Timelapse of the Entire Universe
Timelapse of the Entire Universe is a 2018 short epic animated pseudo-documentary web film created by American astronomy-themed musician and filmmaker John D. Boswell. Inspired by the Cosmic Calendar, the 10-minute film is a hyperlapse of the universe from its start to current humanity, with every second representing 22 million years, with the entire humanity represented in a short time, using current knowledge. The film was originally released on Boswell's YouTube channel Melodysheep on March 7, but it was eventually taken down due to a copyright infringement regarding Morgan Freeman's voice. A revised version was uploaded 3 days later, on March 10, 2018. A year and 10 days later, a follow-up, Timelapse of the Future, was released.
| Timelapse of the Entire Universe | |
|---|---|
 The YouTube thumbnail. | |
| Produced by | John Boswell |
| Written by | John Boswell |
| Narrated by | Brian Cox David Attenborough Carl Sagan Morgan Freeman[upper-alpha 1] |
| Music by | John Boswell |
| Edited by | John Boswell |
| Animation by | John Boswell (several) Others (several) |
| Backgrounds by | John Boswell |
Production company | Amber Mountain Studios |
| Distributed by | Amber Mountain Studios |
Release date |
|
Running time | 10 minutes 49 seconds |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
The Big Bang occurred, and the first star was formed after the mixture of elements. Gravity then expands the universe to seemingly infinite. Galaxies were then formed. Some galaxies formed so close together that they attracted each other by gravity and collided, fusing. However despite its wonderous creation, gravity also creates mayhem, in form of a supermassive or stellar mass black hole , a region where not even light can escape its attraction, making its singularity invisible to the outers.
Throughout the universe, conflicts between energy and gravity repeats every time, making a star die as a supernova when it runs out of fuel, causing new stars to be born. A particular protoplanetary dust cloud collapses, causing the birth of the Sun 5264 million years ago. The Solar System is then formed; among its planets is the Earth. A protoplanet, Theia, then collided with it, forming the Moon.
Earth was inherently in the Hadean and Archean Eon, in which it is covered in lavas and ravaged by volcanoes, however, microorganisms still managed to form below the ocean. Although still not known, latest theory suggests that chemicals from submarine volcanos made the right recipe to create life. 2490 million years ago, the oxygenation of the atmosphere began, allowing the animals to arise. The Proterozoic Eon began 1402 million years ago, but its benefits is delayed by the Snowball Earth, the biggest ice age in the planet's history. After the ice age ended, the benefits of the eon came to life; animals started to literally born. Plants then started to form, followed by dinosaurs in the Triassic Period, which is then made extinct by an asteroid impact. More plants and events occurred rapidly, followed by a big rise in mammals, consisting of Australopithecus afarensis, Homo erectus, Neanderthals, Homo sapiens, and Novus homo. A human eye, representing the entire humanity, was showed in just a fraction (1/24) of a second.
Production
In 2012, a short, one-and-a-half-minute film by Boswell, Our Story in 1 Minute, is published. It is a shorter version of Timelapse of the Entire Universe, specifically in one minute and 29 seconds, and used closed captions to evoke reflection on humanity. It also used imageries from this film.[1]
Boswell stated that the film "shows how young we really are and how ancient and vast our universe is."[2] The film was inspired by the Cosmic Calendar by Carl Sagan, in which Boswell later implemented it by creating a stripe similar to of the Cosmic Calendar. Research for the creation of the film was started on the Wikipedia article "Geologic time scale." Every second represents 22 million years in the film.
Boswell is supported by computer scientist Juan Benet, which makes his company Protocol Labs, an open-source R&D lab, credited.
Release
Announcement of the film was posted on Boswell's Twitter on February 9, 2018.[3] The film was originally published on Boswell's channel Melodysheep on March 7,[4] but is taken down by YouTube due to copyright infringement.[2] A revised version was published on March 10, with the voice of Morgan Freeman removed.[5]
Reception
The film gets generally positive reviews. Writer Alex Shoolman says that it "gives an amazing overview of how our universe formed, the stars, galaxies, simple and complex life."[6] César Noragueda of publication Hipertextual says that "There is no doubt that our long-awaited Carl Sagan [...] would love John Boswell's new video on the history of the universe."[2] Laughing Squid said, "Against this stunning visual, Boswell provided a mesmerizing soundtrack, which included a seamless mashup of four iconic narrators – Morgan Freeman, Brian Cox, Carl Sagan and Sir David Attenborough – calmly explaining how [the universe] all came into place."[7]
Soundtrack
| Continuum E.P. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by John Boswell | ||||
| Released | May 7, 2018 | |||
| Genre | Orchestra, electronic | |||
| Length | 15:40 | |||
| Producer | John Boswell | |||
| melodysheep chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Does not include archive narrations. | ||||
All music is composed by John Boswell.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "First Moments" | 2:48 |
| 2. | "Plateau" | 2:56 |
| 3. | "Rebirth" | 3:19 |
| 4. | "Empires Lost" | 2:17 |
| 5. | "Rai Stones" | 2:22 |
| 6. | "Chapters of Time" | 1:58 |
| Total length: | 15:40 | |
Sequel
A follow-up, Timelapse of the Future, was posted a year and 10 days after Timelapse of the Entire Universe's revised release. It is a hyperlapse of the possible timeline of the far future, with the lapse doubling every five seconds instead of being consistent.
Notes
- Removed in revised version due to copyright infringement.
References
- "Our Story in 1 Minute - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
- César, Noragueda (March 12, 2018). "Los 13.800 millones de años del universo en un timelapse maravilloso" [The 13.8 billion years of the universe in a wonderful timelapse]. Hipertextual (in Spanish). Retrieved August 9, 2020.
- Boswell, John D. (February 9, 2018). "Currently building my most ambitious video ever: TIMELAPSE OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE..." Melodysheep. Retrieved August 9, 2020 – via Twitter.
- Boswell, John D. (March 7, 2018). "Ladies and gents, presenting a special new video: TIMELAPSE OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE". Melodysheep. Retrieved August 9, 2020 – via Twitter.
- Boswell, John D. (March 10, 2018). "Proudly presenting my newest work: TIMELAPSE OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE". Melodysheep. Retrieved August 9, 2020 – via Twitter.
- Shoolman, Alex (March 10, 2018). "Watch This Amazing Timelapse Of The Universe!". ALEX SHOOLMAN. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
- Dorn, Lori (March 7, 2018). "A Stunning Timelapse of the Entire Universe Over 13 Billion Years as Described by Four Iconic Narrators". Laughing Squid. Retrieved August 9, 2020.