Tilt shift video: "Bathtub IV"

I'm an unabashed sucker for tilt-shift photography and videos, and this one, Bathtub IV, by Keith Loutit really hits the spot.

[#1 posted by Anonymous, March 18, 2009 1:25 PM]

That was really cool. It looked like everything was in miniature.

[#2 posted by bingobingo, March 18, 2009 1:27 PM]

Wow, very cool video. When the water brushes up against the rocks it's pretty sublime.

Anybody know what song that is?

It's absolutely horrible in every way.

[#3 posted by JoeKickass, March 18, 2009 1:28 PM]

Uh, did that lego man who was washed out to sea get rescued? I hope.... (41 seconds in)

[#4 posted by MarkM, March 18, 2009 1:29 PM]

the rescue scene looked like a "Thunderbirds" episode.

[#5 posted by JoeKickass, March 18, 2009 1:37 PM]

OK I watched the rest of the video, looks like he lived, thank goodness, I hate to to think about orphaned lego children and widowed lego women.

[#6 posted by DSMVWL THS, March 18, 2009 1:45 PM]

This is great... especially with the too-precious music turned all the way down.

[#7 posted by CapnSoggy, March 18, 2009 2:11 PM]

I wish there were a little more info from the film maker, however, I believe the people, vehicles, locations are all real, just recorded in a way that looks like animated miniatures.
I think it's cool.

[#8 posted by bingobingo, March 18, 2009 2:16 PM]

#1, #7:

Tilt-shift photography makes things look like miniatures.

[#9 posted by caipirina, March 18, 2009 2:22 PM]

tilt shift seems to be everywhere these days .. i first noticed the subtle us in the UK show 'survivors' and recently in the opening sequence of 'Dollhouse' .. though it is not aimed at being miniture .. but more like surreal ..

fun effect to use on photos .. but i want to try it on video too .. anyone has an easy solution ??

[#10 posted by nmeyer79, March 18, 2009 2:22 PM]

Color me slightly confused- since this is video of REAL people, how the heck did he get video of a guy falling in the water and his subsequent rescue?

[#11 posted by oasisob1, March 18, 2009 2:23 PM]

I guess, since the end of the video says the song is called "Clementine", by Megan Washington, performed by Washington, that it's probably a song called Clementine. By Megan. Washington.

www.myspace.com/meganwashington

I may be reading to much into it.

[#12 posted by nmeyer79, March 18, 2009 2:24 PM]

Oops- If I'd just taken the time to go to the actual website, I would've seen the explanation:
"Thanks to the entire team for their generous access during training exercises and patrols this Summer."

[#13 posted by Antinous / Moderator, March 18, 2009 2:28 PM]

Color me slightly confused- since this is video of REAL people, how the heck did he get video of a guy falling in the water and his subsequent rescue?

Actors are real people. Mostly.

[#14 posted by airship, March 18, 2009 2:29 PM]

Hey, I can see my house! My tiny, tiny house...

[#15 posted by Johnny Cat, March 18, 2009 2:30 PM]

Bathtubs I-III pale in comparison to this masterpiece. Adding the (staged, of course) dramatic angle, on top of the more colorful subjects, was what did it for me.

[#16 posted by Pippi, March 18, 2009 2:45 PM]

"Tilt-Shift(tm)--now with plot!"

[#17 posted by Guysmiley, March 18, 2009 2:47 PM]

Tilt shifted flying helicopters, I have to admit, THAT is really surreal (and cool).

[#18 posted by neurolux, March 18, 2009 3:10 PM]

Best tilt-shift video evar!!!

[#19 posted by Brad, March 18, 2009 3:33 PM]

This should finally put the stop-motion-animation-with-miniatures cabal out of business! The time savings of using actual size stuff should be...um...enormous.

[#20 posted by Chris Brewer, March 18, 2009 3:38 PM]

A day in the life of the Miniature Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter (Greater Sydney Region)

The bridge out to the island near the end of the clip should be recognisable to anyone who's seen Mission Impossible 2: Sydney Bugaloo

[#21 posted by Anonymous, March 18, 2009 4:00 PM]

I lived in this area of Sydney for a few years (I'm now a little further from the coast). This video stirs up all the best memories of wandering the coastline on a sunny day - the beautiful rocks, the mysterious blue churing sea, the ever-reliable rescue helicopter bringing you home just in time for a afternoon milkshake with the kids.

Tilt-shift timelapse seems to turn everything into a childhood fantasy version of itself.

[#22 posted by Dean Putney, March 18, 2009 4:12 PM]

If you click through to the video's page on Vimeo and read the description, all these questions are explained.

That's a real guy. He really did fall in the water, and he really did float around and pretend to drown while the real helicopter pulled him out.

In the Vimeo page the creator thanks the rescue services for allowing him to video tape their training exercises.

[#23 posted by Quiet Noises, March 18, 2009 7:10 PM]

Make it a tilt-shift time-lapse HDR video and you've got a real winner.

[/mr. negativity]

[#24 posted by J France, March 18, 2009 8:23 PM]

Looks like a beach in New South Wales, Australia. Was the Westpak rescue chopper! That was the best bit about it, total Thunderbirds or R/C Chopper look. The ships were pretty darned cool, too.

Musician is Australian, too. After being bombarded with the track on local radio daily I don't hate it, but feel I should. Too precious, indeed.

[#25 posted by robulus, March 18, 2009 9:05 PM]

Hey, that's Bare Island! I go diving there quite a lot. It's very nice.

[#26 posted by cszostek, March 18, 2009 9:15 PM]

Excellent video, thanks!

Mark, I'm right there with you at being a sucker for tilt shift. I wish I had known about it in '00 when I was taking video classes. This will be used in my future!

[#27 posted by thelibrarianne, March 18, 2009 10:56 PM]

I find it oddly comforting that everything real can be tilt-shifted. It makes me take life a little less seriously.

[#28 posted by Kieran O'Neill, March 19, 2009 1:28 AM]

Huge smile on my face from this. The helicopter was just awesome, especially when it was churning up the waves. The water looked disturbingly like stop-frame attempts at re-creating water from kids shows I watched when younger.

And the container ships - having some sense of how huge those things really are, seeing them looking like bathtub toys was fantastic.

[#29 posted by kiddr01, March 19, 2009 3:22 AM]

i haven't watched the video, so i can't comment on whether it's cool or not - but i can say i really hate tilt shift video - a cheap trick that's already been done to death. Anyone who can bring themselves to employ this as a tactic is just a bit lazy really : (

it could well be that the content of the video is stellar though : )

[#30 posted by Sindigo, March 19, 2009 3:37 AM]

I suspect he filmed a training exercise...

Cool video though. I liked the song too. I wonder how long this tilt-shift fad will last. These things tend to come and go when they get over-used. Anyone remember when morphing was all the rage a few years ago?

[#31 posted by Fang Xianfu, March 19, 2009 5:47 AM]

This video is ace. It's not just the tilt-shifting that's impressive, though - the bit I liked most was the skipped frames during the helicopter's flying. Must've been using a really high framerate camera to get them looking so clear while they were spinning.

[#32 posted by CoquiELF, March 19, 2009 10:30 AM]

That was really wonderful - and I enjoyed the saccharine music, too. The frame-dropping really sold the "miniatures" style. Good stuff.

[#33 posted by username, March 19, 2009 10:47 AM]

yup, that is a great video. love the helicopter.

[#34 posted by Frank W, March 19, 2009 1:07 PM]

Done.
To.
Death.

[#35 posted by jeaguilar, March 19, 2009 1:21 PM]

Music:

“CLEMENTINE” (Megan Washington)
Performed by Washington
© 2008 J Albert & Son Pty Limited
Used with permission

[#36 posted by SamSam, March 19, 2009 2:03 PM]

Yes, it was clear that what made this video was not just the tilt-shift, but the weird stop-animation style caused by dropping frames (thanks Fang Xianfu and CoquiELF for pointing that out, I wouldn't have worked it out) and the hyper-saturated colors. ...or is that just what New South Wales actually looks like?

[#37 posted by SamSam, March 19, 2009 2:06 PM]

To those saying "done to death" (Frank W, kiddr01), can you point out another film of similar quality? Similar fun? Similarly combining together a bunch of other neat features?

Otherwise, it's a little like watching a movie and saying "Pah! Color photography. Done. To. Death."

Sam

[#38 posted by General Specific, March 19, 2009 4:56 PM]

Don't all time-lapse videos have that stop-motion effect? It's not really dropping frames since those frames never existed. Also, saturated colors make tilt-shift images look better.

[#39 posted by SamSam, March 20, 2009 9:33 AM]

General Specific: It's not a time lapse movie. At least not all the parts with people in them. It just looks close enough to a time-lapse movie (through playing with frames) to trick people -- including you, it seems. :)

[#40 posted by Anonymous, May 19, 2009 7:03 AM]

cool!
please check my tilt shift video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfd3rKNnsK0

thanks for comments!

[#41 posted by whaleface, July 3, 2009 12:57 AM]

This video is gorgeous.
And the song is really special.
Great work once again, Keith.
Does anybody know where the band is from? I'm quite blown away by this song.