What cam did he use here?

[Matt Buys]

MSN Entertainment

Or if you were doing this what cam might you use and how?

[Mitchell Lewis]

I would think just about any small consumer camcorder would work as long as you can flip the LED screen 180 degrees so you can shoot yourself. He might have a screw on wide angle lens on his (that depends on the lens that's built-in to the camera).

[Ethan Cooper]

That was brilliant, who cares what he used.

[Matt Buys]

Agree it's brilliant. Very jealous I didn't think of it myself. I'd like to do something with my kids each day in front of my house and I'm trying to figure the best way to do it.

Forgot to add. Thinking of taking a picture once a month in same spot for the next eighteen years. Any ideas?

[Ethan Cooper]

Yeah, do it topless.

Oh wait, unless you're talking about doing it with the kids, then umm... shirts will be needed and far less creepy.

[Rick L. Allen]

Originally Posted by Matt Buys

Or if you were doing this what cam might you use and how?

Who knows what camera he used. What he did do is come up with a concept and figured out a way to mount and use whatever camera he had in a creative way.

It's the people who figure out how to use the tools they have that do creative things. The question gets asked over and over again what camera, rig, software, etc. will get me this shot, this look, this effect, etc. Tools are important but tools don't give you an eye, make you creative or substitute for skill and experience.

It's the Indian, not the arrow.

[Matt Buys]

I've fiddled around with different techniques and not had much luck. Too jumpy. Has anyone out there actually tried anything like this and have any helpful technical comments?

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Matt Buys

any helpful technical comments?

Boring technical view first: if you did it with a stills camera at high rez with a wide angle lens, then you fix it in post by setting up guides for the eyes, the oval of the face, then just aligning each shot (shot extra wide) to fit in, having used raw to even-up all the exposures and white balance.

But what made it was the occasional use of asides. Little glances, reactions, pouts. It could be video... I think it was stills and editing - okay, so shoot a few more frames. Or use any camcorder with a flip-to-front mode (that's pretty much all of them) and practice to get muscle memory... Amateurs practice until they do it right. Pros practice until they can't do it wrong.

As for being jealous for the idea (elsewhere in thread), leave behind technology and make room for play. I filmed my son's first couple of years of life doing various things and edited them so 'here he is eating at... 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0' and so on, ditto here's him in bath - each sequence less than 30 seconds. To me, to anyone, it was home movies. To a friend who was something in education, exciting and mindboggling document of child development.

You gotta play and have fun without trying to be clever. If we worry about the process, we lose sight of the goal. To some it was about how hair grows, to others it was about a life journey. To us it's about the camera. Sheesh. :)

[Brian Drysdale]

The reason why it works so well is that he's lining the eyes up on each shot, so that you have one element which remains more or less constant. There are a number of body rigs that have been used on number of films, although a possible simple method would be to have a sighting device e.g. a tube on top of the camera that you just line up by eye before taking each shot so that the camera is more or less in the same position in relation to the subject's eyes on each image, while he's holding the camera out front and shooting blind (although possibly checking the shot afterwards on location using the camera's LCD) and the rest is done in post.

[Paul R Johnson]

it's compulsive, but if you stop looking at his face, you can see how it's been aligned - the frame edges move about. I tried it with a wide angle held out as far as i could in front of me. This ensures that the size of the head is the same in each shot, and I suspect the simplest way to do the alignment is manually bu drawing the position of the eyes on the screen with a wipe off pen, then just moving the frame about.

With stuff like this, the initial idea is important - and once conceived, just becomes a thing you do each day. That said - I'd never have patience!

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

This ensures that the size of the head is the same in each shot, and I suspect the simplest way to do the alignment is manually bu drawing the position of the eyes on the screen with a wipe off pen, then just moving the frame about.

With stuff like this, the initial idea is important - and once conceived, just becomes a thing you do each day. That said - I'd never have patience!

I suspect this or something similar is how it was done for the final alignment during post. There are frames in which the eyes are slightly angled, but one eye is lined up with the previous shot's eye and the other eye is pretty close anyway.

[Matt Buys]

Thanks for the helpful advice. Christoph was kind enough to email back to give his exact set up. For those out there interested, here was his reply,

"i am using a 5D with a 16-35mm lens attached. you need a wide angle to be able to crop without losing the background in the process"

Matt, after more correspondance you were exactly right. It was done with stills and wideangle. Also your idea of filming kids eating at each stage of life is brilliant. I wouldn't mind seeing it on vimeo or youtube. What a gift for the child and future generations.