Photographer Patrick Hall had a wacky idea. He wanted to photograph and film people at the exact moment they were getting hit by a taser. The best part? He filmed it all in slow motion. He somehow talked 100 people into posing for this experiment, and then published the collection of photos online and compiled the slow-mo video into a short film.
Why did he want to do this? Maybe he's in it for the laughs. Maybe it's art. Maybe he's just a sadist.
Does it matter? Who cares! We get to watch people get tasered for over two-and-a-half minutes, and that's all we need to know.
Okay, okay, so maybe there is a real explanation. Hall is one of the founders of Fstoppers.com, a website devoted to educating and inspiring photographers. Apparently he had the idea for this photo shoot after doing portrait work professionally, where he noticed that his subjects always tended to mug for the camera. Hall wanted to capture expressions that were more real and more honest -- and what's more real and honest than actual pain captured on film?
So there you have it. Definitely sadist.
Did we mention that the taser delivered 300,000 volts of electricity into Hall's victims subjects?
But what, you ask, if you just want to watch these people get tasered in normal, non-slow-mo? Hey, we're not here to judge. And neither is Mr. Hall, who graciously posted a second video that includes several normal-speed clips from the shoot. (He also spends some time talking about the cameras and lighting and stuff that he used, because you know, that's a thing.)
We're not done yet. Hall decided to post a third video, after observing the reactions of the people doing the tasing. It's an "extended" version of the original video, including this extra footage, and yes, it's worth watching. You've come this far, might as well go all the way.
