This is a time lapse film I did of a two (2) day quick build Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses on Adams St. and Hauser in West Los Angeles. The work you see here was executed on 11-12 March 1989.
The work began about 7 AM on a Saturday morning with the slab that was previously poured and dried. The first day saw progress all the way to the roof being started. Then as you can see, the activity proceeded all night inside the building. In the morning on Sunday, the outside work resumed on finishing the stucco and roof.
The construction through both days included inspections by the city at pre-specified times when the construction was at the right stage for each. I even recall they had to take out part of the wall facing the camera for some reason and re-do it.
On Sunday, the second day, you can see the finishing touches being applied as the sun goes down. By evening I had to stop the time lapse and take the camera inside because they were gathering for the first meeting on Sunday evening.
At 1:45 you can see the switch from time lapse to normal speed as I shot the interior on Sunday evening while they found their seats in the new hall for the first time. The interior was complete with theater style seating, podium, sound system, ceiling fans, paintings on the walls, and even plants.
There were neighbors watching all weekend, amazed at the oasis for pure worship that was springing up in place of what was described as a very dilapidated building there a few weeks before. Some neighbors arriving Sunday evening after being gone since Friday were totally taken aback by the transformation of the vacant lot into a fully functioning Kingdom Hall with brothers gathering for the first meeting.
There were brothers whom I have lost contact with that documented the work with a regular video camera. They put together a video program that included this time lapse.
I filmed this using a Canon 1014XL Super 8 film movie camera. The camera ran straight through 36 hours from beginning to end of the time lapse thanks to a special battery pack I made for it. The camera took 1 frame every 60 seconds. I transferred the film to video at 24 FPS at a Hollywood facility shortly after I processed the film. The video sat in my master tapes collection on 3/4 professional video tape until I recently transferred it to digital. I am sure I have the film somewhere and may try to get a better transfer, considering the quality of newer transfer technology.
Why no Kingdom Melodies on this video? Because they are copyrighted by the Watchtower Society. I would need to get permission to do this right. So, I got royalty free music instead.
