TIMELAPSE
HISTORY
The history of the timelapse is associated to that of photography and cinema
Here are the essential steps in the history of this photographic technique that was actually born by mistake!
Timelapse History :
2500 BC
Giza pyramid
When Khéops built the Great Pyramid of Giza, chronophotography was not yet invented … so there is no timelapse available ! Surely that’s why we still wonder how they built it.
1839
DAGUERREOTYPE
Daguerre invents the daguerreotype, an improvement on Niépce’s invention, and the first real camera.
1878
CHRONOPHOTOGRAPHY
A French and an English invented chronophotography almost simultaneously. The succession of cameras arranged by Eadweard Muybridge allows him to finally prove that the gallop of the horse is a very complex 5-stroke gait where the 4 irons are never in the air at the same time as the painting of the time left it us to think.
1878
CHRONOPHOTOGRAPHY
Etienne-Jules Marey’s photographic rifle is used to capture the flight of ducks to break down their wing movements. If they are studying the decompositions of movement, neither of them is interested in the idea of recomposing movement by assembling the images together …
1887
ANCESTOR OF TIMELAPSE
An amateur photographer, Théophile Féau, sets up his camera on a tower of the Palais de Chaillot to photograph at regular intervals, each month, the construction of the Eiffel Tower. The little notebooks that you scroll under your fingers to watch the tower grow are the direct ancestor of the timelapse.
1896
FIRST TIMELAPSE
The Lumières brothers, inventors of the cinematograph, send an operator to film a bullfight. The latter, for fear of running out of film and missing the end, decides to shoot only 9 frames per second instead of 16 (as was the case in silent cinema) to gain autonomy. Later during the screening he said to himself that the passes had seemed much slower to him… Françis Doublier has just made a mistake which is the first involuntary attempt at accelerated time…
1901
FIRST KNOWN TIMELAPSE FILM
Demolishing and rebuilding the Star Theater in New-York is the first known TimeLapse directed by Frederick Armitage. The film recollects the demolition of a theater in 1 minute and 46 seconds. During the screening it was rewound, the spectators then saw the theater being rebuilt.
2000
SCIENTIFIC TIMELAPSE
The timelapse has proved to be very useful for science, whether it is to break down the movements of animals or to accelerate very slow phenomena such as the growth of plants or the movements of the stars.
2014
OUR FIRST TIMELAPSES
Gaël Pollès and Jean-Paul Meny are making their first high-end timelapse for the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Contemporary Art.
2016
CREATION OF TIMELAPSE GO’ !
Creation of TimeLapse Go’, by Gaël Pollès, journalist and TV director and Jean-Paul O’Meny, institutional producer
2017
TIMELAPSE AND SITE MONITORING
TimeLapse GO’ invents and markets the first 360° timelapse and 360° site monitoring.
2018
DRONE AND VIRTUAL TOUR
TimeLapse GO’ launches its drones and virtual tour services.