TED Conversations

Ben Lillie

Co-founder and Director, The Story Collider


This conversation is closed.

Lets each record one second every day!

At the TED Full Spectrum auditions, Cesar Kuriyama talked about One Second Everyday, where he collects a one-second video each day, and is editing them together. By age 80, he'll have a 5-hour video of his life.


It's an extraordinary way to summarize, and get perspective on his life, and also a way to examine and get perspective: what are we doing every day?

He encouraged everyone to do it, a lot of people have said they will. I know I want to.

So, how do we do it? Are there good free tools? Ideas for organizing, and making the process simple and habitual?

Ideas for what to shoot? How to select the second to use for that day?

  • thumb
    May 26 2011: There are some interesting videos on Youtube where parents have recorded their children's lives in photos (not every day) but from birth to say seven and then put them together so that you can watch the child grow and change. It is kind of fascinating- like watching a flower open in time lapse only human.
  • thumb
    May 31 2011: Well, there is only one way to prove to the world that one second of your life will be relevant after 80 years. Let's create an application to facilitate this!
  • May 27 2011: I think journals of any kind are a great gift to the younger generations and the generations not born yet,I think there's some comfort and insight to be gained when you realize that your forbearers faced the same fears,hopes,failures,successes etc that we all face as humans.
  • thumb
    May 26 2011: It should be a random second..pre determined..idealy a perner wouldknow that predetermined time and send a signal..tweet. with a few sceonds woraning... That way it would really reflect life.

    Then you'd need a rule..


    at the eact time you film yourslef ( via we cam)

    or the other person calls you via skype can you video from skype or only photo?

    • Jun 6 2011: I think 1 second is very close to a snapshot and would opt for 2 seconds, possibly. But then I'm probably much closer to 80 than most of you... I've never been disciplined enough to keep a journal, although I agree with Mark that they are a valuable (possibly invaluable) for our descendants. Therefore the automated method appeals to me. How about a phone app that has all the settings for:
      - length of clip, set time to start or random time within time range, optional caption, where to send (like Flikr)?
      The app wakes up at the predetermined (or random) time, gives you a countdown, records it and sends it off to your storage location. It would be nice if our storage location would assemble the clips as well.

      Question- what would you film for this clip? Would the majority of them be you looking pensive in front of your computer? Or would you usually turn the camera away from you to show your surroundings and let people infer what you are doing in that moment?
  • thumb
    May 26 2011: Personally i think a second doesn´t summarize you're day as fully as a minute can.
    but that is just my opinion =)
    • Jun 1 2011: i also think a second is too short a time. Maybe 15 or 30 secs. would be enough.
      • thumb
        Jun 1 2011: I think it's not about summarizing the day; if that is your goal, then yes, 15, 30 secs, a minute, sure, and that'll be an interesting way to look back at a year. Maybe after capturing that, you could edit each to a second, that'd be an interesting [time consuming!] process.

        But I think the point is to gain a much longer look at things. Things come and go, always changing, and this process and result remind us of that fact. (Also a nice spin on the phrase "live in the moment")

        The seed of this conversation mentions the inspiration getting a 5 hour video by age 80 - that's already approximately two movies, imagine if it was 60x longer! A great video installation, but not practical to watch in one sitting. One second gives you a moment, and these moments add up to a swirl of life. Who knows what lessons will come of the end result, but it should be an interesting view, and the process of making it brings up all sorts of other interesting questions. . .
  • thumb
    Jun 5 2011: This is an intriguing challenge! For one, we require some kind of instant, hassle free technolgy to snap a second of video recording. Two, we need to be able to choose that significant second of a day. Three, reararranging those seconds (editing) to make a meaningful documentary. Last, the big assumption that each of us have something to convey to Gen Next or even worth looking back. Age 80 may be too late to change anything we might want to!

    Worth giving it a shot though!
    • thumb
      Jun 5 2011: Don't we have te technology? Don't most people these days ( notme I live on a remote island..no signal) have iohones with cameras. We could actualy engineer an expereiment as part of this conversation where everyone at the exact same second takes a 1 second video of whatever they are doing.

      Sould be sort of like Eric Whitacre's virtual choir. and we could use that same technology .

      I think we should seriously try it.
  • thumb
    May 31 2011: Plan B: 5 seconds per day. During one year you will have a video of 30 minutes. Who thinks too little? I believe that 1 second is enough.
  • May 31 2011: 1sec is very little to understand what we are doing and I think we cant record ourselves everyday, So we have to create something new automated system that can randomly record us ))
  • thumb
    May 31 2011: We're writing all the time. Everywhere! Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Email and SMS. Why not create a prototype that captures a word we write randomly on social networks?
  • thumb
    May 31 2011: Last word of the week.