arrow if misfired cannot travel to a destination where harm may result. Suggest even going to a bowhunting or archery club to do this.
Camera Angles: at or very near arrow level; from behind the ear of the archer where the arrow is anchored and released; any position that will allow a view of the arrow from point of release to clear flight beyond the bow; in front of the bow at arrow level or slightly above or to one side.
Misc: Arrows are made of wood, carbon fibre, fibreglass and aluminum, and are “spined” or have a flex tension that is matched to the draw weight of the bow and the draw length of the archer, or the effective length of the arrow. If the arrow is “spined” correctly and released smoothly, it will flex around the bow and for a very short time after it leaves the bow, then recover into normal straight or clear flight. The arrow behaves differently in flight between the traditional finger release and release aids. An arrow that is too light or “underspined” for the draw weight of the bow will flex more, and arrow that is too heavy or “overspined” will flex less.
Title: CRT TV Refreshing
Description: With the TV Filling the shot, show the Effect as the Cathode Ray Gun Progressively Fills the Screen with Light
Materials: A Cathode Ray Tube Television
Safety Notes: Too Much Television is Bad for you.
Lighting: Very Little / Dark
Camera Angles:Looking head-on or at a Tangent of the Curved Screen, Maybe a Close-up
Misc:
Title:submerged pop
Description:most people on this site have seen the famous water balloon pop and have watched it hover in mid-air. My Idea is to pop a balloon filled with air, under-water
Materials:fishbowl or tank, balloon ( inflated of coarse), a pin
Safety Notes:don’t poke yourself!
Lighting:multiple light sources on the sides
Camera Angles:directly in front
Misc:your choice
Video Killed the Photographer?
Linguists estimate that there are about 5,000-6,000 different languages spoken in the world today, but we see in only one language: photography… or should that be videography?
They are indeed two very different crafts. Telling a thousand words in a stream of moving video clips and telling a thousand words with one still 120th of a second are certainly not the same thing. But it cannot be denied that there is a link between the two art forms. Why else do film students study photography as a matter of course? Could videography be the natural evolution of photography or are they two equally developed co-existant cousins? And why would you choose one over the other? Perhaps the answer is that it depends very much on what is being protrayed through still or moving pictures and for what purpose.
For news reporting, for example, video has many clear advantages over still pictures. But one of the big disadvatanges is that it is difficult to get video footage of unexpected news events as they occur. That, in conjunction with the media habit of saturation coverage and its subsequent voracious appetite for footage, means that sometimes inadequate video is heavily overused. Amateur footage taken by anyone who happened to be nearby, even footage from mobile phones, is used.
Just look at the powerful images in the World Press Photo awards every year and you will see how single fragments of time can be infinitely more moving than a hundreds or thousands of frames. These are taken by talented people who have honed their eye and craft. The legendary images from photojournalism have stood the test of time because they are both compelling and beautifully composed, dramatically lit, shot at the decisive moment and communicating compelling stories. These images make it all too clear that press photography is in absolutely no threat of being usurped by videography.
In everyday life documentation such as weddings, special occasions and holidays friends and family are still toting cameras and still giving the well-worn jovial order ’say cheese!’ For after all, what video could replace that framed funny snapshot or beautiful portrait on the mantlepiece?
Then there is advertising. It comes in all shapes, sizes and in increasingly surprising places. Photographs will no doubt prevail in advertising as in press, but with continual emergence of new media, internet and wireless applications, video footage is in more demand than ever. And these days, you don’t even have to film your own video; you can buy readymade clips from a stock footage websites. The industry is currently an estimated $300 million market and is expanding rapidly, just as stock photography industry did a few years ago.
Video is an incredibly rich storytelling medium. But then again a photograph shot at a peak moment conveys the essence of a story. Both photography and videography are disciplines, each as complex and powerful as you care to make them. But they are also just tools we choose, and not necessarily at odds.
By Niamh Prior, BA English and Film Studies, NCVA Photography
http://www.wavebreakmedia.com
Title: Firecracker explosion
Description: I would like to see a shot of a simple firecracker exploding.
Materials: 1 exploding firecracker, and a lighter.
Safety Notes: I guess you guys shouldn’t be too close to it when it explodes, and maybe some hearing protection.
Lighting: No particular lighting needs, maybe a bit lower light since the explosion will create some light that I don’t want to be stifled.
Camera Angles: Centered on the firecracker.
Misc: I want this for a presentation is my High school physics class.
title:bullet through a bottle
description:fire a bullet from your gun (any kind of gun probally a pellet gun will work best)through a wine bottle with some water or wine inside from left to right try and shoot through the narrow end used to poor the wine
materials:
a pellet gun(or real gun)
a wine bottle
some wine ot water
safety notes:try and get a gun with a laser sight so u get the shot exact and no stray glass could hit u.wear some gogles.try and put the bottle away from you so no glass could hit u.
camera angles:
get it at a horizontle view like
bullet-> bottle
misc:
Title: fly or similar insect landing, moving on, and taking off from water
Description: the movement of biomechnaics of a fly is needed. would like a close up of a fly landing on the water, moving around, then taking off.
Materials: water, fly or similar insect (not bees or wasps)
Safety Notes:
Lighting: medium
Camera Angles: from water level
Misc:
Title: Bullet impacting concrete.
Description: Close-up shot of a fairly high caliber bullet hitting a block of cement. Needs to be shot at a high enough speed that the bullet “floats” to its target.
Materials:
1.High powered rifle.
2.Large block of concrete.
Safety Notes: Ear and eye protection.
Lighting: Afternoon sunlight.
Camera Angle: Far enough away that you can see most of the dust and debris. Angle looking along the surface of the block.
Misc: None.
Title: An LCD Screen (on)
Description: A LCD screen is something that people look at almost every single day, so it would be amazing to see exactly what we are actually staring at.
Materials: A LCD Screen
Safety Notes: This one is nice and safe for you guys!
Lighting: Any
Camera Angles: Directly at the screen/ possibly off to the side a little.
Misc: You could point the camera at the screen of the computer that is recording the camera information.
Keep up the amazing work!
I would LOVE to see one of those electice balls where you can see bolts of electricty (you have one as one of you top images) starting up, and then it played back really really slow, so you can see the electricity going to the edge of the ball!
Title: kinescope TV vis LCD monitor vis Plasma Monitor
Description: We see videos produced by hi-speed camera, but don’t really know how they are really really build in different monitros. We only know that they differ in frequencies – 60, 70, 100 Hz. But what does it mean? For many people it will be surprising, that LCD picture is built an “opposite way” to Kinescope or plasma, I mean – by “hiding” some way the background light, not producing light by picture pixels. Sorry for my poor english. I hope you understand my idea.
material: “Old fashion” monitor at different frequencies, LCD, Plasma
lighting: none
Angle: 0 degree
Safety: none
I have to start by telling you how much I absolutely LOVE your site! I stumbled upon it last night, and was completely enthralled, watching videos repetitively until upwards of 2AM. Your shots are fascintaing, beautiful, provacative… I could go on.
There are so many things I would like to see, I think I should limit my number of suggestions to three. Here they are, briefly:
Title: Another shot of King drying off.
Description: The one shot I’ve seen of this is great – the droplets of water, his body twisting, his floppy skin, etc. – but I would love to see one where he is completely out of the water.
Materials: King, pond
Safety Notes: Back up.
Lighting: Sun
Camera Angles: Low
Title: Ocean Waves
Description: Seeing the waves breaking and pulling back into the ocean.
Materials: Ocean
Safety Notes: Salt air vs. camera… You decide.
Lighting: ANY
Camera Angles: Front; Side would be very cool with large waves.
Misc: Maybe you should take King along for the ride. (Two birds, one stone.)
Title: Rainbow Formation
Description: Using a mister on a water hose gun, see a rainbow materialize in the light.
Materials: Water hose, sunlight
Safety Notes: None
Lighting: Sun
Camera Angles: Any
Misc: Any
Can’t wait to see what’s next!