"Bullet-time" argument

There is a lot of talk on this board about the source of a special effect that the Matrix folks call "bullet time." The basic effect existed and was used extensively in commercials, plus a few movies, before the Wachowskis adapted it (chiefly with extra layers of CG effects) to the production of the first Matrix.

Fundamentally, you get the stop-time look by arranging a string of still cameras that all go off at one time. When those frames, connected on each end to motion-picture film, are projected, they create the illusion that the action stopped while the camera continued to move. Remember the Gap "Swing Kids" (from '97 or '98) commercial? That was one of the early examples that turned the technique into a hot property.

There are technical variations in how it is used, but the basic design has been around since before The Matrix. Dayton Taylor patented the "Timetrack" camera in 1994. Here is a web site about it: http://www.virtualcamera.com/timetrackintroduction.html.