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From: mayerk@linc.cis.upenn.edu.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Why did the six-million dollar man run so slowly?
Message-ID: <1338@super.upenn.edu.upenn.edu>
Date: Sat, 13-Jun-87 13:49:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: super.1338
Posted: Sat Jun 13 13:49:31 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jun-87 23:54:41 EDT
References: <1337@super.upenn.edu.upenn.edu> <1431@hou2d.UUCP> <1980@sphinx.uchicago.edu> <2680@uw-june.UUCP>
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Reply-To: mayerk@linc.cis.upenn.edu.UUCP (Kenneth Mayer)
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 18
Keywords: competence, agility, smoothness, size/speed
Xref: utgpu comp.ai:471 comp.cog-eng:110

Occaisionally, the producers _did_ show Lee Majors in a speeded up shot. The
effect was comical. (As I recall, there was this old farmer watching from the
porch of his house as Mr. $6million sprinted across his field.) I like the
cougar metaphor. Wildlife films of such an animal in normal speed are choppy,
incredibly brief, and usuall ends with the felling of the prey. In slow-mo
we get a chance to see the beautiful detail of the predator flying by.

From a cinematic viewpoint, the camera director/special effects director had
to do something to show that Steve Austin wasn't simply jogging across a field
like the rest of us. Slowing the file speed (and speeding up apparent time)
looks comical, like an old Keystone Cops film. Stretching out the time line
increases tension. The viewer gets a chance to examine more detail per sec.
of real time. Exactly the way a novel will be incredibly brief during 
transitions, and excrutiatingly deatailed during climaxes. (I just finished
reading Misery, by Stephen King. For a good reflective look at a writer's art,
packaged in a really good thriller, borrow this book from the library for a
summer weekend reader.)
Kenneth Mayer				mayerk@eniac.seas.upenn.edu