Underwater Elapsed Time Motion Picture
HEE-FV-007

Date:
1973 & earlier
Location:
MIT campus, Cambridge MA; Hodgkins Cove, Gloucester MA
Image(s):
Color
Sound(s):
Silent
Maker:
Harold E. Edgerton
Film type:
16 mm film, Kodachrome reversal master
Run time:
07:46
People:
Harold E. Edgerton, Kenneth R. H. Read
Harold E. Edgerton produced this film in collaboration with Kenneth R. H. Read (Boston University) to demonstrate underwater time-lapse photography techniques using marine invertebrate subjects. Shot on location at Hodgkins Cove (Gloucester, MA), the film includes footage of the equipment, set-up and operations. The time lapse film allows us to perceive the otherwise elusive interactions of slow-moving underwater organisms such as sand dollars, sea urchins, starfish and crustaceans. The film opens with a brief time-lapse sequence of people crossing the street in front of MIT’s entrance at 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA. The underwater time lapse film equipment was partly funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society.

Tagged: crustacean, elapsed time, marine biology, National Geographic Society, sand dollar, sea urchin, starfish, time lapse, underwater photography

TIME CODEDESCRIPTION
00:00:01 Introductory information: film title, synopsis, date, run time.
00:00:08 Film begins.
00:00:17 [Title card] "ELAPSED TIME MOTION PICTURE / MADE AT / STROBOSCOPIC LIGHT LABORATORY / MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY / HAROLD E. EDGERTON, M.I.T. / KENNETH R. H. READ, B.U."
00:00:22 Title "PEOPLE - PROJECTED AT 24 f.p.s. / PHOTOGRAPHED AT 8 f.p.s. / SPEED UP 24 ÷ 1/8 = 3X"
00:00:27 [Title card] "UNDERWATER SUBJECTS / PHOTOGRAPHED AT 24 f.p.s. / PHOTOGRAPHED AT 1/20 f.p.s. ± / SPEED UP 24 x 20 = 480X / SAND DOLLARS / STAR FISH, etc."
00:00:33 [Title card] "For a Description of Equipment See NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY RESEARCH REPORTS 1966, WASHINGTON, DC 1973 “An Elapsed-time Photographic System for Underwater Use” Page 79 / H. Edgerton, V. MacRoberts & K. Read"
00:00:46 People filmed (somewhat faster than normal speed) walking in front of MIT’s entrance at 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA, crossing the street.
00:01:09 Harold Edgerton and scuba diver Kenneth Read place underwater camera on a dolly and Edgerton begins to roll camera away from van.
00:01:20 Kenneth Read stands next to the underwater camera
00:01:23 Read and Edgerton take the underwater camera down to the water’s edge.
00:01:32 Young boy (H. Edgerton's son and/or grandson?) and wife (?) walk along beach as Edgerton and Read finish preparing the underwater camera.
00:01:40 Read takes the camera into the water, various shots and angles.
00:01:55 Read returns to shore with sand dollars for young boy, who then displays the animals for the camera
00:02:34 Read suiting up next to van and walking to the beach
00:03:18 Read enters the water to retrieve the underwater camera
00:03:22 Read returns to shore, film appears to be slightly speeded up.
00:03:44 Read returns with underwater camera, H. Edgerton helps take camera away with dolly.
00:04:15 Sand dollars moving of the cove bottom
00:04:30 Sea urchins, starfish, fish and crabs on a rock
00:05:22 Sand dollars in motion
00:05:55 Starfish, crabs, lobsters, and sea urchins moving about.
00:07:17 Close-up video of starfish
00:07:36 Film ends.
00:07:46 © MIT 2010 credits.

Comments on this video: