Talk:Bullet time

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of Wikipedia:WikiProject Filmmaking, an attempt to better organize information in articles related to filmmaking. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
GA	This article has been rated as GA-Class on the assessment scale.

Contents 1 Crashing problems in Safari 2 Bullet time v. time-slicing 3 First use 4 Matrix Template 5 Requested move (closed) 6 vote: no use of a privately owned term to define a common practice 7 BUF?! 8 Other movies? 9 Other Videogames 10 Moved text from The Matrix 11 Why was i redirected? 12 Huh? aka The Omen 13 Michael Ninn: Perfect 14 'concept introduced in recent films' Huh? 15 Added paragraph on The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 16 History of the term 17 First music video? 18 Mention of QuicktimeVR 19 Needs photo of equipment 20 Need For Speed Most Wanted 21 Images

[edit] Crashing problems in Safari

I'm not sure if this is the right place to write about this, but loading this page in Safari makes the browser crash. I'm not sure why, might possibly be an issue with the gif animation. 213.64.33.21 12:34, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bullet time v. time-slicing

I'm having trouble understanding how bullet-time is different from the time-slice system used in The Matrix. I suspect it's the same but haven't been keeping up with it. If it is the same, the article is incorrect in its "probably" part; q.v. Talk:The Matrix or google "time-slice", Macmillan, Josephine, etc.. Koyaanis Qatsi 23:32 26 May 2003 (UTC)

I believe the difference is that bullet time involves bullets, and time splicing does not.

Take, for example, at the start of the movie, where Trinity jumps up to perform a kick on the SWAT/Cop (can't remember what he was), and the camera rotates as time stops...

That, or the nmae change is a trademark issue.

[edit] First use

the first actual conceptual appearance of bullet time is in the begining of the speed racer cartoons, where speed racer jumps of the vehicle. check this fact.

also "the campanile movie" was made by Paul Debevec, not the other guy -User:Verbose

[edit] Matrix Template

Does {{Template: The Matrix}} really belong in this article? The article is about something featured in The Matrix, not directly relating to it.

Seconded Thirded Forthded

[edit] Requested move (closed)

• Talk:Bullet-time - Bullet-time → Bullet time - The hyphenated version of the term is an adjective; needs to be moved in order to be a noun.

Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one sentence explanation and sign your vote with ~~~~

• Support - For the reason given above. --Yath 22:39, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)
• Support - And make 'bullet-time' a redirect. --alfakim 15:44, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I went ahead and moved the page. Jumped the gun a bit (4 days instead of 5), but it was pretty clear-cut IMHO. --Yath 29 June 2005 21:35 (UTC)

[edit] vote: no use of a privately owned term to define a common practice

flo-mo is essentially "enhanced arc and tracking"

check this

Arc Shot A simple photographic procedure in which the subject being photographed is circled by the camera.

http://video.barnesandnoble.com/search/glossary.asp?cat=1005873&TRM=1006323 http://www.fotosearch.com/THK725/v0021050/

[edit] BUF?!

[...] and through view-morphing techniques pioneered by the company BUF in music videos by Michel Gondry and commercials for, among others, The Gap.

What does BUF = British Union of Fascists have to do with it? --Abdull 10:57, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Other movies?

What about other movies that utilise this technique? All the article lists is the parodies. Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children used this technique quite a bit, although it is a bit different because it's all CG.

I think the effect in Advent Childrent wouldnt be classified as Bullet Time. for the fact the camera and characters all slow down. In reality this could simply be done by overcranking. --Cryotwin 08:51, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other Videogames

The somewhat unsuccessful videogames Blinx and Blinx 2 (time controls were not specifically mentioned in their articles)also featured a time stop ability, which allowed the player to move freely while the in game environment stopped. A noteworthy effect is while moving through water the water became displaced and left an empty path, often used to further a goal. The game also used other temporal controls such as rewind, fast forward, and record. Record allowed you to record actions, which would then rewind to when you activated record, allowing you to play along side the recorded actions.

I also am missing Max Payne (the first and not part 2)?

_Other notable games should probably include Viewtiful Joe where entering bullet time is vital for various puzzle and gameplay mechanisms, like running though the blades of a helicopter. Black also slows down the passage of time when the character is critically wounded, allowing the player to recover from seemingly overwhelming positions._

Would the Sands of Time ability from Prince_of_persia_the_sands_of_time qualify? Time is slowed while the prince reacts at normal speed.

[edit] Moved text from The Matrix

The following text appeared in the article for The Matrix, but as it's related more to the history of the effect rather than how it was applied in that film, I think it's more appropriate here. But I'm not sure which is the best place to put it in this article, so I'll store it here for now.

• In his online resume at timeslicefilms.com, freelance photographer Tim MacMillan claims to have pioneered by the mid-eighties "a way of freezing apparent time in a motion-picture tracking shot by means of multiple apertures registered to the frames of motion-picture film." The work of Harold Edgerton, to whom Macmillan pays homage in one exhibition, could be considered a yet earlier precedent.

Also, last month's issue of Empire featured a comment by John Gaeta on bullet time, in which he refers to Michael Gondry and other influences, which I think would be relevant. I'll type it up and add it to the article soon...

Also, in some cases I think the Visual effects section of The Matrix article does a better job of explaining the bullet time effect (and the differences between that and "frozen" time-slice photography) than this article does. (Some of it seems to be written by the man himself!) So does anyone want to incorporate some of that section into this article? --Nick R^Talk 18:33, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Why was i redirected?

Why, when i searched for Time-slice photography, was i redirected to Bullet time, when both have sperate copy-write? I can vouch for Tim MacMillian's work as i remember seeing his work in a BBC natural history programe that pre-dates the Matrix film.

Yup, in fact the program is mentioned in the article, and I've also see it. I guess it's because the two are very similar. See above for a similar complaint. Dessydes

[edit] Huh? aka The Omen

The intro says that bullet time is pretty much just slowing something down enough so you would be able to see what is happening clearly when normally you wouldn't. If this is bullet time then it was used in the original Omen when Gregory Peck is shot by the cops.

[edit] Michael Ninn: Perfect

Bullet time was also apparently used in the movie: Perfect, by director Michael Ninn. It is a pornographic film. Dessydes

[edit] 'concept introduced in recent films' Huh?

I guess I'm unqualified to edit this article since I saw nothing at all original about The Matrix... And now I find out "bullet time" is another one of its supposed innovations... How is this radical new concept of "bullet time" (i.e. slow-motion) a new technique when it's been around since the beginning of cinema? Just off the top of my head, the first example I think of is Kato attacking Inspector Clouseau at his home... And what about Gilligan inside the hot air balloon? Or Seven Samurai? Or the pillow-fight in Zéro de Conduite... Or Georges Méliès for that matter... Sure, mention that some people seem to think it's something new, but then point out the real history behind the technique, which goes back way, way before those ancient classics, The Matrix and Speed Racer. --Rizzleboffin 22:21, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

A couple other classic 'bullet time' examples come to mind: Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu, and, to my mind, the classic example of 'bullet time'-- the scene where Laurel leaves the gas running in the oven, then comes into the living room and sits down with a pipe reading the paper. Hardy walks into the kitchen with a lighted match, after an explosion he then comes sailing back through the door, across the living room in slow motion (or bullet time, if you prefer), while Laurel's chair, also in bullet-time, raises up off the floor then plops him down, with a confused look on his face. OK, so it wasn't done digitally. Still hilarious, classic bullet-time. --Rizzleboffin 01:03, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Added paragraph on The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

...which has one of the most extended, and humorous, bullet time sequences ever filmed.

And what of the original Superman movie? I seem to recall the Man of Steel running down a missile in that one...

--EngineerScotty 22:57, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History of the term

When was the term "bullet time" first used? The first time I remember hearing it was in Max Payne. And if 3D Realms held the rights to the term originally, that would seem to support the idea that they came up with it. Roberthoff82 04:19, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I could've sworn that the developers/publishers of Max Payne had the trademark to Bullet-Time(tm) Takua108 12:06, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] First music video?

The article mentions Bjork's video as the first, but then apparently lists an earlier Suede video. Can someone fix this and/or explain what's going on? --88.111.33.202 14:08, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mention of QuicktimeVR

Should there be a reference to Quicktime VR? From the first Demos QuicktimeVR showed objects in motion captured with multiple cameras (I remember clearly a basketball player in mid-jump, around which you could rotate), either to stop the motion mid-move or to have it move very slowly while the camera view changed (with the same process of using multiple cameras and joining the images). This was back in ~1995 so maybe it should warrant a mention. Even though not many people used it for this I'm sure more than one took the idea from seeing what could be done (I know I did)

[edit] Needs photo of equipment

This article needs a photo or maybe diagram of the equipment used to accomplish the in-camera part of the effect. I recall seeing the Matrix setup in CineFX at the time: an arcing track with numerous still cameras and with motion picture cameras at, I think, both ends. --Tysto 17:45, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Need For Speed Most Wanted

Someone should mention the speedbreaker in need for speed most wanted.--Taida 16:03, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Images

That CG image of Neo from the matrix shouldn't really be there, and one still is sufficient. Bullet time animated gifs would be more appropriate, and perhaps a still from Max Payne or another video game with bullet time, showing what the bullet time looks like, not just something random. Gmip 15:40, 16 November 2006 (UTC)