Timelapse Shows Just How Much a Drummer Moves

It is drumming as you’ve never seen it before – and a unique way to ‘see’ music. An ad agency has created an incredible drumming video for Ballantine’s using specially adapted drumsticks.

Timelapse photography was used to capture the sticks movement, while a ‘Matrix style’ camera rig was set up around the drummer Ben Mead to capture him in 260 degrees.

‘Rhythm is the root of everything, I’m always looking for new ways to explore it,’ said Brighton-born Mead.

‘I’ve always wanted to see what rhythm might look like, to see the shape of sound,’ he explained.

The video is part of an ad for whisky firm Ballantine’s.

It developed special software to process the images captured and make the trails glow.

‘In order to capture the stunning light trails, a bespoke application was developed C++ using the Cinder creative coding framework, taking a HD video feed from the main shoot camera and pulls out the LED-tipped drumsticks,’ the firm explained.

‘The trails are not computer generated, but come directly from the images from the camera, creating light trails of the desired length and intensity.

‘In addition, a 360 degree ‘time slice rig’ was used by Ben and the team to capture the light trails in 3D.’