Hong Kong-based production house Spicy Films has laid claim to
being the first in Asia to develop and utilise the same camera system
and techniques used to astonishing effect in the Hollywood blockbuster
movie The Matrix.
Spicy Films director Ken Chung said that while the concept had been
around for close to a century, the technical complications posed had
proved to be a huge deterrent.
"It is technically very challenging, but we have managed to put together
a system which created the same visual effects that were used in The
Matrix," he told MEDIA.
"I believe that we are the only production house in Asia capable of
this, and for the first time the system has been used in China to shoot
a commercial for that market."
The spot which used the 'Time Warp' system (in the US it's called 'Time
Track') was done for Lintas Shanghai (creative director: Romeo Lacao),
for its client Audi.
While the creative concept for the Audi commercial does not break new
ground, the Time Warp effects lift it far out of the ordinary.
In its simplest form, the Time Warp system involves the use of multiple
cameras placed in a pattern (usually circular, corkscrew or spiral) at a
specific point in the shoot.
The shots are then strung together to create the illusion of motion -
with cameras capable of shooting up to 400 frames per second, the
potential is enormous.
In other words, where only traditional, single-angle freeze frames had
previously been possible, the Time Warp allows for multiple, consecutive
freeze-frames shot from slightly different angles - for the viewer, it
looks as if a moving camera has panned around a moment frozen in
time.
"A few years ago, French and British directors began experimenting with
the system; in the US, the technique had largely been used in shoots for
music videos," Mr Chung said.
"This is probably where the producers of The Matrix got the idea
from."
Post-production on films shot using Time Warp can be very complicated -
Spicy Films first used the system for a shampoo ad in Jakarta, also for
Lintas (creative director: Jeanie Hardono) - but Mr Chung said that a
lot of time and effort had been spent in the editing room to perfect the
technique.
"Time Warp offers one dimension more than motion control, which can't
freeze the image and can only move at a certain speed," he said.
Despite the bulk of the equipment (Spicy has left the 50 cameras used in
the Audi shoot in storage in Shanghai) and the lengthy set-up time, Mr
Chung said Time Warp was worth the hard work.
It also has potential in still photography for print ads, and can be
used not just for action shots, but to highlight dramatic moments as
well.
"Time Warp lets you control, slice, freeze time," he said. "When we
first tested it, it was on a small scale. The second time, for Audi, it
was much bigger ... but it was a nightmare to put it together."
However, he warned creative directors against getting too excited about
the technique: "If you use it just for the sake of it, it will become a
forgettable technique. Techniques should be there only to serve the
story.
"But I'm sure that the more creative directors think about it, the more
they will develop concepts that can incorporate Time Warp logically."
