History Main / UnderCrank

A significant part of UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood. See also FastForwardGag and AdrenalineTime, i.e. ramping. SubTrope of InCameraEffects.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/UpPompeii'' when people are trying to escape the Senate during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

* Several shots during the car chase in ''Film/DoctorInTheHouse1954'' are sped up to add to the scene's tensity.

* Used on {{Transformers}} toy commercials, to avoid having to either sit there for five minutes while a kid transforms a 10-inch-tall toy, or cut off a transformation halfway through to fit in the commercial slot.

** Also on the original 1970s series, used after David [[note]] last name: Alberico [[/note]] from Season Two introduced himself.

Undercranking involves filming at a slower frame rate so that the action is sped up when played back. Sometimes witnessed in car chases, especially on the 1960s ''[[Series/Batman1966 Batman]]'' TV show. In the days when film cameras were hand-cranked, most operators were trained to slow down slightly whenever a punch was thrown, so that the blow would seem faster than it really was: almost all of [[Creator/JackieChan Jackie Chan's]] martial arts movies make use of the same basic principle during the fight scenes to make the action seem more exciting. When shooting video, where the framerate cannot be manually controlled mid-shot, a similar effect can be produced in the edit suite by selectively deleting a single frame here and there.

A significant part of UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood. See also FastForwardGag and AdrenalineTime, i.e. ramping.

* ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' occasionally featured "[[AlliterativeName Funny Fast Film]]", sped-up videos of people doing mundane things.

* LetsPlay/{{raocow}} will sometimes speed up some of the footage of his LetsPlay videos in order for them to fit in Website/YouTube's 11-minute (later upped to 15) limit. He calls this "chipmunk time". Even though [=YouTube=] no longer has a time limit, he still does this sometimes anyway because [[RuleOfFunny it's funny]].

* Used in ''Film/HomeAlone'' after the entire [=McCallister=] family oversleeps the morning they are set to leave on a Christmas vacation to Paris, and are in danger of missing their flight. A shot of the house's foyer shows everyone (except Kevin, who is still sleeping, unbeknownst to the others) hurrying up and down the stairs and through the halls getting ready as the airport shuttle drivers are waiting outside. This happens ''again'' in the sequel, and the effect is also used when Kate and Peter bolt out of bed before screaming, "We did it again!"

* In some horror movies (the ''Film/HouseOnHauntedHill1999'' remake, ''Film/Thir13enGhosts'', and ''Film/JacobsLadder'' come to mind), the ghosts are filmed WAY undercranked to make them look [[UncannyValley deranged and supernaturally fast]] on playback. Especially the [[DemonicHeadShake headshaking]] ghosts.

* Music/{{Orbital}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCeFdL72CDE video for "The Box"]]. It looks like Tilda Swinton moved very slowly during filming, so the undercrank brings her up to normal speed while still making her movements [[UncannyValley rather unnatural]] and reminiscent of stop-motion; everyone around her is a super-fast blur.

* In ''Film/AChristmasStory'', In the ImagineSpot with Ralphie shooting the bad guys, they are in fast-motion. Also, the scene where Ralphie turns in his paper begins and ends with fast-motion scenes of the boys running to and from school, complete with chipmunk voices. Some shots of the Bumpuses' dogs storming the Parker's kitchen are sped up as well.

Beyond extreme undercranking, where you are still counting in frames exposed per second, comes "TimeLapse" shooting, where you are counting in seconds (or hours, or longer) per frame exposed. Popular subjects for time lapse are blooming flowers, the movement of the clouds or stars, building concert stages, and city streets.

Undercranking involves filming at a slower frame rate so that the action is sped up when played back. Sometimes witnessed in car chases, especially on the 1960s ''[[Series/Batman1966 Batman]]'' TV show. In the days when film cameras were hand-cranked, most operators were trained to slow down slightly whenever a punch was thrown, so that the blow would seem faster than it really was: almost all of Jackie Chan's martial arts movies make use of the same basic principle during the fight scenes to make the action seem more exciting. When shooting video, where the framerate cannot be manually controlled mid-shot, a similar effect can be produced in the edit suite by selectively deleting a single frame here and there.

* In order to achieve the intense shots of the car bearing down on Brendan in ''Film/{{Brick}}, the car was backed up slowly past the undercranked camera, then the film was reversed to give the impression of the car shooting towards the viewer.

* ''Series/PlanetDinosaur'' does it in various scenes, and it's a major reason why the CGI of that show gets trashed so much. But truth be told, it ''is'' a very distracting effect, especially when there's no motion-blur, and the animals you're watching are supposed to be several-ton beasts, yet jerk around like frantic mice.