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Bullet-time is a concept introduced in recent films and computer games whereby the passage of time is slowed down so that an observer can see individual bullets flying throughout the scene at a conceivable rate, usually with their trails made visible. It is often used to create a dramatic effect, and some variations involve rotating the camera view around the slowed-down scene. It was previously referred to by some as "time slice photography"
Technology
In film, the general effect is achieved by a set of still cameras surrounding the subject. These are triggered simultaneously. The pictures in the still cameras are then displayed consecutively to produce a moving viewpoint on a single moment in time.
In The Matrix, the cameras were arranged on a track, forming a curve through space. The cameras were then triggered at extremely close intervals, so the action continued to unfold, in extreme slow-motion, while the viewpoint moved. Additionally, the individual frames were scanned for computer processing. Using sophisticated interpolation software, extra frames could be inserted to slow down the action further and improve the fluidity of the movement (especially the frame rate of the images); frames could also be dropped to speed up the action. This approach provides greater flexibility than a purely photographic one.
The same effect can also be produced using CGI and motion capture.
History
The first example of bullet-time can be found in the obscure 1981 action film Kill and Kill Again. It was also featured in the 1998 BBC documentary mini-series "Intimate Universe: The Human Body." Professor Robert Winston was the host and narrator of the series. It was also later used in a commercial by The Gap and popularized by the film The Matrix. Bullet-time was also later used in computer games such as Max Payne and Enter the Matrix where it allows the player to slow the game world down, but still allows the ability to look and aim at normal speed.
Other early applications of the concept:
- Videoclip for Suede "The Wild Ones", 1994. Dir. Howard Greenhalgh. [1] (http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmit/video/wildon.htm) [2] (http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=27012)
- Videoclip for The Rolling Stones "Like a Rolling Stone", 1995. Dir. Michel Gondry. [3] (http://www.director-file.com/gondry/Dxxxii.html)
Antecedents to bullet-time occurred before the invention of cinema itself. Eadweard Muybridge used still cameras placed along a racetrack to take pictures of a galloping horse. Each camera was actuated by a taut string stretched across the track; as the horse galloped past, the camera shutters snapped, taking one frame at a time. (The original intent was to settle a debate the governor of California had started, as to whether or not all four of the animal's legs would leave the ground.) Muybridge later assembled the pictures into a rudimentary animation, by placing them on a glass disk which he spun in front of a light source. His zoopraxiscope was the direct inspiration for Thomas Edison's moving pictures. In effect, Muybridge had achieved the aesthetic opposite to The Matrix's bullet-time sequences; it may be a historical accident that no nineteenth-century bullet-time animations were made.
In addition to the multiple-cameras effect which captures the actors, the surrounding scenery in The Matrix's bullet-time shots is a computer-generated rendering. The reason it looks so real is because it is based on the photogrammetric modeling and projective texture-mapping techniques pioneered in George Borshukov's 1997 The Campanile Movie (http://www.debevec.org/Campanile/).
A similar phrase, "Bullet Time", is a registered trademark of Warner Bros., the distributor of The Matrix. It was formerly a trademark of 3D Realms, producer of the Max Payne games.
The popularity of The Matrix has given rise to several parodies of bullet-time:
- Scary Movie - The protagonist dodges attacks and deals a flying kick to the masked killer.
- - The protagonist dodges several bladed weapons.
- Kung Pow - The protagonist dodges milk from a cow's udders.
- The Upright Citizens Brigade - The camera is physically moved while two actors stand still during a fight.
- The Killer Bean - Bullet-time effects are used liberally.
- Excel Saga - A crudely rendered 3D model is shot multiple times while the camera rotates.
- Shrek - during a bullet-time freeze in the middle of a fight scene, Fiona primps her hair while suspended in mid-drop-kick.
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