timelapse - What are good exposure and timing choices for time lapse photography?

I am shooting a time lapse and am doing some calculations beforehand to make sure I get everything right.

I am shooting a road trip from the west coast to the east coast and am planning to compress it down to about 4 minutes or 5760 frames at 24 fps (I was originally planning 30 fps, but blu ray is 24 fps).

I am reading various articles online and have shot a few time-lapse sample videos myself. The first video I shot recorded pictures at 1 frame / second with a variable shutter speed of 1/60 or faster. The second shot at 1/3.5 second every 10 seconds.

I stitched both into videos at a frame rate of 30 fps, the one shot at 1/3.5 second is much smoother than the one shot at 1/60 second or faster.

reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-lapse

My questions:

1. What should my exposure time be if I take a picture every 10 seconds?


2. Should it be 5 seconds?


3. Should I take more pictures than 5760 over the entire length of the trip?

I was thinking that I would shoot more than 5760 frames so that I have more pictures to choose from so the picture would be smoother. Alternatively, I was thinking I could do a longer exposure to make up for the lack of total frames I would have.

It looks like I will have to use my DSLR as I can't find an inexpensive point and shoot that I feel comfortable using. I have looked at a JVC GC-WP10 (online), but I don't feel I would have enough control over the camera.

Thanks,

Walter