Peter Jackson's The Hobbit was shot at double the usual frame rate, but the visual feel of a preview left the audience cold
THE scene was set for a triumphant debut of a new movie technology at the CinemaCon conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, last week. Cinema owners and movie critics waited to be wowed by a 10-minute preview of Peter Jackson's upcoming 3D movie, The Hobbit: An unexpected journey. This prequel to his blockbuster Lord of the Rings trilogy has been shot at a high rate of 48 frames per second (fps).
But after, when the lights came back up, all was not well. The audience said the footage looked tawdry, like a made-for-TV film. They questioned the bold claims made by directors like Jackson and James Cameron, who argue that high frame rate (HFR) technology is the future of film.
Unlike the 2D and 3D movies we've seen to date, which have been filmed at the industry's 80-year-old standard rate of 24 fps, The Hobbit's 48 fps is meant to smooth out juddery panning and "smearing" when objects move quickly across the screen, both facets of 3D movies that are particularly irritating to the eye.
Jackson hopes 48 fps will create a "gentler experience on the eyes" and give "a heightened sense of reality". But audiences may not want their films to look hyperreal. Indeed, the preview was described as video-like and lacking in colour contrast, more like the quality of a TV soap opera. "Actors seemed overlit and amplified in a way that many compared to modern sports broadcasts and daytime TV," according to a report by Variety.
Jackson and Cameron fully expect HFR to look more like high-definition (HD) TV than traditional film - the look of which is partly a result of how the eye perceives 24 fps footage - but it is a step they deem necessary to reduce the strobing that limits creative camera moves in 3D.
It will also lead to brighter 3D movies. In today's 24 fps format, each frame in a 3D film has to be flashed on the screen two or three times, depending on the projection technology. If those flashes are too bright, viewers perceive flicker. But with 48 or 60 fps, you need to flash each frame less often - so the brightness can be higher without producing flicker.
Industry insiders reckon cinema-goers will get used to HFR movies' hyperrealism, just as they have become used to sports, newscasts, and other programming on their HDTVs, which display footage at a rate of 60 fps - the same rate that Cameron intends to use to produce the sequel to Avatar.
Will Cohen, director of effects firm Mill Film and TV in London, says the lacklustre reaction to The Hobbit mirrors early reactions to HDTV, saying that because people were used to TV looking a certain way, some were initially put off by the bigger, clearer, sharper screens. "Most of us have still only viewed a handful of 3D films and are still making the adjustment," he says.
In order for the experiment to work, Jackson, Cameron, and anyone who follows in their footsteps will need cinema chains on board. Current digital projectors will need at least a major software upgrade to support the format. And there may be growing pains within the industry as well.
"Some short cuts used for a long time in moviemaking may not now work," says Michele Sciolette, head of visual effects technology at Cinesite, also in London. "Every little detail in make-up, costumes and props will have to be absolutely perfect in terms of visual detail - otherwise they may not be perceived as real."
THE scene was set for a triumphant debut of a new movie technology at the CinemaCon conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, last week. Cinema owners and movie critics waited to be wowed by a 10-minute preview of Peter Jackson's upcoming 3D movie, The Hobbit: An unexpected journey. This prequel to his blockbuster Lord of the Rings trilogy has been shot at a high rate of 48 frames per second (fps).
But after, when the lights came back up, all was not well. The audience said the footage looked tawdry, like a made-for-TV film. They questioned the bold claims made by directors like Jackson and James Cameron, who argue that high frame rate (HFR) technology is the future of film.
Unlike the 2D and 3D movies we've seen to date, which have been filmed at the industry's 80-year-old standard rate of 24 fps, The Hobbit's 48 fps is meant to smooth out juddery panning and "smearing" when objects move quickly across the screen, both facets of 3D movies that are particularly irritating to the eye.
Jackson hopes 48 fps will create a "gentler experience on the eyes" and give "a heightened sense of reality". But audiences may not want their films to look hyperreal. Indeed, the preview was described as video-like and lacking in colour contrast, more like the quality of a TV soap opera. "Actors seemed overlit and amplified in a way that many compared to modern sports broadcasts and daytime TV," according to a report by Variety.
Jackson and Cameron fully expect HFR to look more like high-definition (HD) TV than traditional film - the look of which is partly a result of how the eye perceives 24 fps footage - but it is a step they deem necessary to reduce the strobing that limits creative camera moves in 3D.
It will also lead to brighter 3D movies. In today's 24 fps format, each frame in a 3D film has to be flashed on the screen two or three times, depending on the projection technology. If those flashes are too bright, viewers perceive flicker. But with 48 or 60 fps, you need to flash each frame less often - so the brightness can be higher without producing flicker.
Industry insiders reckon cinema-goers will get used to HFR movies' hyperrealism, just as they have become used to sports, newscasts, and other programming on their HDTVs, which display footage at a rate of 60 fps - the same rate that Cameron intends to use to produce the sequel to Avatar.
Will Cohen, director of effects firm Mill Film and TV in London, says the lacklustre reaction to The Hobbit mirrors early reactions to HDTV, saying that because people were used to TV looking a certain way, some were initially put off by the bigger, clearer, sharper screens. "Most of us have still only viewed a handful of 3D films and are still making the adjustment," he says.
In order for the experiment to work, Jackson, Cameron, and anyone who follows in their footsteps will need cinema chains on board. Current digital projectors will need at least a major software upgrade to support the format. And there may be growing pains within the industry as well.
"Some short cuts used for a long time in moviemaking may not now work," says Michele Sciolette, head of visual effects technology at Cinesite, also in London. "Every little detail in make-up, costumes and props will have to be absolutely perfect in terms of visual detail - otherwise they may not be perceived as real."
newscientist.com
