#high frame rate

[tikidelosmuertos]

High Frame Rate Projection in Movies Has Got to Go

High Frame Rate Projection in Movies Has Got to Go

High Frame Rate projection may be loved by directors like James Cameron, but it's still a nuisance in modern cinema.

The one annoyance of an otherwise enjoyable movie.

[samflir]

A Zoomer's opinions on HFR: the HFR rant

welcome back to a zoomer's opinions on HFR, the longest-running Samflir blog series(?)

Imagine booking a screening at your local cinema. You select a showtime to see a new film you really want to see and pick your seat. There's nothing to indicate on the website or the e-ticket that the film will play in an unusual format.

Then, when you get there, surprise! It's actually a 4DX screening and you'll need to wear 3D glasses and get shaken around and have water sprayed at you. You didn't think you were paying for this, and you didn't want it, either.

This is the experience of HFR. Trailers for Avatar 2 did not indicate at all that it would be in HFR. No cinema websites I've visited have explicitly put in the film format title whether it is HFR or non-HFR. I reasonably guessed that my local cinema would have HFR from it being explicitly included in what they say they can offer. I even asked the staff when I got there if they were playing it in HFR but they had no idea that they actually weren't.

How is HFR supposed to be popularised if people have no idea ahead of time if they're going to see the HFR or 24fps version of a film? It sucks for both fans and haters of HFR because both will end up in screenings of the format they don't want.

Even trying to find this information out is a tedious and unreliable process. I asked Cineworld in an email which formats and cinemas are offering HFR, and they sent back a response about projector faults. I'm not sure the customer service worker who replied to me realised that I was asking about formats, not a technical fault.

Odeon have not replied to me yet. The one cinema that I can say has done the right thing is the Glasgow Science Centre IMAX, who have put on their website that they are indeed projecting the HFR version, yet they unfortunately still list the film as "(3D) Avatar [...]" and not "(3D 48FPS) Avatar [...]".

If the movie industry is to move away from 24fps through a transitional period of releasing the same film in both 24fps and HFR, the messaging needs to be clearer. Format titles should list it after the 3D/2D category and give exact framerates, like so:

3D 60FPS

3D 48FPS

2D 24FPS

2D 120FPS

This will keep both fans of HFR like myself and luddites who like choppy motion happy! It will also allow HFR viewers to choose 120FPS venues over 60FPS ones, if that distinction matters to them.

[samflir]

A Zoomer's Opinions on HFR: Revisited

Warning: this post describes shots from Avatar: The Way of Water that are not in the trailers and could therefore be considered spoilers.

I was mistaken when I said in the first post about high frame rate that Avatar 2 would not be in HFR, it simply seems that James Cameron sees potential in the technology when applied selectively, as it was in the film.

I saw Avatar 2 in IMAX 3D HFR at the Glasgow Science Centre recently and I can finally say with absolute confidence that I want 24fps gone forever. In the leadup to Avatar 2's release, I was quite worried that finding a HFR screening would be effectively impossible, as it had been for Gemini Man. I went in fully expecting GSC's older generation of digital IMAX projector to only be capable of 24fps. (fun fact: IMAX film projectors were modified for 48fps playback for one film, a capability that was never used since afaik)

After the IMAX ident ended and the 20th Century Fox logo started playing in silky-smooth 48fps, I was so excited that I said "THAT'S HIGH FRAME RATE!" to my dad sitting next to me lol. My heartrate jumped and I felt awe like I'd never once felt in a cinema before. It was a surreal moment.

I was amazed by the silky-smooth motion and distinct realism of the 48fps shots the entire time. Underwater shots of bioluminescent fish and plants looked particularly beautiful, with the high frame rate perfectly conveying how the ripples on the surface create ever-changing reflections. Action set pieces such as the destruction of an RDA maglev train, boats launching and gunfights looked incredible, and the high frame rate added to the frantic pace of fast action scenes.

I felt more immersed in the story and world than I ever have before. Combined with 3D, HFR on an IMAX screen looks almost exactly like looking directly at something happening in real life. A particularly memorable shot of an RDA worker drowning on a sinking ship benefits enormously from this treatment and made me feel like I was looking at something that really happened.

HFR is not perfect though. Predictably, some of the fully-CGI HFR shots look like those cutscenes in video games that are rendered in the game engine at full framerate. These are mostly shots completely removed from any sort of live-action capture, such as scenes of Na'vi characters and establishing shots of CGI creatures, environments and vehicles. This is because the only other place I've experienced narrative HFR is these sorts of cutscenes, and I'm sure that if I watched more HFR movies, I'd come to appreciate its more unique look. This still didn't take me out of the story any, it's just what I felt it looked like (and it's not the look James Cameron was going for, I assume).

Another problem is the reason I specified "the 48fps shots" earlier. Avatar 2 is in fact a mixed-framerate film, but it mixes them way too much. Some shots lasting less than a second are in 24fps surrounded by 48fps shots, and they look like a slideshow. Transitions down from 48 to 24 are not subtle, and remind me why I hate 24fps so much. Ideally 24fps should be dropped altogether, to stop drawing attention away from the story and towards technical aspects of the film. This would also allow time for the eye to adjust, and not have to deal with constant jumps up and down in visual smoothness.

Overall, I feel that my first experience of watching a film in HFR has met most of my expectations and exceeded some. It did improve immersion and my emotional investment in the story but it did also look like a videogame and make the 24fps transitions look awful. Future movies should definitely stick to one framerate, and that framerate should be higher, preferably a lot higher, than 24.

[samflir]

A zoomer’s opinions on HFR

TL;DR: You can’t experience the soap opera effect if you’ve never watched a soap opera.

High Frame Rate is undoubtedly a complete flop in cinema. It’s rare that a cinema gimmick is less successful than even 3D, but only a tiny handful of films have ever been released that deviate from the industry standard of 24fps. Every time this has happened, it has been a decision almost universally panned by critics, and had a limited or even no release on home media in its native framerate. Heck, even in cinemas, finding a HFR screening of Gemini Man was for all practical purposes impossible for me.

I find this immensely disappointing and frustrating. The main criticisms I see of HFR from film reviewers are the following:

“It looks like a low-budget TV show”

“It looks too real, like I’m watching actors on a set and not characters”

“It doesn’t have The Look and Feel™ of True Cinema™”

It looks like TV?

There’s a generational divide going on here. I am too young to remember narrative TV being shot and broadcast at 50fps (PAL gang). Even if I was old enough to remember it, I was never its target audience, as these are usually soap operas (hence the name soap opera effect). So I don’t get it. When I see HFR narrative media like 60fps clips of Gemini Man, I am experiencing something novel!

And my experience of that novel thing is that it looks great, actually. A higher framerate captures motion more accurately, it shows more detail even with the same picture resolution and it makes the fictional world being presented feel real. If it reminds me of anything, it reminds me of video games, because that’s the only native HFR narrative content that still exists and that anyone of my generation has experience with.

I watched an upconverted 60fps trailer for Avatar 2 and it just made me feel like James Cameron missed a huge opportunity by not releasing Avatar 2 in HFR. The underwater shot felt like I was watching a live-action shot out of a documentary. It pushes plain photorealism into absolutely convincingly real. I can’t think of a film that needs that aesthetic more than Avatar. James Cameron defended 3D in a Q and A by saying that human beings have two eyes. But the human eyes don’t see at 24fps, so James Cameron is still irrationally clinging to tradition over realism here.

It looks too real and doesn’t look like cinema?

These two criticisms basically say the same thing: that we’ve reached the end of the line for innovation in cinema and shouldn’t bother going beyond how films looked at the end of the film era, because this looks “too real” and doesn’t have “the look of cinema”.

The look and feel of cinema was once a grainy b&w film projector in 4:3 playing a silent movie while an orchestra provided music and sound effects. Cinema has innovated a lot, and with each new innovation, started to look and feel more and more realistic and true to life.

Except now that digital cameras have been invented, the innovation has got to stop. Hollywood has reached this point where it cannot let go of the technical limitations and even the look and feel of film. Digital cameras are praised for looking like film or being similar to film cameras in operation. Digital footage is even transferred onto film only to be transferred back, because nothing in a feature film can ever possibly look too real. That’s apparently bad.

I really wish we could move past this, because digital cameras offer so much more freedom, such as setting different production and distribution framerates much more easily. It may take the current generation of directors who started when film was the only option becoming less relevant to let zoomers like myself who have known nothing but digital cameras bring out their potential.

Closing thoughts

I feel that the HFR debate is one that is likely split along generational lines. Anyone who thinks that HFR is great and should be the future of cinema has likely never seen narrative media produced in HFR before and find it to be an exciting and novel experience. Anyone who thinks that HFR is terrible and that 24fps is good enough is likely reminded of watching low-budget analogue TV shows anytime they watch something in HFR.

I’ve never considered the arguments in favour of 24fps to stand up to scrutiny and unfortunately have never had the chance to put them fully to the test by watching an entire feature film in HFR at a cinema because people hate them so much.

I was hoping that in the aftermath of COVID-19, HFR would be used as the new exciting cinema gimmick to get bums in seats again. I imagine if all movies were 120fps at the cinema but 60fps on streaming and home video, people would want to go to the cinema to get the extra smooth experience that their TV and mobile phone likely isn’t capable of displaying. But sadly this seems to have not happened yet.

I wrote this post because I feel my perspective is one that’s overlooked when people discuss HFR. HFR looking “cheap” or “like a TV show” is far from the universal experience critics claim it to be, especially for someone my of my generation. How do you feel about this? And do you think that your opinion is influenced by your age?

[swampflix]

Gemini Man (2019)

Gemini Man (2019); It's confounding that there's a conversation out there right now about the difference between Cinema & theme park attractions and somehow this isn't the movie being discussed?

After earning major critical accolades as the director of cinematic triumphs like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain, one-time filmmaker Ange Lee is now considering a secondary career as an absolute madman. Ever since Life of Pi, Lee has been sinking further & further into the abyss of tech obsession in his maniacal, one-sided pursuit of Perfection in craft – periodically…

View On WordPress

[nerditherefirst]

'Gemini Man': twice the Will Smith, half the fun | Review

Our review of #GeminiMan, starring #WillSmith in @IMAX #HFR 3D!

SUMMARY

NOTE: Screened in IMAX 3D at a High Frame Rate (HFR) of 60 frames per second (60fps).

Gemini Man does disappointingly little with its inherently fascinating premise. Director Ang Lee and star Will Smith deliver fun set pieces and some stunning visual effects work. But the by-the-numbers screenplay keeps the movie from achieving its full potential.

STORY

Henry Brogan (Smith)…

View On WordPress

[thenerdsofcolor]

Double Trouble at the 'Gemini Man' Press Conference!

Double Trouble at the 'Gemini Man' Press Conference! .@GeminiManMovie #WillSmith #AngLee .@BRUCKHEIMERJB #CliveOwen .@weta_digital

Ang Lee. Will Smith. Jerry Bruckheimer. Titans in this industry, who we never thought would ever come together, are finally joining forces to do the one thing Hollywood is not prepared for: Cloning Will Smith. Mind blown, right?

In the new blockbuster, Gemini Man, Smith plays Henry Brogan, an aging assassin — the best in the business — on the verge of retirement. However just before the beat-down…

View On WordPress

[thenewsmag]

4K High Frame Rate (HFR) θα "πιάσει" η νεα OLED της LG

4K High Frame Rate (HFR) θα “πιάσει” η νεα OLED της LG

H LG ετοιμάζεται να παρουσιάσει την επόμενη τεχνολογία OLED με δυνατότητα υψηλού ρυθμού καρέ ή High Frame Rate (HFR). Αυτό θα γίνει με δορυφορική εκπομπή τηλεοπτικού σήματος. Μάλιστα για στο project, (more…)

View On WordPress