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Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall

News Time-Lapsing Iconic British Events & Projects

31 May 2022 Kate

As calendars become jam-packed once again with sports, landmark celebrations, and music special events, we’ve decided to look back at how we’ve provided time-lapse for some previous iconic British events.

Royal Albert Hall

We were privileged to film the flag festooned Last of the Proms as part of a Year at the Life of the Royal Albert Hall.

Documenting this special event was part of an elaborate time-lapse project that saw us capturing for a whole year at the Royal Albert Hall. The iconic London venue commissioned our time-lapse solutions to document its full annual programme.

With our specialist skilled team of engineers and editors, we were well equipped to operate and manage our camera systems for such continuous long-term capture. This capability meant we could effectively capture the huge number and range of events from the BBC Proms, Royal Variety Performance, Swan Lake, and Masters Tennis. All 390 events differed, and all occurred under various lighting conditions but our in-house editing team remotely micro-managed the camera systems to ensure each event was documented effectively.

Horse Guards Parade

Also, in London and at a prestigious venue, we were chosen to capture the first-ever time-lapse at the Horse Guards Parade ground near Whitehall. Our skilled engineers installed two camera systems at the historic site and were allowed access to privileged vantage points – one on the balcony of the former office of the Duke of Wellington to capture the construction of a temporary venue, and the other to capture developments from inside the structure. For such access to capture this event, we were granted special permissions by the security services, 10 Downing Street and the Armed Forces to film on location.

One of our camera systems captured the exterior construction of the event venue, whilst the other covered the build of the extravagant interiors, the special evening event, and the site returned to its original state. Both systems also captured the parade itself.

With such short-term projects, intensive bursts of on-site activity need to be remotely micro-managed with precision by our in-house editors to ensure the best rapid capture. Once the event at Horses Guard Parade was complete our editing team quickly created a fully post-produced time-lapse edit to showcase the level of work undertaken by Lemon Drop Ltd for the project.

Mary Rose

We have been privileged to capture an iconic part of British history – the 500-year-old Mary Rose warship as she underwent part of her restoration process.  

We collaborated with museum media specialists Motivation 81, providing remote time-lapse and site monitoring of the sensitive improvement works at the Mary Rose Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. We were part of the privileged first few to be allowed access to Henry VIII’s flagship as our camera system helped to capture the final work at the museum and removal of the ‘hotbox’ that surrounded the Mary Rose. Due to the unique and very challenging conditions, our skilled team of engineers had to be innovative, using a specialist rig to carefully mount the camera system to keep it in place securely without causing any damage to the King’s most famous ship.

Our editors remotely micro-managed the camera system for nearly a year through our bespoke viewing platform to ensure high-quality long-term capture. Rapid interval capture was also initiated during periods of increased activity to ensure progress was documented in detail.

Whilst the project was running, we produced a short time-lapse edit for the Mary Rose Museum website and also interim edits we produced in time for the big reveal were broadcast nationally on BBC News. Once our time-lapse work at the Dockyard finished, we produced a full video to showcase the conservation work on this important historic project.

Glasgow European Championships

When the prestigious European Championships were being held in Glasgow, we were tasked with providing two months of time-lapse capture as an indoor tennis court was transformed into a state-of-the-art synchronised swimming venue. Using one of our specialisms – rapid interval capture, we documented the unique technical work undertaken, within the tight time specifications required for the project. Our editors remotely micro-managed the camera system to ensure sustained high-quality capture on the fast-paced build.

Time-Lapsing Iconic British Events & Projects - temporary synchronised swimming pool
Temporary synchronised swimming pool at Scotstoun Campus, Glasgow as seen from our camera system

The whole project was time-sensitive, so our editors provided a quick turnaround and delivered multiple fully post-produced time-lapse videos to our clients at Glasgow European Championships to ensure these could be shared and used across social media channels. Specific footage was also specially requested by the BBC for a news report.  

https://vimeo.com/282826960/aa0b40c828

Our involvement with these numerous projects illustrates that we are equipped with the skills and knowledge to deliver the highest quality time-lapse for special projects and events. It reinforces our position as the UK market leader, able to provide innovative solutions in even the most challenging environments. Whilst the range of engaging time-lapse edits produced shows the potential and dynamism of time-lapse photography, and how it can help visually showcase a broad spectrum of events, projects, and locations.

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss our work further or to request a quote.

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Time-Lapse Systems are a part of Hideaway Media Ltd (est. 2007). World leader in the provision of bespoke time-lapse capture and site monitoring solutions. UK and Worldwide.