This color film compiles late 1940’s time-lapse footage by pioneering photographer John Ott. The filmmaker is regarded as the “father of time-lapse” and was well-regarded for his research on the effects of artificial and natural full-spectrum light upon both plant and human life.

The International Film Bureau Inc. distribution logo (0:08). Titles: “John Ott Pictures Presents” and “Time Lapse Photography” over a 1938 Bell & Howell Filmo 70-F 16mm movie camera (0:20). An iris blooms and wilts in time-lapse photography (0:34). A young boy swings a golf club twice in slow motion (0:50). A black and white urban view of the Chicago River, with movable bridges raising and lowering in fast-motion. A more recent shot in color follows (1:16). TWA jet airliners on a runway. Passengers deplane and jets taxi quickly (1:44). Animation: A lightning bolt jumps between two rose-colored clouds (2:06). The animation process is revealed on an animation stand. A glass plate lowers over a painted cell. A frame counter registers an exposure. John Ott repeats the process, viewed from behind (2:12). A close up of the printed silent 16mm color film strip with double-perforations for projector sprockets. Frames advance one at a time (2:49). Animation resumes with a whirling tornado effect that transforms into an optical swirl, a glowing sphere emitting rays, and finally, a rocky planet (3:00). A rose in bloom, and as a sequence of still images on a film strip, each taken 5 minutes apart (3:28). 24fps rose blooms continue (3:58). The Bell & Howell Filmo camera registers single-frame exposures using a motorized trigger device (4:11). An array of lamps with reflectors mounted under a greenhouse skylight. The lamps are turned on as shutters block out the sunlight (4:22). John Ott operates one of several 16mm film cameras. Lens attachments point at a cluster of flowering plants. Lamps flash on and off. Ott makes camera adjustments (4:49). Ott with his customized electric control panel. Wires run away from fuse boxes (5:18). The gears of a timed motor turn. Ott makes notes on a clipboard while exposures continue automatically (5:26). An outdoor construction of boxes raised on stilts. Inside the boxes, we see a retractable lid and the limb of a tree (5:48). A laceleaf plant sways wildly in time-lapse (6:32). An uncontrolled shot of a blurry flower in fast-motion (6:43). Blooming daffodils explode (6:48). Ott lifts a glass box away from a microscope and peers into the viewfinder. A petri dish sits below the lens (6:54). Cell division in time-lapse (7:30). Four reels of 16mm film are unspooled across a frame counter and synchronizer. A gloved hand marks the film strips with a red china marker (7:51). A film editor operates a Moviola, which illuminates his face (8:13). A vibrant blooming rose. Pink alstroemerias unfold their petals gracefully (8:51).

John Nash Ott (1909-2000) shot his first time-lapse film in 1927, and continued developing greenhouse gardening and lighting methods well into the 1980’s, when he co-founded OttLite Technologies. His first of several books, “My Ivory Cellar: The Story of Time-Lapse Photography” was published in 1958. Ott’s other time-lapse clients included the Walt Disney Company, the Sante Fe Railroad, and the 1970 Barbara Streisand film, “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.”