''Chronos'' ( ) is a 1985 non-narrative

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed and photographed by

Ron Fricke Ron Fricke (born February 24, 1953) is an American film director and cinematographer specializing in time-lapse and large-format cinematography, known for his non-narrative feature films. Career After serving as director of photography for '' ...

, with music by Michael Stearns. Shot on

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

film in eight countries, it consists primarily of

time-lapse Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and th ...

footage captured with custom-built cameras. Originally released in IMAX theaters in May 1985, it has since been made available on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

HD DVD HD DVD (short for High Density Digital Versatile Disc) is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video.

, and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

Synopsis

''Chronos'' is 42 minutes long and has no actors or dialogue. The soundtrack consists of a single continuous piece by composer Michael Stearns. Filmed in dozens of locations on five continents, the film relates to the concept of time passing on different scales—the bulk of the film covers the history of civilization, from pre-history to Egypt to Rome to

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

to the rise of Western Europe in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

to the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

to the modern era. It centers on European themes but not exclusively. Other time scales include the passing of seasons, the passing of night and day, and the passing shadows of the sun in an afternoon to the passing of people on the street. These themes are intermingled with symbolic meaning.

Background

''Chronos'' shares its particular style with the film '' Koyaanisqatsi'' (1982), for which

was the

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...

, as well as his later films ''Sacred Site'' and ''

Baraka Baraka or Barakah may refer to: * Berakhah or Baraka, in Judaism, a blessing usually recited during a ceremony * Barakah or Baraka, in Islam, the beneficent force from God that flows through the physical and spiritual spheres * Baraka, full ''ḥa ...

'' (1992). The theme of the film is "the celebration of life", and does not include the themes of technology as the culprit for society or "life out of balance", which were present in ''Koyaanisqatsi''. ''

American Cinematographer The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), founded in Hollywood in 1919, is a cultural, educational, and professional organization that is neither a labor union nor a guild. The society was organized to advance the science and art of cinem ...

'' described the film as "a musical poem praising the evolution of

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

man from

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

." The film was produced by Canticle Films, a production company founded by Fricke. Funding for ''Chronos'' came from the

seed money Seed money, also known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor puts capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' suggest ...

acquired through the publicity surrounding the production of ''Koyaanisqatsi''. Fricke designed and built a 65 mm camera for the film, which included a

motion control Motion control is a sub-field of automation, encompassing the systems or sub-systems involved in moving parts of machines in a controlled manner. Motion control systems are extensively used in a variety of fields for automation purposes, includi ...

system for the film's cinematography. The director also used the system in his later films. Michael Stearns, while composing the soundtrack for the film, used a custom-made instrument called " The Beam" to generate many of the sounds he required. The Beam was long, made of

extruded Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex ...

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

with 24 piano strings of gauge 19-22. The name of the film comes from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

word ''χρόνος'', ''krònos'', which means ''time'' and is also the source to many modern terms related to time, such as

chronology Chronology (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , , ; and , ''wikt:-logia, -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the deter ...

synchronous Synchronization is the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. For example, the conductor of an orchestra keeps the orchestra synchronized or ''in time''. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are said to be synchrono ...

, etc.

Awards

* International OMNI-MAX Film Festival: "Grand Prize Winner"

References

External links

* * {{Ron Fricke 1985 films 1985 short documentary films 1980s American films 1980s avant-garde and experimental films American avant-garde and experimental short films American short documentary films Films about time Films directed by Ron Fricke Films scored by Michael Stearns Films without speech IMAX documentary films IMAX short films Non-narrative films