According to Wikipedia, American filmmaker Dan Eckert coined the term “hyperlapse” in 2012, referring to a method of filmmaking where a camera is aimed at a fixed point while it is moved large distances. Single images are then aligned in post production to produce a fluid motion. The technique however can be traced back to a filmmaker named Guy Roland who invented it in 1986 and utilized it in a Super8 mm film called “Pace” in 1991.

Roland shot the film you see here, “Pacer”, in 1995 using a 16mm Bolex camera, and it’s a thing of beauty. The original negative of this film was apparently destroyed in it’s only printing in 1995, and that print was digitally transferred last year and painstakingly remastered earlier this year (the version that you see below).

A little side note for Vancouverites, Roland began shooting “Spacer” in Vancouver in 2001 using digital cameras (in the painful early days of digital photography) which was released in 2004 and won many awards before the National Film Board of Canada bought it in 2006 and it’s name became “Kino Citius”. The NFB had plans to follow it up with a digital large format film with Roland, but it was eventually cancelled.

Watch “Pacer” (1995) below. It is amazing what our phones can do with the Hyperlapse app now when you consider how much work it was to achieve this effect back then.