(1) This type of video is called a “time lapse” video. It’s composed by taking several pictures and stringing them together in sequence to create the illusion of a video. Normal videos are captured and played back at 30 frames (like pictures) per second. Our “video” was captured at 1 frame per every 5 seconds and played back at 30 fps (with each picture lasting 0.1 seconds).

(2) We used our Nikon D60 DSLR. It’s a really great camera, and relatively inexpensive nowadays (as far as DSLRs are concerned, that is). We considered using our Canon Vixia HF10 HD Camcorder (also an awesome camera, btw…) but in the end decided it would be cooler and quicker to just use our still camera.

(3) Since the D60 doesn’t support taking pictures at set intervals, we actually had to keep the camera hooked up to the Mac and used a free application called sofortbild. I have no idea what that name means, but, the app is awesome… gives you almost-total control of your camera from your mac (including interval shooting).

(4) We had the camera shoot 1 picture every 5 seconds and had the program set to automatically import each new photo directly into a specified “event” in iPhoto. It was like magic.

(5) Once we were done, we pretty much just dragged the iPhoto event (basically, an album) over to iMovie and set each photo to show for only 0.1 seconds, added the title to the beginning, added a transition between the title and first video as well as some transitions at the end for “dramatic effect” (haha).

(6) Then we looked for some music and I remembered that I bought an album of that acapella group, Straight No Chaser (btw, very awesome). And it so happened that that “Jingle Bell Rock” song was exactly the same length as our video. It also worked out perfectly in that the song almost-perfectly matched the major “beats” of the video.

I hope that helps. Sorry I went into so much detail—I’m a total geek.

BTW, there are plenty of other ways to get the same effect. Just Google “Time Lapse Videography”