3MS+ Contributor – Dai Cao AKA Shipwreck Dai — A Moment in Time: Learning to Timelapse

Dai Cao AKA Shipwreck Dai

Graphic Designer, Nightlife Photographer, Intern @ Bridge-Gate Films-Beverly Hills, CA

Location: San Diego, California

Rates, Bio & Kit

About Dai Cao

My name is Dai Cao, but I go by the name Shipwreck Dai because most people can’t pronounce my name. I’m 23 years old, and I’m gradually transitioning from photography to cinematography.

I have been transitioning in and out of media for the past 6 years. I started out as a graphic-designer in Texas. I made skateboard graphics, flyers, and t-shirts. Filming became part of my routine to support my minor campaigns. I started these campaigns to get involve with local artists and musicians to help launch my products from the shelf into customers’ hands.

I’m currently living in San Diego, working and doing my side gigs on the weekend to progress my skills to a higher level. My side gigs are composed of either shooting photos at clubs and venues or filming and editing reality TV pilots for television networks.

I’m currently embarking myself on a 10,000 hours short-film project, weekly or bi-weekly. I stumbled upon Preston Kanak’s 3 minute short-film web-page, It completely changed my perspective on how my slow progression was compared to his flawless consistent workflow. It is very inspiring to see someone work on a short film everyday. Therefore, I committed myself to this project to help me learn from experience to be a better film-maker, editor and producer.

There are many flaws in my work at this early stage but I’m sacrificing myself to accept any criticism to learn from my mistakes. Here are a couple of projects that I have started with for the 3 minute shorts project.

Rates & Kit

For more information, please contact Dai Cao.

Featured Video

SF Time-lapse preview

About the Film

A little sneak peek of what I’m working on. Pardon the flaws, I sped up a few clips to cut it short and it seems a little glitchy. After all, this is not my final cut. I still got tons of footage and narration to work on to stitch the story together.

Equipment Used:

Canon 60D, Magic Lantern Firmware, Gorillapod, Sigma 17-70 2.8, Canon 50 1.8, Final Cut Pro 7, Magic Bullet Looks and Quicktime 7.

Education: What I Learned

I learned specifically with this project that if you shoot a TL in portrait mode.. ..It’s very hard to key frame everything in post production. And traffic at night is very sporadic, try and shoot them as frequent as possible.