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#1
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The Hobbit: 48 FPS
Good afternoon everyone:
I read this piece about "The Hobbit" which apparently will be screening at 48 fps in selected theaters: http://www.fandango.com/movieblog/wh...ns-727214.html http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,7157111.story Out of curiosity, does anyone know how this is going to work, especially in terms of sound post production? I have the complete production toolkit but the maximum framerate I can get is 30 FPS. Thanks! |
#2
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Re: The Hobbit: 48 FPS
use 24fps if/until this is wide spread
I saw a comparison of 24 vs 48 film years ago (late 80s I think) for any given frame of motion the 48 was sharper than the 24
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#3
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Re: The Hobbit: 48 FPS
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In a nutshell, it wont make any difference to sound post production - and re. the frame rate setting in Pro Tools, that is nothing more than a ruler / scale. It has no inherent effect on the sound in the way sample rate and bit depth do. You'll still end up with the ruler set to 24fps. 48fps, 60fps, and Hypercinema at 120fps are all designed to facilitate easy conversion to 24fps - and primarily these systems are designed to get people back in to cinemas, and give them something special that they cannot see in the home-entertainment setting. You will only be able to see these movies in the higher frame rates in cinemas (unless the studios shoot themselves in the foot by releasing digital versions) as Blu-ray cannot play higher frame rates. All of these high frame rates derive from Doug Trumbull's Showscan format in the 70's and 80's (here's some more info in a post I made a couple of years ago) and are really beneficial in terms of "immersive" cinema, particularly 3D. With 24fps and a 180 degree shutter angle, the shutter is closed 50% of the time, meaning that you have a lot of motion blur. Blurred information cannot yield distinctive 3D information. The other problem with 24fps is that there is noticeable flicker, which severely limits the brightness an image can be projected (whilst 15 foot-Lamberts is the goal, much more than 14 and the flicker becomes distracting), and the lower the brightness means reduced contrast ratio, and reduced colour definition. So, higher frame rates mean brighter, sharper, more colourful, more dimensional images - but that wont affect the sound workload (CGI rendering, costume quality, and Make-up are a different story). 48fps is just a stepping-stone towards 60fps (the frame rate of the original Showscan format), and beyond that is Showscan Digital, part of the Hypercinema system, shooting at 120fps, and projected via laser projector on to a Torus screen, yielding and image at 30 foot-Lamberts after 3D polarisation - although that format is chiefly aimed at theme parks, rather than cinemas for the time being... |
#4
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Re: The Hobbit: 48 FPS
Gosh, I've been running at 48000 frames per second for years!
Traditional linear timecode is not defined above 30fps so whatcha gonna do? 60/59.94 fps has been treated by PT, and probably all audio apps, as 30/29.97. Likewise 48fps will have to be handled as 24fps for the time being. Hours, mins, secs counts remain identical either way so its not too hard. At least we have the luxury of using trim/grid values of 1/2, 1/4, or whatever frames to make up the difference! |
#5
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Re: The Hobbit: 48 FPS
Actually, Peter Jackson did tests for The Hobbit at 60fps and said there was no discernable difference, and a lot more data to handle in post. In short, the costs outweighed the benefit. Here's the quote
We tested both 48 fps and 60 fps. The difference between those speeds is almost impossible to detect, but the increase in quality over 24 fps is significant. https://www.facebook.com/notes/peter...50222861171558 |
#6
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Re: The Hobbit: 48 FPS
I'm looking forward to seeing this. I'm guessing this will be totally different than the fake "refresh rate" artifacts seen on modern LED tv's that fake a higher frame rate and just make everything look like soap operas.
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#7
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Re: The Hobbit: 48 FPS
Thanks for the feedback everyone - really looking forward to seeing this one in the theater.
Does anyone know of a list of theaters that have 48 fps projection capability? |
#8
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Re: The Hobbit: 48 FPS
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#9
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Re: The Hobbit: 48 FPS
Quote:
An interesting read, thanks for posting (I'm one of the few human beings who is not actually a Facebook member...) I'm pretty certain that the decision to shoot The Hobbit at 48fps, rather than 60fps, was a compromise based on practical necessity : At the point The Hobbit went in to pre-production, most cinemas with digital projectors were in a position to be able to display a movie at 48fps with a simple, low-cost, firmware upgrade to the projector. That actually extends the life of their existing projector, without having to gamble a lot of money by investing in brand new projectors that are capable of displaying 60fps (and higher), but which is unproven in terms of boosting ticket sales. Another factor is that a projector running at 48fps can only yield an onscreen image at about 15 foot-lamberts before flicker becomes increasingly noticeable - so right there (in a sort of "putting the cart before the horse" argument) you've made a good economical argument for not buying in to hugely expensive Laser projectors at this time - which lets the film makers of the hook from shooting at 60fps. Additionally, from the film makers point of view (of course Moore's law applies) rendering VFX etc at 48fps is currently more viable, time-wise, than 60fps. But by the time Avatar 2 at 60fps is in theatres, Laser Projectors will have become widely affordable, enabling brighter images. And thanks to the even higher frame rate, without flicker. Screen technology will improve, reflecting brighter images, computers will become more powerful and faster at rendering, popcorn will taste better, and giant blue alien kitty's will look even more vivid. The future is bright, and flicker free... |
#10
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Re: The Hobbit: 48 FPS
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