Video: time-lapse of Merrill’s transformation from gym to inaugural stage

Watch as the Margaret Hopkins Merrill Gymnasium undergoes a transformation from sports venue to theatrical stage for the inauguration of Clayton Spencer.

The inauguration stage was designed by Michael Reidy, senior lecturer in theater and managing director of theater and dance.

He explains that presenting the stage as a triangle of sorts — “kicking the stage on an angle,” he says — was done to give spectators an unobstructed view of the platform party, podium and musical performers.

Produced by the college’s Digital Media Studios, the video uses photographs taken over seven days with an automated Canon Rebel XS. The images were converted to high-definition (1080p) video using Apple Compressor’s image sequencer, then edited inside Final Cut 7. The tilt-shift effect — which focuses the viewer’s attention on the stage through a slight blur of the top and bottom of the video — was added using Apple Motion 6.