Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Jackson Shooting “Hobbit” at 48 Frames Per Second

And speaking of 48 Frames Per Second...


It looks like all filmmakers tackling the genres of fantasy and sci-fi are drinking up that Kool-Aid by the gallon. Peter Jackson will shoot his upcoming adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit at 48 frames per second. An excerpt from Jackson’s statement, which can be found on his Facebook page:

We are indeed shooting [The Hobbit] at the higher frame rate. The key thing to understand is that this process requires both shooting and projecting at 48 fps, rather than the usual 24 fps (films have been shot at 24 frames per second since the late 1920's). So the result looks like normal speed, but the image has hugely enhanced clarity and smoothness. Looking at 24 frames every second may seem ok--and we've all seen thousands of films like this over the last 90 years--but there is often quite a lot of blur in each frame, during fast movements, and if the camera is moving around quickly, the image can judder or ‘strobe.’”

I’m pretty vocal about how I feel concerning this new technology. Again, while I think it’s great that we can utilize this to make a quality product, it’s not the most crucial element to the art of filmmaking. 

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