Time Lapse

A heavily under-cranked shot, usually taking 1 picture per second or less. Popular subjects of time-lapse are clouds, the moon, sunlight shining through a window, or a growing flower.

May be part of a Time Passes Montage.


 * Used heavily in Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi.
 * Often used on Transformers toy commercials when the actual figures' transformations are being demonstrated.
 * It was used a few times in Life After People for plants growing.
 * A lot of the stuff built in Mythbusters takes several days. Their time slot is around an hour. The announcer/narrator/ whatever it's called actually refers to it a few times as the editors' favorite trick.
 * The time-lapsed clouds variant was used frequently to show the passage of time (as well as to hint an the alien setting) in the nineties sci-fi drama Earth 2.
 * Used in-universe on an episode of Psych as a film student is recording the blooming of a rare plant. Shawn and Gus go through the frames to see if the camera captured a mummy escaping from a museum.