The Late Movies: Fun with Slow Motion

Ransom Riggs
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It's getting easier to film things in extreme slow motion. My buddy Pat is a Hollywood camera tech who frequently has fancy high-end camera packages lying around his house -- so, theoretically, we could get drunk and film ourselves jumping off his roof at 10,000 frames/second any old time. (But I'm glad we haven't. On a related note: I have never broken a bone.) This new availability of extreme-slow-motion-capable cameras is the reason that all sorts of silly things shot in slo-mo are showing up on YouTube -- things that would've been far too expensive, and pointless, to shoot back in the days of film. Here are some!

One of the least flattering things you can do in slow-motion? Sneeze.

A lighter flicking to life looks like a miniature fireball erupting. Cooooool.

Chipmunks: cute at any speed.

People being shot with a cupcake cannon. Which exists, apparently.

A ladybug takes off at 7000 frames per second. They have really complex wings.

Popcorn popping.

The obligatory but always-impressive water balloon being popped.

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