Create360 is a global geographical ecological space time perception project using a modular timelapse capture framework to generate footage and organize it (to curate footage in assembled sequences) for understanding and appreciating the biosphere and all its inhabitants.
This is a longitudinal creative project including capture, curation, collaboration, learning, and exploration.
This video demonstrates a collection of 05 clips, 12 second timelapse films captured using a 5-second interval between photographs.
In each case, the 12 second clip, containing 360 frames, covers 30 minutes of real time from start to finish.
Create360: The Basic Concept
We are piloting the Create360 project in order to solidify the capture framework, publish the procedural model, and generate relevant instructions. As we continue refining, we can begin crowdsourcing footage captured all over the world. As we build out our submission system, these 12 second clips can be uploaded to the 360 website and cataloged based on any number of variables (geolocation, timestamps, EXIF, etc.) and descriptive elements (place names, weather conditions, historical context).
Once the Create360 library has been populated with enough clips, we can begin the curation assembly process. There are options for expressive or explanatory voiceover narration and scoring or selecting music to blend with the visuals.
There is a clear connection between this curation process and the “iterative performance” element of our sister project, the Ecotheater Initiative.
As creative people explore the 360 capture process, there are lots of opportunities for variation on the theme within the confines of the 360 frame limit.
But, why are we interested in the Create360 project? And why did we pick 360 as the number?
Why 360?
Many, if not most, commercially available intervalometers allow for setting a frame count between 0-399 frames. This reduces the equipment overhead costs required for capture, as most of these intervalometers run about $50.
With 360, the math of time intervals and real-time compression work out nicely.
Consider the 10 second interval:
360 frames x 10 seconds = 3600 seconds = 60 mins = 1 hour.
So a 10 second interval covers 1 hour of real time, a 20 second interval covers 2 hours, and so on. That means you can remove the trailing zero and easily calculate duration plans for any timelapse.
Creative Perspective
From a more thematic creative perspective, why embark on this endeavor? Why should we do a global collaborative geographical ecological space time perception project?
What can be captured within 360 frames?
How can the art and the craft of timelapse be used in service of scientific inquiry, perception, and understanding. And how does this become consilience?
What’s the right balance of real time compression to best illustrate a sense of place narrative, especially based on dynamic variables such as atmospheric conditions?
How does speed and time compression affect our perception and interpretation?
How does time compression affect our understanding and appreciation of complex ecologies of the watersheds of the biosphere, and how does it inspire the associated scientific inquiry to follow?
How can we use the art and craft of timelapse to inspire people, to help them learn, to help them understand and appreciate the complexities of our world?
Can 360 help people change their beliefs and behaviors?
This is the story, yet to be told.
Now, let’s talk about our plans for Create360.
What do we have in mind?
Let’s briefly explore each phase of the Create360 project: capture, curation, collaboration, learning, and exploration.
Capture: The Create360 Framework, Procedural Model, and Guidelines
In order to make it as easy as possible for timelapse enthusiasts to capture and produce timelapse clips that meet the standards of the Create360 project, we will be publishing the 360 framework, procedural model, and guidelines as instructional manuals, job aids, or “cheat sheets” to support the work of filmmakers across ability levels. (For example, we will want to make sure that participants remember to set their geolocation and ensure that the clock in the camera is set to the correct time and date.) We’ll make announcements anytime we publish new materials to the website.
The Framework
The Create360 Framework is just a handy reference guide for calculating intervals and their realtime coverage, for those that prefer not to do math in their head, or just want to get used to the calculations and need a good reference. We’ll be releasing a printable PDF of the conversion table and likely include the diagrams shown above, and this one as well.
Gear Lists
We’re building out some suggested “gear kit” checklists, including model numbers and links to where equipment can be purchased online as relevant. We want to keep the price point for the necessary gear kits as low as possible, ensuring that as many enthusiasts as possible can participate in the Create360 project.
Procedural Model and Guidelines
To complement many timelapse capture reference materials already available, we are writing a Create360 procedural model and guidelines to cover all phases of capture, including pre-production planning and shoot day preparation, step-by-step guidelines to set up the cameras for capture on location (proper stabilization, focus, exposure, etc.), and how to process and sequence captured RAW photos into the 12 second clips (using any number of sequencing software options).
As the Create360 project gains traction, we’ll also provide a user guide for content upload and semantic categorization. In addition to publishing these manuals and guidelines as regularly updated pages on the Create360 website, as well as PDFs that can be downloaded and printed, we hope to generate some more polished booklets that can be purchased print-on-demand. These booklets will include ample pages for field notes to help keep track of individual captures in context.
Our intention is to make this process as understandable as possible, allowing novices of all ages to grasp the concepts well enough to become proficient Create360 participants.
Upload: Sending Captured Clips to Create360
After capture and sequencing, Create360 participants can submit any of their clips that meet the framework standards. These clips will be reviewed, vetted, and may be included in the global media library for reuse by Create360 participants interested in curating sequences and films for different purposes.
Our plan is to automate the categorization process as much as possible by mining as much metadata from the two “bookend” RAW images associated with the clip. We’re still working out the details of how this automation process can be included in the submission-review workflow.
During the submission process for any Create360 clip, once the clip is uploaded and cataloged, submitters will have the option to include contextual notes regarding the capture scenario and procedure (e.g, environmental conditions, aesthetics and purpose, mishaps, successes). This is part of the reason we hope to provide field notebooks (and will encourage participants to create their own, using whatever note-taking systems they have available).
All Create360 clips that are reviewed and included in the global media library will have a Creative Commons license structure, including the option to be released into the public domain. This is a requirement of the Create360 project, as our intention is to provide the global media library as an open educational resource, or OER.
Before we move on to discuss more about curation, let’s take a quick sidebar to consider Create360 identities.
Identity: Create360 Participant Profiles
Once any Create360 participant has successfully uploaded at least five clips (one full minute’s worth) that meet the Create360 framework standards and pass review to be included in the global media library, this participant will have the option to create a public profile visible to all Create360 project subscribers.
These profiles will serve as a portfolio of sorts, with subscribers able to filter the portfolio view based on any number of factors, not just limited to the metadata categories described above. Ideally, these profiles can be permalinked, allowing them to serve as evidence the participant can use to demonstrate the quality of their creative works.
In addition to the automated portfolio view, creators will have options to include typical profile elements such as a headshot, a brief bio, home location, social media handles, and websites, as well as specific elements like a statement of purpose related to their contributions to the Create360 project, and listings of any gear kits they use (in order to allow others to compare notes and seek advice).
Certainly, participants will have the option to keep their profile unlisted, but all their works will still be credited and searchable within the Create360 global media library.
Curation: Assembly of Sequences and Narratives
To launch the curation phase of Create360, project volunteers will create a variety of “in house” assemblies of clips into sequences and films with various narrative structure and meaning. The results would be short films that are combinations of different places or times, such as a sequence of clips all captured at exactly at the same time on a particular date in a variety of locations across the globe, or anthologies of a particular time or a particular place, or matching up a variety of 10-second or 20-second clips from a single or multiple locations.
These would serve as initial models for inspiration to Create360 participants.
Within due time, curators (other creators, educators, etc.) subscribed to Create360 would be able to use clips from the Create360 global media library to create their own sequences.
These sequences could be assembled in any video editing software allowing the addition of graphics, narration, and music as appropriate. (We are currently researching software options that would allow Create360 subscribers to use a cloud system for assembling and narrating sequences while logged into the Create360 platform.)
Additionally, there must be a way for Create360 curators to easily credit all content creators based on associated CC licensure (or public domain release). Ideally, we can automatically generate a credits list on the fly, stored in a curator’s Create360 profile as they select clips for use. Then it will be quite simple to integrate these credited lists into completed curations published as short films. Ideally, these credits will include direct links back to each clip within the global media library, allowing other curators to easily access the same clips should they choose to do so.
What happens when creative people wish to work together on Create360 projects?
Collaboration in Create360: Picture and Sound (and Curriculum?)
One of the things we believe makes Create360 unique is the next layer of interpretation we intend to explore: how to foster the collaboration of composers, musicians, voiceover artists, and subject matter experts.
Clearly, we want musicians to be able to take the sequences assembled by curators and provide a variety of original musical styles and instrumentation to enhance the viewing and interpretation experience of any of the sequences/films created within the 360 project including variations on a theme: multiple scores for the same film.
Our vision is to include opportunities for subject matter experts across disciplines to be able to provide relevant information to contextualize the visuals presented in any Create360 clip, sequence, or film. These meta-level notes could be layered into the sidecar information associated with any clip or sequence, and appropriately tagged/categorized for searchability.
We think it would make sense to have these subject matter experts be able to work with voiceover artists to ensure that pronunciations and inflections are accurate to the meaning that is the basis of the explanation being voiced.
Lets ponder: How can we use the Create360 project to get people together for these types of collaboration, especially in service of incidental learning?
Speaking of learning….
Create360 for Learning: Context for Understanding
Each Create360 film project (initially those created in-house by volunteers) will have a viewing reference guide (also created by our volunteers) as complement to the viewing experience. These guides would serve to explain the order of the clips, intervals used, where captured and when, almost like a kind of playbill or a museum booklet. These guides would be viewable via download or printable on demand. Viewers of these Create360 films could follow along and make notes as they go, or anytime they rewatch the films.
We’re working on ideas of how, similar to the credits list described above, we could automatically generate an outline of these materials for any film from each clip’s metadata, allowing Create360 participants to essentially “flesh out” the outline with more explanatory information (often in collaboration with subject matter experts).
For each reference guide produced, we want to provide an opportunity for much more expansive reference material and further reading suggestions that go along with each clip in the finished piece, accessible through URLs linked from the guide. People could follow up as they desired based on the level of inspiration inherent in the clips.
These guides (likely an XML format) would be hosted as sidecar files associated with each completed sequence or film made available in the Create360 global media library.
So, once all these materials are in the global media library, how will other Create360 participants find them?
Exploration: Finding Relevance: Clips, Creators, and Curators
As more Create360 participants contribute clips and the Create360 global media library continues to grow, we want to ensure that all subscribers are able to quickly and efficiently find clips relevant to their inquiries. Obviously, subscribers would be able to filter the contents of the library using any of the metadata and semantic categories to drill down into the contents.
We’re considering options for an integrated interactive map on the Create360 website that would allow subscribers to organize their search visibly, by location, looking anywhere in the world and finding clips captured in those places.
We believe Create360 subscribers should also be able to bookmark clips, essentially creating their own collections of clips, applying any labels or themes that make sense to them. Subscribers should also be able to follow content creators, as well as curators, based on the quality and relevance of these works to the subscribers’ needs or interests.
One thing about this exploration and collection creation process that excites us most (concerning how the Create360 project can be improved) is that as we observe patterns of interactions with the contents of the Create360 global media library, we can begin making sense of how people are engaging with the material: especially considering the order in which various types of clips are sequenced together (when and where they were recorded, etc.).
We can begin to think about and make sense of why, generally speaking, people are engaging with any series of clips in a particular order. This will help us understand how people are learning from the creative expression and the science inherent in the clips and curated sequences, and thus how we can continue to improve the Create360 system to improve the ways people can learn from its resources!
Questions? Contact Us. 🙂
Thanks for making it this far. How about one last teaser video?