1 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:08,160 Speaker 1: Why do we love to watch slow motion in the movies? 2 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:13,080 Speaker 1: What do Bonnie and Clyde or Inception or the Matrix 3 00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:17,280 Speaker 1: tell us about brains and time perception? And what does 4 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:20,480 Speaker 1: any of this have to do with unmasking hidden data 5 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:26,560 Speaker 1: or champion bicyclists or elementary particles or murderers or HG 6 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:32,839 Speaker 1: Well's time machine. Welcome to Intercosmos with me David Eagleman. 7 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:36,040 Speaker 1: I'm a neuroscientist and an author at Stanford and in 8 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,640 Speaker 1: these episodes we dive deeply into our three pound universe 9 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:44,760 Speaker 1: to understand some of the most surprising aspects of our lives. 10 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:58,720 Speaker 1: Today's episode is about slow motion and what's going on 11 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:01,400 Speaker 1: in the brain and why we are attracted to it. 12 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 1: So we all know that if you go to any 13 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,560 Speaker 1: random blockbuster, you're really likely to see some of the 14 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 1: sequences in slow motions gets employed to accentuate the choreography 15 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:17,560 Speaker 1: of gun battles or sword fights, and of course it 16 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:19,480 Speaker 1: doesn't even have to be fighting. You might see it 17 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:24,280 Speaker 1: in a shot of a basketball dunk, or a flipping car, 18 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: or sprinters crossing the finish line, whatever the shot. What 19 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:33,760 Speaker 1: we get to witness is fluidity and elegance in a 20 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:39,920 Speaker 1: visually captivating spectacle that has become a hallmark of Hollywood, 21 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:43,319 Speaker 1: and it goes even beyond action movies. Even in dramas 22 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:48,520 Speaker 1: and romances. We see slow motion get leveraged to capture 23 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:54,440 Speaker 1: intimate emotional moments. We savor the subtleties of someone's eye 24 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:59,720 Speaker 1: movements or facial expressions or body movements. We understand something 25 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:05,240 Speaker 1: about the unspoken longing and restrained passion between two protagonists, 26 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:09,240 Speaker 1: or we watch a tear fall, or we see the 27 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:12,800 Speaker 1: moment that someone has an unexpected revelation. 28 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:15,120 Speaker 2: So we see slow motion all the time. 29 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:19,120 Speaker 1: But have you ever wondered from a neuroscience perspective what 30 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: that's all about and why brains love it so much? Yeah, 31 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: me too, and hence today's podcast. So let's start by 32 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:33,639 Speaker 1: zooming way out. When did slow motion really start in movies? 33 00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:36,440 Speaker 1: You may be surprised to know that the era of 34 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:41,120 Speaker 1: slow mo didn't really begin until nineteen sixty seven. And 35 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:43,919 Speaker 1: what stuns me about this is that by nineteen sixty 36 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:49,119 Speaker 1: seven we already had supersonic flight and bionic limbs and 37 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:53,160 Speaker 1: credit cards and digital music, and the space race was 38 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:58,840 Speaker 1: in full swing, but nobody was using slow motion until. 39 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:02,560 Speaker 3: I thought, I have an idea about the end that 40 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 3: should be like a spastic ballet, and that was the image. 41 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:12,720 Speaker 1: That's Arthur Penn, the director of the nineteen sixty seven 42 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:16,799 Speaker 1: film Bonnie and Clyde. This was a big Hollywood blockbuster 43 00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:21,360 Speaker 1: that dramatized the real life crime spree of Bonnie Parker 44 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:24,840 Speaker 1: and Clyde Barrow, and the stars were Fade, Done Away 45 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:27,680 Speaker 1: and Warren Batty. So Bonnie and Clyde were a young 46 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 1: couple who became bank robbers during the Great Depression, and 47 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:35,119 Speaker 1: in the movie, they travel across the country with their 48 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:40,000 Speaker 1: growing gang and their crimes escalate, and this attracts the 49 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:47,040 Speaker 1: relentless pursuit by law enforcement, which culminates in a violent ambush. 50 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 3: And then so I came to the technicians and I said, look, 51 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:52,320 Speaker 3: this is what I want to get. 52 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:53,600 Speaker 2: They said, you can't do that. 53 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:58,160 Speaker 3: I said, I want four cameras. I want them running 54 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:04,400 Speaker 3: at different speeds, I want them ganged together, and I 55 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:07,080 Speaker 3: want to roll them all at the same time. 56 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: And so that's what happened. In the final scene, the 57 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:17,920 Speaker 1: cinematography decelerates into a balletic slow motion as Bonnie and 58 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:24,160 Speaker 1: Clyde meet their bloody end. Under a hailstorm of police bullets, 59 00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: so as they experience their final moment, the audience is 60 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:34,839 Speaker 1: given some extra seconds to be witnessed to it. Now, 61 00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:38,440 Speaker 1: this really shocked a lot of people. Critics called Arthur 62 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 1: Penn's slowed down death scene gratuitous and callous, but. 63 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:45,520 Speaker 2: The idea caught on. 64 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:49,320 Speaker 1: Bonnie and Clyde had opened the door to slow motion 65 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:51,599 Speaker 1: and it's never been shut since. 66 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:52,240 Speaker 2: Now. 67 00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:55,120 Speaker 1: By the way, it's not that the technology was new. 68 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:59,040 Speaker 1: The method for slow motion movies came into being in 69 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:03,440 Speaker 1: nineteen o five four when the Austrian physicist August Musker 70 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:07,599 Speaker 1: invented the technique. So what's the technique. You just speed 71 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:12,160 Speaker 1: up the recording camera so you're capturing more frames per second. 72 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 1: In this way, what you're doing is capturing faster changes. 73 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 1: The time in between each picture is shorter than normal. 74 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:24,120 Speaker 1: So then when you play the film strip back at 75 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:28,240 Speaker 1: regular speed, like twenty four frames per second, then the 76 00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:32,240 Speaker 1: scene appears to be in slow motion because the change 77 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:35,919 Speaker 1: from one frame to the next is very small. This 78 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:39,520 Speaker 1: was initially just getting used for scientific purposes to slow 79 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:43,240 Speaker 1: down processes that you can't see well with the naked eye, 80 00:05:43,400 --> 00:05:47,520 Speaker 1: but eventually slow motion was adopted by filmmakers to enhance 81 00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:51,120 Speaker 1: visual storytelling. Now, before we go on, I want to 82 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:54,840 Speaker 1: make sure we have a clear distinction between slow motion 83 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:58,440 Speaker 1: in movies and the impression that you might have if 84 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:02,760 Speaker 1: you have experienced a life threatening situation and it feels 85 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: like the event took a long time. Is this because 86 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:10,480 Speaker 1: the frame rate of your brain changes. 87 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:11,400 Speaker 3: No. 88 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:15,719 Speaker 1: Ninety nine episodes ago, I talked about the impression we 89 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:19,920 Speaker 1: have of very frightening events having taken a long time. 90 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:22,840 Speaker 1: This is something I first experienced as a child when 91 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:26,320 Speaker 1: I fell off of a roof. I have very clear memories, 92 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:29,640 Speaker 1: and it feels like the whole thing took a few seconds, 93 00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:32,599 Speaker 1: even though I can calculate that it only took point 94 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:35,640 Speaker 1: six seconds to get from the top to the bottom. Now, 95 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:40,200 Speaker 1: it turns out that this observation about scary events seeming 96 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:42,600 Speaker 1: to last longer. This is at least one hundred years 97 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: old in the scientific literature, although I imagine that people have 98 00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:49,920 Speaker 1: noticed this from time immemorial. But my laboratory was the 99 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:52,560 Speaker 1: first to run experiments on it to see if it 100 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:57,520 Speaker 1: was an issue of a faster perceptual frame rate, which 101 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:02,480 Speaker 1: again is how a movie camera captured slow motion or instead, 102 00:07:03,160 --> 00:07:06,440 Speaker 1: does it happen to us? Because of the laying down 103 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 1: of denser memories and the retrospective estimate of how much 104 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:16,640 Speaker 1: time had passed. We ran experiments by presenting information at 105 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:20,400 Speaker 1: a faster rate than a person could normally see, and 106 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:23,000 Speaker 1: then we put them in a very scary situation where 107 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:25,720 Speaker 1: we dropped them from one hundred and fifty foot tall 108 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:28,800 Speaker 1: tower and they were caught in a net below. If 109 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:33,200 Speaker 1: a person is like a camera speeding up its frame rate, 110 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:36,160 Speaker 1: then they would be able to easily see the information 111 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 1: we were flashing at them. But our results indicated that 112 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:42,320 Speaker 1: the slow motion effect was a. 113 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 2: Trick of memory. 114 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:46,640 Speaker 1: In other words, when you're in fear for your life, 115 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:51,920 Speaker 1: your brain writes down dense memory. It's capturing everything it can, 116 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:55,680 Speaker 1: whereas normally your memory is very leaky. So when your 117 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:59,400 Speaker 1: brain then asks what just happened? What just happened and 118 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:03,520 Speaker 1: reads it out all those dense memories, it estimates that 119 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:08,000 Speaker 1: the event must have taken longer. Your brain has all 120 00:08:08,040 --> 00:08:11,960 Speaker 1: these rich memories, let's say, the hood crumpling and the 121 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,080 Speaker 1: rear view mirror falling off, and the expression on the 122 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:19,280 Speaker 1: other driver's face and so on, And given that opulence 123 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:23,200 Speaker 1: of memory, your brain calculates that the whole event must 124 00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:27,800 Speaker 1: have represented a slightly longer duration. In other words, what 125 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:32,040 Speaker 1: happens during a scary event is a totally different mechanism 126 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:36,040 Speaker 1: than slow motion video. Now, when I published our findings, 127 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:37,839 Speaker 1: some people said to me, Hey, I don't think your 128 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:41,760 Speaker 1: conclusion is correct because I had a life threatening car 129 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 1: accident and I know what I experienced. So I said 130 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:48,680 Speaker 1: to them, Okay, but the guy in your passenger seat 131 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:52,160 Speaker 1: who was yelling watch out, did it actually. 132 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:53,320 Speaker 2: Sound like he was saying. 133 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:02,040 Speaker 1: Because if not, that means that time is not actually dilated. 134 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:06,760 Speaker 1: Because if you are recording something with a faster frame rate, 135 00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:11,319 Speaker 1: then when you play it back out, everything is stretched. 136 00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:15,079 Speaker 1: So with your experience of time dilation, it's not an 137 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:17,640 Speaker 1: issue a faster frame rate like a movie camera, but 138 00:09:17,679 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 1: instead of denser memory. Please listen to episode one of 139 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 1: this podcast for much more about that. And the reason 140 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:27,840 Speaker 1: I'm telling you about this now is because we're going 141 00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:31,840 Speaker 1: to return to this in a few minutes. For now, 142 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:36,199 Speaker 1: let's get back to filmmaking, where the mechanism is very straightforward. 143 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:39,760 Speaker 1: You just take more frames per second. Now, I said 144 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:42,360 Speaker 1: that Bonnie and Clyde was the first major movie to 145 00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 1: use slow motion, but there were actually experiments with it 146 00:09:45,679 --> 00:09:49,720 Speaker 1: before that. One of the earliest uses in cinema was 147 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:54,600 Speaker 1: in an epic silent film called Intolerance in nineteen sixteen. 148 00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:58,199 Speaker 1: This was made by a director named D. W. Griffith, 149 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:01,920 Speaker 1: who was experimenting with all millions of techniques of filmmaking 150 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:05,920 Speaker 1: and used slow motion just a little bit to accentuate 151 00:10:06,400 --> 00:10:11,319 Speaker 1: dramatic moments and heighten emotional tension. But two World Wars 152 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:14,480 Speaker 1: that over half a century passed before I was used 153 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:18,000 Speaker 1: in Bonnie and Clyde, in part because the technology had 154 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:21,880 Speaker 1: to advance to make slow motion more accessible and versatile. 155 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:25,520 Speaker 1: By the nineteen sixties, people were building high speed cameras 156 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:29,040 Speaker 1: which were capable of capturing hundreds of frames per second 157 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:33,520 Speaker 1: and eventually thousands, and this is what allowed filmmakers to 158 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:38,679 Speaker 1: push new boundaries of representing time and creating effects that 159 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:43,200 Speaker 1: audiences were captivated by. And the nineteen sixty nine film 160 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,400 Speaker 1: The Wild Bunch, two years after Bonnie and Clyde, really 161 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:49,840 Speaker 1: helped popularize the technique. And now, of course we don't 162 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:53,040 Speaker 1: even think about it much because it's a staple of 163 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:57,200 Speaker 1: modern filmmaking. For example, I recently watched a movie called Wanted, 164 00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:00,840 Speaker 1: which uses super slow motion every time there's a gun battle. 165 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:05,680 Speaker 1: Where you may remember Christopher Nolan's movie Inception, which has 166 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:11,120 Speaker 1: these beautiful slow motion dream sequences, especially in the kick 167 00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:15,400 Speaker 1: moments where they're transitioning from one reality to another. So 168 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:20,280 Speaker 1: increasingly since nineteen sixty seven, movies use time warping all 169 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:23,600 Speaker 1: the time, and the success of this approach has overtaken 170 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:27,320 Speaker 1: commercials and music videos, and it's a standard tool on 171 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:30,439 Speaker 1: our cell phones. And in fact, you can tell when 172 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:33,640 Speaker 1: something has become a staple because then it shifts into 173 00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:37,440 Speaker 1: the focus of the comedians. Some years ago, the comedian 174 00:11:37,559 --> 00:11:40,240 Speaker 1: Dave Chappelle did a skit in which he was proving 175 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:44,720 Speaker 1: that everything quote looks cooler in slow motion. So in 176 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:48,319 Speaker 1: the skit, he walks into the laundromat and says hello 177 00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:51,520 Speaker 1: to a kindly middle aged woman who is preparing her laundry, 178 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:54,320 Speaker 1: and she takes off her sweatshirt so she can add 179 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:58,080 Speaker 1: it to her hamper, and it's all very innocent and laundromaty, 180 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:02,600 Speaker 1: and then he says, let's replay this video in slow motion, 181 00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:07,600 Speaker 1: and now everything changes from mundane to sexy in the 182 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:11,040 Speaker 1: slow motion replay. The woman lifts the sweatshirt over her 183 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:14,640 Speaker 1: head and is suddenly replaced by a beautiful young model 184 00:12:14,679 --> 00:12:19,040 Speaker 1: who tosses her hair in a vigorous breeze, and she 185 00:12:19,160 --> 00:12:22,040 Speaker 1: and Dave Chappelle start dancing around each other as the 186 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:25,840 Speaker 1: wind blows. So this skit cracked up the audience. But 187 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:30,480 Speaker 1: this just underscores our question, what is the appeal of 188 00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:34,440 Speaker 1: slow motion? Why do we find it so attractive? I 189 00:12:34,559 --> 00:12:40,120 Speaker 1: propose four reasons. The first is the increased esthetic appeal. 190 00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:44,440 Speaker 1: When you decelerate time, you can experience so many more 191 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:47,920 Speaker 1: details of this scene. And just like Dave Chappelle noticed, 192 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:53,480 Speaker 1: even ordinary moments get turned into extraordinary visual spectacles. And 193 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:57,200 Speaker 1: this is because by slowing down time, you highlight the 194 00:12:57,280 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 1: intricate features of a scene. The human eye is naturally 195 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:05,559 Speaker 1: attracted to detail, and slow motion allows us to appreciate 196 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:10,160 Speaker 1: the subtle nuances of a character's movement, or the play 197 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:14,199 Speaker 1: of light and shadow, or birds exploding out of a tree, 198 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:18,280 Speaker 1: or the look on someone's face as they turned to 199 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:22,040 Speaker 1: see that their lover has left. So you remember the 200 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:24,800 Speaker 1: Matrix which came out in ninety nine, and you certainly 201 00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:29,400 Speaker 1: remember this bullet dodging scene where Neo bends backward to 202 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:33,760 Speaker 1: avoid a series of bullets fired at him, and this beautiful, 203 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:40,480 Speaker 1: slow sweeping shot captures the fluidity in the wondrous precision 204 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:44,080 Speaker 1: of his movements. The scene could never have worked at 205 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:47,520 Speaker 1: normal speed because the key was how he was making 206 00:13:47,559 --> 00:13:51,040 Speaker 1: a move that was not normally physically possible, and the 207 00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:57,360 Speaker 1: otherworldly nature of this required immersing us to have time 208 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:00,959 Speaker 1: to really take it in. Just like Bonnie and Clyde, 209 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:05,240 Speaker 1: the slowness heightens the tension and the drama. We the 210 00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:09,120 Speaker 1: audience get to squeeze every moment out of the scene 211 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:12,400 Speaker 1: rather than have it zip by. 212 00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:15,560 Speaker 2: While we're reaching for our popcorn. And again, it doesn't 213 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:16,840 Speaker 2: have to be action scenes. 214 00:14:16,880 --> 00:14:20,840 Speaker 1: Look at Terrence Malick's film The Tree of Life or 215 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:26,360 Speaker 1: Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream. The slow motion allows 216 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:47,960 Speaker 1: viewers to fully absorb the emotional weight of a scene. Okay, 217 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:52,800 Speaker 1: so increasing the aesthetic appeal, that's the obvious reason, But 218 00:14:52,920 --> 00:14:55,640 Speaker 1: from a neuroscience point of view, I'm going to suggest 219 00:14:55,640 --> 00:14:58,600 Speaker 1: there are deeper reasons why slow motion works. And this 220 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:02,080 Speaker 1: leads to my suggestion two, which is that slow motion 221 00:15:02,240 --> 00:15:08,240 Speaker 1: film serves as a proxy for denser memories. So a 222 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:10,760 Speaker 1: few moments ago, I told you what happens during a 223 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: life threatening situation. Although you don't actually see the event 224 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:18,560 Speaker 1: unfold in slow motion, the denser memories that you have 225 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:21,120 Speaker 1: make it seem like it must have been that way 226 00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:25,920 Speaker 1: in retrospect, because there's a greater than normal amount of 227 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:30,000 Speaker 1: detail when the memory is read back out. And I 228 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:34,120 Speaker 1: suggest that slow motion film is a stand in a 229 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:40,000 Speaker 1: substitute for this extra dense memory. By watching a movie 230 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:44,480 Speaker 1: scene slowly, we get to enjoy a rich experience with 231 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:48,160 Speaker 1: plenty of time to dwell on all the details that 232 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:52,240 Speaker 1: would normally streak right past us. We have the opportunity 233 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:55,960 Speaker 1: to attend to the details and commit them to memory, 234 00:15:56,600 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 1: just like we have after a real life high adrenaline moment. 235 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:06,040 Speaker 1: In other words, slow motion film recreates the sensation of 236 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: grasping all the details, and this explains the natural partnership 237 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:13,360 Speaker 1: of slow motion videography. 238 00:16:13,120 --> 00:16:15,240 Speaker 2: With high adrenaline moments. 239 00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:18,160 Speaker 1: It's no accident that the first time it really got 240 00:16:18,280 --> 00:16:22,080 Speaker 1: used was the ambush death scene of Bonnie and Clyde. 241 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:25,760 Speaker 1: The director Arthur Penn said in an interview quote the 242 00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:30,480 Speaker 1: intention there was to get this attenuation of time that 243 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:33,880 Speaker 1: one experience is when you see something like a terrible 244 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:38,680 Speaker 1: automobile accident end quote. And giving the audience a heightened 245 00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:42,760 Speaker 1: ability to catch and remember details worked well, and it's 246 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:47,920 Speaker 1: become a standard signature of high stakes moments. Arthur Penn 247 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:50,920 Speaker 1: went on to say in nineteen eighty nine, quote, God 248 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,320 Speaker 1: knows we've been imitated thousands and thousands of times. 249 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:54,680 Speaker 2: Now. 250 00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:59,160 Speaker 1: Every time you see someone attempting violence, they go into 251 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:04,000 Speaker 1: that basics slow motion end quote. So my assertion is 252 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:07,440 Speaker 1: that when we witness a moment unfold bit by bit 253 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:11,440 Speaker 1: in the movies, we get to appreciate its import as 254 00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:16,399 Speaker 1: though we were experiencing the high adrenaline moment ourselves. But 255 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:21,880 Speaker 1: not all interesting slow motion video involves high adrenaline situations, 256 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:25,199 Speaker 1: So there is more to our love of it. And 257 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:28,160 Speaker 1: this leads us to my third suggestion for the success 258 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:32,480 Speaker 1: of slow motion, which is that it extends human perception 259 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:38,200 Speaker 1: by unmasking hidden data. It allows the revelation of data 260 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:40,960 Speaker 1: that's hidden in the folds of time, just like a 261 00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:45,880 Speaker 1: microscope allows us to appreciate the details of a fly's wing. 262 00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:49,119 Speaker 1: And I'm not just talking about action sequences here or 263 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:53,040 Speaker 1: neo's unusual movements in the matrix, there's much more that 264 00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:59,360 Speaker 1: can be unmasked. Consider something like microexpressions. These are fast 265 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:05,320 Speaker 1: movements of facial muscles that pass rapidly and unconsciously over 266 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:09,639 Speaker 1: people's faces. Now, everyone's face does this naturally all the time, 267 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:13,560 Speaker 1: but you can't really see someone else's micro expressions because 268 00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:16,840 Speaker 1: they're too brief. You're not aware that you are making 269 00:18:16,920 --> 00:18:20,640 Speaker 1: micro expressions, and someone watching you isn't consciously aware that 270 00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:23,640 Speaker 1: you did it. But it turns out that micro expressions 271 00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:29,760 Speaker 1: can carry information and can reveal secrets, including things like deception. 272 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:33,720 Speaker 1: For example, you may remember the story of Susan Smith, 273 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:37,800 Speaker 1: who claimed that her children had been kidnapped in a carjacking, 274 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:41,760 Speaker 1: when in fact she had drowned them. For several days, 275 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:44,720 Speaker 1: she was on the TV news pleading for help in 276 00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:48,439 Speaker 1: finding her children, but some colleagues of mine claimed that 277 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:54,080 Speaker 1: a slowed down version of the video revealed micro expressions 278 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:57,680 Speaker 1: that suggested she was lying about the whole event. The 279 00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:01,919 Speaker 1: idea is that slow motion video unmasks the world of 280 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:07,679 Speaker 1: these temporally hidden facial clues, and by unveiling things that 281 00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:12,119 Speaker 1: are undetectable by consciousness, slow motion can allow not just 282 00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:17,439 Speaker 1: temporal sleuthing but temporal intimacy. Consider this passage by the 283 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:21,119 Speaker 1: British sports writer Matt Rendell about the Tour de France 284 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:26,119 Speaker 1: winner Marco Pantani. Writing about the use of super slow 285 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:29,080 Speaker 1: motion cameras in sport, Rendell wrote, what I think is 286 00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:32,880 Speaker 1: one of the most beautiful passages in sports writing. Here 287 00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:36,600 Speaker 1: it is read by the actor Sean Judge. 288 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:40,240 Speaker 4: Now, as he arrives towards victory and the Giro Dtalia, 289 00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:45,199 Speaker 4: the camera almost caresses him. The five seconds between the 290 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:48,840 Speaker 4: moment Marco appeared in the closing strait and the moment 291 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:53,000 Speaker 4: he crossed the finish line are extruded to fifteen and 292 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:58,040 Speaker 4: during seconds ba image frames his head and little else, 293 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:03,360 Speaker 4: revealing details in visible in real time and at standard resolution. 294 00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:07,760 Speaker 4: A drop of sweat that falls from his chin as 295 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:12,520 Speaker 4: he makes the bend, the gaping jaw and crumpled forehead, 296 00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:16,680 Speaker 4: and lines beneath the eyes that deepen as Marco rings 297 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:22,040 Speaker 4: still more speed from the mountain. Then, and it must 298 00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:24,919 Speaker 4: be the moment he crosses the line. He begins to 299 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:29,480 Speaker 4: rise out of his agony. The torso rises to vertical, 300 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:34,760 Speaker 4: the arms spread out into a crucifix position, the eyelids 301 00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:40,399 Speaker 4: descend and Marco's face lifts towards the sky. It is 302 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:46,199 Speaker 4: a moment of transfiguration visible only in super SlowMo or 303 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:50,720 Speaker 4: in still and only the best of the finish line 304 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:56,160 Speaker 4: photographers catch it. Super SloMo shows us something we could 305 00:20:56,280 --> 00:21:02,520 Speaker 4: never otherwise see, involuntary gesture Marco never chose to reveal, 306 00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:07,439 Speaker 4: perhaps because without super slow MOO technology he cannot know 307 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:12,320 Speaker 4: he makes them. The public knows more about Marco than 308 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:17,120 Speaker 4: Marco himself, a truth we are tempted to imagine, and 309 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:19,920 Speaker 4: one that has nothing to do with the race outcome 310 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:23,120 Speaker 4: as such, for the pictures frame out the finish line 311 00:21:23,119 --> 00:21:25,920 Speaker 4: in the clock and show nothing of his work rate, 312 00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:30,040 Speaker 4: muscular toil, or the relative positions of the riders that 313 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:35,800 Speaker 4: yield the race result. Instead, we find ourselves looking into 314 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:39,600 Speaker 4: Marco's face the way a mother and her baby might, 315 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:45,000 Speaker 4: or lovers at the moment their affection is first reciprocated. 316 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,480 Speaker 1: So slow motion allows us to pick up on the 317 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:53,520 Speaker 1: world that would otherwise rush past us. And in this 318 00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:59,440 Speaker 1: slow world we get to luxuriate in the otherwise invisible 319 00:21:59,520 --> 00:22:05,080 Speaker 1: detail with which we're always surrounded but we never see. 320 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:08,400 Speaker 1: And now we're ready from a fourth point. Slow motion 321 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: video holds our attention by violating expectations. So during a 322 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:20,680 Speaker 1: lifetime of experience, your brain develops deeply wired expectations about 323 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:24,800 Speaker 1: Newtonian physics. So when a ball gets thrown to you, 324 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:29,119 Speaker 1: your brain unconsciously uses these internal models to predict where 325 00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:31,160 Speaker 1: and when it's going to go, and you move your 326 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:34,800 Speaker 1: body in your hand to the right spot. These models 327 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:38,040 Speaker 1: are so ingrained into our nervous systems that if you 328 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:41,399 Speaker 1: lob a ball to an astronaut floating in zero G, 329 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:44,520 Speaker 1: she will move her hand to the wrong spot. She'll 330 00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:47,760 Speaker 1: move to catch it as though she's in a normal 331 00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:52,840 Speaker 1: one G environment. So part of the high level of 332 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:58,600 Speaker 1: engagement during slow motion comes from a violation of these 333 00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:04,479 Speaker 1: expectations about physics. Imagine you're watching the matrix and you 334 00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,920 Speaker 1: observe Trinity leap into the air to kick an agent. 335 00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:12,320 Speaker 1: Your brain makes unconscious predictions about exactly when she's going 336 00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:16,879 Speaker 1: to come back down. But to your brain's surprise, time 337 00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:21,800 Speaker 1: slows down and Trinity hangs in the air longer than expected. 338 00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:25,000 Speaker 1: Your expectations about when she's going to hit the ground 339 00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:29,960 Speaker 1: have been violated, and this draws us in. Our brains 340 00:23:30,359 --> 00:23:34,560 Speaker 1: zoom in on this because attention is maximally attracted to 341 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:40,359 Speaker 1: whatever we predict incorrectly. Conversely, when everything goes according to plan, 342 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:43,359 Speaker 1: we don't pay any attention at all. We are fond 343 00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:46,920 Speaker 1: of slow motion video because it engages our attention. We 344 00:23:47,119 --> 00:23:51,480 Speaker 1: constantly get the temporal predictions wrong, and so we are 345 00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:56,399 Speaker 1: perpetually on alert. In fact, I did a very surprising 346 00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:59,360 Speaker 1: experiment on this some years ago. I started with this 347 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:04,600 Speaker 1: hypoc prothesis that your internal model is always calibrating itself, 348 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:08,800 Speaker 1: keeping itself tuned up by comparing against the physics of 349 00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:12,760 Speaker 1: the real world. So if it's running too slowly, it 350 00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:16,000 Speaker 1: watches the ball hit the ground and realizes that its 351 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:20,399 Speaker 1: prediction was just slightly behind, so it speeds up its expectations. 352 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:23,239 Speaker 1: And the same if it watches the ball and it 353 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:26,760 Speaker 1: realizes that its prediction was just slightly ahead, then it 354 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:31,400 Speaker 1: slows itself down. So it uses the outside world as 355 00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:35,879 Speaker 1: the ground truth to keep itself nicely calibrated. Now you 356 00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: might think, how would you ever prove a hypothesis like that, Well, 357 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:44,240 Speaker 1: here's how I had people compare the durations of two 358 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,040 Speaker 1: brief flashes on the screen. So on the screen you 359 00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:50,600 Speaker 1: see a little circle that goes flash and then a 360 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,760 Speaker 1: moment later, another little circle that goes flash. And on 361 00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:57,680 Speaker 1: every trial, I'm slightly tweaking the duration so that one 362 00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:00,200 Speaker 1: is slightly longer than the other, and you just say 363 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:03,320 Speaker 1: which was longer than which? Okay, now here's the trick. 364 00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:08,040 Speaker 1: I have people watch a video, for example, a camera 365 00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:13,120 Speaker 1: that follows the cheetah sprinting across the serengetti. Now, if 366 00:25:13,119 --> 00:25:17,080 Speaker 1: I just superimpose one flash and then the second flash 367 00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:19,680 Speaker 1: on top of the video, you have no trouble saying 368 00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,119 Speaker 1: which one was longer than which. But now I do 369 00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,640 Speaker 1: something special. At some point in the video, it suddenly 370 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:29,600 Speaker 1: goes into slow motion. Then you might know that when 371 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:33,119 Speaker 1: cheetahs run, all four of their legs come off the ground. 372 00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:35,760 Speaker 2: So now you're seeing this sleek. 373 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:38,760 Speaker 1: Animal floating in the air and you're waiting for his 374 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,000 Speaker 1: front pause to hit the ground. But now that we're 375 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:46,439 Speaker 1: suddenly in slow motion, your time prediction is off. You 376 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,639 Speaker 1: expected his legs to hit the ground, but they haven't yet. 377 00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:52,160 Speaker 2: And because we evolved. 378 00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:53,760 Speaker 1: In a world with no such thing as slow motion, 379 00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,960 Speaker 1: your brain's only choice is to assume that the mistake 380 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:04,800 Speaker 1: is its own, and it compensates by slowing down its expectation. Now, 381 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:06,840 Speaker 1: how do I know the brain does this. It's because 382 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:11,320 Speaker 1: I can see how you judge the duration of a flash. 383 00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:16,560 Speaker 1: During the sudden slow motion, the flash now appears to 384 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:20,119 Speaker 1: last a shorter time, about twenty seven percent shorter. 385 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:21,119 Speaker 2: Why. 386 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:25,280 Speaker 1: Roughly speaking, it's because your brain is forced to slightly 387 00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:29,600 Speaker 1: tweak its estimate of the pace of time during the 388 00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:32,880 Speaker 1: slow motion bit. Think of it like a clock ticking 389 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:38,359 Speaker 1: more slowly, and now the flash covers fewer ticks, and. 390 00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:41,840 Speaker 2: So it is judged to last less time. 391 00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,280 Speaker 1: I did various control versions of this experiment in which 392 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,440 Speaker 1: I shuffled the frames, or I shuffled all the pixels, 393 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:51,679 Speaker 1: or I ran the whole thing upside down, and in 394 00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:55,480 Speaker 1: all these cases there was no distortion of the apparent 395 00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:59,359 Speaker 1: duration of the flashes. It only happened when the future 396 00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:03,960 Speaker 1: position of objects was predictable by physics. So let me 397 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:07,560 Speaker 1: just summarize this. When your brain is watching any scene, 398 00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:11,160 Speaker 1: it's making predictions about where things will be, and if 399 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:16,280 Speaker 1: the scene suddenly changes speed, then your internal model will 400 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:21,160 Speaker 1: predict incorrectly. But I suggest the nervous system can eliminate 401 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:26,840 Speaker 1: these feedback prediction errors with a simple trick by modifying 402 00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:31,600 Speaker 1: its estimated speed of the flow of physical time. 403 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:33,440 Speaker 2: It's a very subtle. 404 00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:39,440 Speaker 1: Change, but it has measurable perceptual consequences which are exposed 405 00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:43,399 Speaker 1: by this novel time distortion illusion. Okay, that was a 406 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,480 Speaker 1: little technical, but it's one of my favorite experiments. Now, 407 00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:49,600 Speaker 1: we've been talking all about slow motion, but on the 408 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:53,560 Speaker 1: flip side of slow motion, there is a world unmasked 409 00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:59,840 Speaker 1: by fast motion. Think about quickly blossoming flowers, or imagine 410 00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:04,560 Speaker 1: the the arterial traffic patterns of cities, or watched the 411 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:09,159 Speaker 1: laminar rush of clouds across the sky, or observe the 412 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:12,159 Speaker 1: way that the sun drops like a ball behind the 413 00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:14,760 Speaker 1: mountain and the world dims as though by. 414 00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:15,879 Speaker 2: A dimmer switch. 415 00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:20,000 Speaker 1: So fast motion reveals secrets not so much in the 416 00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:24,240 Speaker 1: domain of human facial expressions, but instead in the dance 417 00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 1: of the very large. So let's take a look at 418 00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:47,080 Speaker 1: the kind of descriptions you can generate when speeding up 419 00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:51,480 Speaker 1: the world. In eighteen ninety five, HG. Wells published The 420 00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:54,880 Speaker 1: Time Machine. He did this as a serial novel in 421 00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:58,280 Speaker 1: a magazine. It's one of the earliest and most influential 422 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:01,720 Speaker 1: works of science fiction, in part because it introduced this 423 00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:05,760 Speaker 1: concept of a time travel device, which became a staple 424 00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:09,320 Speaker 1: in the genre. But it's beautifully written, and we can 425 00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:14,880 Speaker 1: see the imagination of fast time when the unnamed time 426 00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:19,120 Speaker 1: traveler builds this device and travels to the very distant 427 00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,760 Speaker 1: future of the year eight hundred and two, thy seven 428 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,080 Speaker 1: hundred and one. Here's the part I want to share 429 00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:27,600 Speaker 1: with you, when he cranks the lever down on the 430 00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:31,360 Speaker 1: machine and gets going. This passage is read again by 431 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:33,640 Speaker 1: actor Sean Judge. 432 00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,200 Speaker 4: As I put on pace, night followed day like the 433 00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:39,080 Speaker 4: flapping of a black wing. I saw the sun hopping 434 00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:43,160 Speaker 4: swiftly across the sky, leaping it every minute, and every minute, 435 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:47,080 Speaker 4: marking a day. The slowest snail that ever crawled dashed by, 436 00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:49,960 Speaker 4: too fast for me. Presently, as I went on, still 437 00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,760 Speaker 4: gaining velocity, the palpitation of day and night merged into 438 00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:58,480 Speaker 4: one continuous grayness. The jerking sun became a streak of fire, 439 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:03,440 Speaker 4: the moon a fa interfluctuating band. I saw trees growing 440 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,280 Speaker 4: and changing like puffs of vapor. Huge buildings rise up, 441 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:11,400 Speaker 4: faint and fair, and pass like dreams. The whole surface 442 00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:15,400 Speaker 4: of the earth seemed changed, melting and flowing under my eyes. 443 00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:19,320 Speaker 1: So in the same way, that slow motion allows us 444 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:23,320 Speaker 1: to see details that we would not otherwise catch. Fast 445 00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:27,240 Speaker 1: motion plays that same game. It's no surprise, then, that 446 00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:32,640 Speaker 1: a very engaging style of cinematography is to rapidly alternate 447 00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:37,000 Speaker 1: between speeding and slowing. Think of the battle scenes in 448 00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:41,280 Speaker 1: the movie three hundred. As the Spartans charge, the camera 449 00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:44,640 Speaker 1: captures their ferocity in real time, the thunder of their 450 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:48,840 Speaker 1: shields clashing and the spears piercing, And then suddenly the 451 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:54,360 Speaker 1: world slows and every movement stretches into a balletic display 452 00:30:54,440 --> 00:31:00,640 Speaker 1: of destructions. Sweat glistens, blood arcs gracefully through the air 453 00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:06,040 Speaker 1: like crimson silk. The slow motion lingers on every ripple 454 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:10,120 Speaker 1: of flash, every grimace of pain, before snapping back to 455 00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:13,720 Speaker 1: faster than normal speed. You see this explosion of chaos 456 00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:17,719 Speaker 1: and bodies tumbling and dust swirling under the fury of combat. 457 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:19,840 Speaker 1: If you've seen this part of the movie, you know 458 00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,440 Speaker 1: it's like an epic painting that's come to life. But 459 00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:24,640 Speaker 1: the point I want to make is that by alternating 460 00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:31,080 Speaker 1: between slow and fast, the cinematography continues to violate our predictions, 461 00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:34,280 Speaker 1: and so it holds our attention throughout. 462 00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:34,960 Speaker 2: Now. 463 00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:39,280 Speaker 1: One thing I find amazing is that HG. Wells wrote 464 00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:43,320 Speaker 1: his passage before there was fast motion video to watch, 465 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:46,240 Speaker 1: so he did this the old fashioned way by imagining 466 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:49,120 Speaker 1: the whole thing. Now, it turns out, if you are 467 00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:53,240 Speaker 1: sufficiently imaginative, you could really do an amazing job on this, 468 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:55,840 Speaker 1: even before witnessing it yourself. 469 00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:59,520 Speaker 2: For example, five years before HG. 470 00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:04,120 Speaker 1: Well's machine, the great psychologist William James wrote a book 471 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:06,560 Speaker 1: called Principles of Psychology. 472 00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:10,720 Speaker 2: He has a chapter called the Perception of Time, and. 473 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:15,680 Speaker 1: In it he writes this strikingly poetic passage. 474 00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:18,360 Speaker 4: We have every reason to think that creatures may possibly 475 00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,880 Speaker 4: differ enormously in the amounts of duration which they intuitively feel, 476 00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:24,560 Speaker 4: and in the fineness of the events that may fill it. 477 00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:28,280 Speaker 4: Von Beher has indulged in some interesting computations of the 478 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:31,360 Speaker 4: effect of such differences in changing the aspect of nature. 479 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:34,680 Speaker 4: Suppose we were able, within the length of a second 480 00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:38,240 Speaker 4: to note ten thousand events distinctly, instead of barely ten 481 00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,600 Speaker 4: as now. If our life were then destined to hold 482 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:44,760 Speaker 4: the same number of impressions, it might be one thousand 483 00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:47,800 Speaker 4: times as short. We should live less than a month 484 00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:51,040 Speaker 4: and personally know nothing of the change of seasons. If 485 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:54,160 Speaker 4: born in winter, we should now believe in summer as 486 00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:57,000 Speaker 4: we now believe in the heats of the carboniferous era. 487 00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,800 Speaker 4: The motions of organic beings would be so slow to 488 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:04,480 Speaker 4: our senses as to be inferred not seen. The sun 489 00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:07,640 Speaker 4: would stand still in the sky, the moon be almost 490 00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:11,760 Speaker 4: free from change, and so on. But now reverse the 491 00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:15,320 Speaker 4: hypothesis and suppose a being to get only one thousandth 492 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:17,920 Speaker 4: part of the sensations that we get in a given time, 493 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:22,160 Speaker 4: and consequently live one thousand times as long. Winters and 494 00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:24,520 Speaker 4: summers will be to him like quarters of an hour. 495 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:28,080 Speaker 4: Mushrooms and the swifter growing plants will shoot into being 496 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:33,160 Speaker 4: so rapidly as to appear instantaneous creations. Annual shrubs will 497 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:36,760 Speaker 4: rise and fall from the earth like restlessly boiling water springs. 498 00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:39,960 Speaker 4: The motions of animals will be as invisible as are 499 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,760 Speaker 4: to us the movements of bullets and cannonballs. The sun 500 00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:46,560 Speaker 4: will scour through the sky like a meteor, leaving a 501 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:51,120 Speaker 4: fiery trail behind him, et cetera. That such imaginary cases, 502 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:54,760 Speaker 4: barring the superhuman longevity, may be realized somewhere in the 503 00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:58,000 Speaker 4: animal kingdom, it would be rash to deny. 504 00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:02,840 Speaker 1: Now may well have read this passage from William James, 505 00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:05,880 Speaker 1: and the descriptions in them are beautiful, so none of 506 00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:09,600 Speaker 1: them actually needed to see a Hollywood movie to envision this. 507 00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:13,760 Speaker 1: But I do think that it doesn't hurt to grow 508 00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:18,839 Speaker 1: up around movie technology so that one becomes very comfortable 509 00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:22,560 Speaker 1: in thinking about time in different ways by actually seeing 510 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:29,920 Speaker 1: the experience oneself, by directly learning new ways of perceiving. 511 00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:32,040 Speaker 1: I'll give you an example. Some of you in your 512 00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:35,919 Speaker 1: fifties or older will remember when your teachers showed eight 513 00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:39,080 Speaker 1: millimeter films in school. Now, if you've never seen this, 514 00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:41,799 Speaker 1: the way it works is that the film strip is 515 00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:44,960 Speaker 1: on a reel, a big circular job, and as the 516 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:47,960 Speaker 1: movie plays, that reel is unwinding and the film is 517 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:51,040 Speaker 1: moving to a second reel, which is collecting the film strip. 518 00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:54,200 Speaker 1: So the movie starts off wound up on the first 519 00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:57,600 Speaker 1: and ends up wound up around the second reel. But 520 00:34:57,680 --> 00:34:59,719 Speaker 1: of course the beginning of the movie is now in 521 00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:01,680 Speaker 1: the middle of the second reel, and the end of 522 00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:03,759 Speaker 1: the movie is on the outside, so you have to 523 00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:07,080 Speaker 1: rewind the whole thing back onto the first reel. So 524 00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:09,600 Speaker 1: when you're done watching the movie, you just pull the 525 00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:13,120 Speaker 1: lever to set the whole thing in reverse, and you 526 00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:18,319 Speaker 1: get to witness the whole movie backwards. People are walking backwards, 527 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:22,720 Speaker 1: bicyclists biking backwards, the train is reversing up the track, 528 00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:25,920 Speaker 1: the diner is getting more food on his plate. The 529 00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:29,360 Speaker 1: person who slipped on the banana peel now slips upward. 530 00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:32,640 Speaker 1: So typically the teacher reverses the film at a much 531 00:35:32,719 --> 00:35:35,880 Speaker 1: higher speed, so you see the whole thing running backwards quickly. 532 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:38,320 Speaker 1: But what I remember as a little kid in school 533 00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:43,480 Speaker 1: was the delight this process always brought to the whole class. So, 534 00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:47,600 Speaker 1: starting many decades ago, everyone got to see what backwards 535 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:52,040 Speaker 1: motion looked like. Now it's hard to prove this with certainty, 536 00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:56,120 Speaker 1: but one possibility is that this helped people to think 537 00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:58,759 Speaker 1: about things in a new way, to open up this 538 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:02,960 Speaker 1: new time domain of things running backwards. So take the 539 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:07,440 Speaker 1: Swiss physicist Ernst Stuckelberg. In the nineteen forties. He was 540 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:12,399 Speaker 1: chewing on a problem about elementary particles. His colleague Paul 541 00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:15,560 Speaker 1: Durak had published a paper that unified a whole bunch 542 00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:18,400 Speaker 1: of things in physics, but something came out of Diract's 543 00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:23,040 Speaker 1: equation that was unexpected to everyone. The math suggested there 544 00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:27,280 Speaker 1: should be a particle like an electron, but with positive 545 00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:30,120 Speaker 1: charge instead of negative, and no one had ever seen this, 546 00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:33,840 Speaker 1: but here was the math saying it should exist. Eventually, 547 00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:36,440 Speaker 1: this came to be called a positron, but no one 548 00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:40,160 Speaker 1: knew what could explain the existence of such a particle, 549 00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:44,880 Speaker 1: And in nineteen forty one Stuckelberg realized that a positron 550 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:48,440 Speaker 1: and an electron are the same little particle, but a 551 00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:53,680 Speaker 1: positron is just an electron traveling backward in time, and 552 00:36:53,719 --> 00:36:56,759 Speaker 1: that made all the math work. Now it's impossible to 553 00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:59,520 Speaker 1: know the answer, but the question is would Stuckelberg have 554 00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:03,040 Speaker 1: had a harder time coming up with this hypothesis if 555 00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:08,000 Speaker 1: he had never seen backward motion. Once you've seen a 556 00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:12,560 Speaker 1: film strip run, once you've seen time run backward that way, 557 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,520 Speaker 1: then that door of possibility is opened up in your 558 00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:20,040 Speaker 1: internal model, and once it's open, you can't shut it, 559 00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:23,399 Speaker 1: and it's much easier to think about things like it. 560 00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:27,759 Speaker 1: This is a specific case of a more general truism 561 00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:32,120 Speaker 1: that new technologies allow us to experience things that we 562 00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:35,799 Speaker 1: could not have experienced otherwise, and that really opens up 563 00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:36,840 Speaker 1: our mental. 564 00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:38,760 Speaker 2: Space to new ideas. 565 00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:43,000 Speaker 1: And I'm very interested in seeing where future technology takes 566 00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:47,040 Speaker 1: us because we can nowadays try out experiments in very 567 00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:52,120 Speaker 1: simple ways that were impossible last century. For example, my 568 00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:55,919 Speaker 1: son plays a VR game called super Hot in which 569 00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:58,640 Speaker 1: you're fending off gunmen who are all trying to get you. 570 00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:02,000 Speaker 1: But the key is that the speed of motion of 571 00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:06,240 Speaker 1: the world depends on the movement of your own body. 572 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:10,240 Speaker 1: So if you stand very still, the world creeps along 573 00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:12,960 Speaker 1: in super slow motion. But as soon as you make 574 00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:16,000 Speaker 1: a move to lift your gun or move a little bit, 575 00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:19,480 Speaker 1: the world speeds up. And if you're moving really fast, 576 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:22,840 Speaker 1: the world around you moves fast as well. It's an 577 00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:27,000 Speaker 1: incredible experience to play this, and for the generation of 578 00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:30,200 Speaker 1: children growing up, it's just part of the background furniture 579 00:38:30,200 --> 00:38:32,799 Speaker 1: that you can play a game where the passage of 580 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:37,040 Speaker 1: time is variable and under your control. But for the 581 00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:40,359 Speaker 1: rest of us, this is a whole new dimension of 582 00:38:40,440 --> 00:38:44,680 Speaker 1: time to explore. The final thing we'll address today is 583 00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:51,080 Speaker 1: why we're not attracted slow motion in an audio only format. 584 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:55,880 Speaker 1: I suggest it's because with words, we're only analyzing for 585 00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:58,800 Speaker 1: the meaning. We're just working to capture all the words 586 00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:02,000 Speaker 1: so that we can translate that into an understanding of 587 00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:05,120 Speaker 1: the message, and in fact we all know from audiobooks 588 00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:07,520 Speaker 1: and YouTube videos you can take in words at a 589 00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:09,560 Speaker 1: much faster pace than I would be able to naturally 590 00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:10,360 Speaker 1: produce them. 591 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:14,400 Speaker 2: And so there's no benefit in slowing them down. 592 00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,200 Speaker 1: So that's why we don't do the speeding and slowing 593 00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:20,160 Speaker 1: we see in the movie three hundred. If we were 594 00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:24,239 Speaker 1: reading an audio book about the Battle of Thermopylae, like 595 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:29,920 Speaker 1: Leonides swung the broad sword and hit the Persian soldier 596 00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:32,640 Speaker 1: under the ribs, and then Leonid stepped over the body 597 00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:34,560 Speaker 1: and looked around until he saw his next target horseman 598 00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:35,319 Speaker 1: charging him with a. 599 00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:39,640 Speaker 2: Lance, and he spun and ducked the lance. I don't know. 600 00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:42,279 Speaker 1: Maybe we've just invented a new style there, but I 601 00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:46,360 Speaker 1: doubt it. So we love to do slow motion with videos, 602 00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:49,720 Speaker 1: but not text. But I think there's an interesting realm 603 00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:53,719 Speaker 1: in between. Although video is just over a century old, 604 00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:56,680 Speaker 1: I think there's a sense in which people have for 605 00:39:56,880 --> 00:40:00,680 Speaker 1: millennia figured out how to dance in some way between 606 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,400 Speaker 1: slow motion and fast motion. And this is something I 607 00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:06,800 Speaker 1: learned from my friend Tony Brandt. We were talking about 608 00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:10,319 Speaker 1: these kinds of ideas once and Tony pointed out the 609 00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:16,000 Speaker 1: difference in opera between the Aria and the recitative, and 610 00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:19,839 Speaker 1: Aria spends several minutes on a single idea, like the 611 00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:23,239 Speaker 1: love of the protagonists for the Beautiful Maiden. It's all 612 00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:27,720 Speaker 1: about deep emotions and reflections, and it pauses the plot 613 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:30,880 Speaker 1: to focus on the character's inner feelings. 614 00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:34,879 Speaker 2: But the restititive is the opposite. 615 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:37,880 Speaker 1: First of all, it's speech like, there's no rhythm, maybe 616 00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:41,200 Speaker 1: just a harpsichord plays along, and the only job of 617 00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,680 Speaker 1: the recitative is to crank the plot along. It just 618 00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:50,440 Speaker 1: tells you about some big passage of time. So Arias 619 00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:55,799 Speaker 1: explore something simple in great depth. The recititive moves the 620 00:40:55,920 --> 00:41:01,040 Speaker 1: story forward. So Arias might be considered perhaps the medieval 621 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:04,480 Speaker 1: version of slow Moe in the cinema, really zooming in 622 00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:09,120 Speaker 1: on the moment, while the restitative is the fast motion 623 00:41:09,480 --> 00:41:12,920 Speaker 1: speeding up of the plot. Okay, so I've told you 624 00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:15,279 Speaker 1: that we don't do fast and slow motion when there's 625 00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:18,000 Speaker 1: only audio involved, and there's a sense in which we 626 00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:22,279 Speaker 1: grasp at this speeding or slowing with opera. But it's 627 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:26,600 Speaker 1: different with visual scenes because here we're not just trying 628 00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:30,560 Speaker 1: to decrypt a message, but instead we're watching the incredibly 629 00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:35,960 Speaker 1: high bandwidth visual world and we're making predictions about the 630 00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:40,359 Speaker 1: physics and getting feedback from what we're seeing. And if 631 00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:45,400 Speaker 1: my hypothesis is correct, we're calibrating our own internal clocks 632 00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:46,919 Speaker 1: to the world of. 633 00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:47,680 Speaker 2: What we see. 634 00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:51,399 Speaker 1: And that's why fast and slow motion, although they are 635 00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:55,759 Speaker 1: relatively recent additions to the canon of cinema, this is 636 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:59,200 Speaker 1: why they grab our attention and are. 637 00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:00,359 Speaker 2: Here to day. 638 00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:04,760 Speaker 1: So let's wrap up beyond its esthetic and emotional appeal, 639 00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:10,439 Speaker 1: slow motion serves a critical narrative function in filmmaking. By 640 00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:16,000 Speaker 1: manipulating time, directors can emphasize key moments, They can reveal 641 00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:20,719 Speaker 1: hidden details. They can grab your attention by violating your 642 00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:25,320 Speaker 1: brain's expectations. Slow motion is more than just a visual trick. 643 00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:30,600 Speaker 1: It's a way of stretching moments, suspending us in the 644 00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:35,200 Speaker 1: gravity of an emotion or a decision, or a final 645 00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:39,799 Speaker 1: breath before impact. It allows us to live inside the 646 00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:43,800 Speaker 1: flicker of an instant, to taste the weight of time. 647 00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:48,759 Speaker 1: Perhaps this is why our brains are so captivated by it, 648 00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:54,600 Speaker 1: because in life, time generally moves at one relentless speed, 649 00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:59,080 Speaker 1: but in film, we can linger in a moment. We 650 00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:04,000 Speaker 1: can turns into minutes. We can reveal the invisible in 651 00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:09,840 Speaker 1: the visible slow motion reminds us that buried in every blink, 652 00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:15,400 Speaker 1: every heartbeat, every fleeting instant, there is a world of 653 00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:23,279 Speaker 1: depth waiting to be discovered. Go to Eagleman dot com 654 00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:26,640 Speaker 1: slash podcast for more information and to find further reading. 655 00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:28,440 Speaker 2: Send me an email at. 656 00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:32,080 Speaker 1: Podcasts at eagleman dot com with questions or discussion, and 657 00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:35,279 Speaker 1: check out and subscribe to Inner Cosmos on YouTube for 658 00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:39,200 Speaker 1: videos of each episode and to leave comments until next time. 659 00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:42,200 Speaker 1: I'm David Eagleman and this is the one hundredth episode 660 00:43:42,280 --> 00:43:49,239 Speaker 1: of Inner Cosmos.