Last year, James Cameron called on filmmakers to start shooting film at 48 frames per second – twice the industry standard, and twice as smooth, visually. Peter Jackson was the first to respond, shooting The Hobbit at 48fps. And, according to people who saw a 10-minute preview at CinemaCon this year, it looks like a made-for-TV BBC movie.
In the same way that some HD films are sort of uncomfortable to look at because they let you become intimately familiar with the clogged pores on your favorite actor’s nose, the new frame-rate has the effect of making shots look too crisp, and clear – no longer like a movie.
Says /film:
It looked uncompromisingly real — so much so that it looked fake.
More noticeable in the footage was the make-up, the sets, the costumes. Hobbiton and Middle Earth didn’t feel like a different universe, it felt like a special effect, a film set with actors in costumes. It looked like behind the scenes footage.
The movement of the actors looked… strange. Almost as if the performances had been partly sped up. But the dialogue matched the movement of the lips, so it wasn’t an effect of speed-ramping.
…a thing to behold. Totally different experience. Not all will like the change. 48 fps has an immediacy that is almost jarring … unfortunately, (it also) looks a bit like television.
