from Child Of Eden to the Hobbit - framerate in film

pior

Hey all,

So I was giving Child Of Eden a whirl the other day (if you haven't heard of it, check it out, it's basically REZ2 and plays great on a regular controller - no need for a Kinect) and got struck by the introduction sequence. Great video footage mixed with elegant motion graphics.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ugl7M-YZz8[/ame]

Now the youtube link won't show it, but it really impressed me (goosebumb style) and I don't think it's just because of the under age Bjork lookalike - I am under the impression that I got this reaction to it because of the framerate being different from the usual 24/30 FPS.

Now it could just be 30 (quite a difference from 24 already) but I tend to think it's more than that, 48FPS maybe. Or maybe I am just imagining things, or! it could simply be a post process interpolation they applied to the footage. But one thing for sure - it doesn't look anything like the cheap 120Hz TV interpolation tech that tend to make every movie look like a weird 80s soap. It might even be sped up just a little too, certainly adding a bit of extra otherworldliness.

So it reminded me of Peter Jackson announcing he would be filming the Hobbit in 48FPS, and now it totally makes sense.

http://nofilmschool.com/2011/04/peter-jackson-shoots-the-hobbit-48-fps/

As this article mentions there is also the option to shoot at 120FPS, and use the clearer than usual footage to derive crisp, blur-free 24FPS data from it.

So ... what do you think of all this ? Do you know of any material (games, online video clips, and so on) with that kind of look to it ? I am watching the 2005 King Kong bluray as I type and now I cannot unsee it - the mattes are amazing, the photography is great ... but it doesn't come anywhere near the Child of Eden intro in terms of emotional impact. I really want to see more of this now...

(and yeah I am one of those guys hating on games limited to 30FPS - Gears of War2 and Crysis2 on 360 give me headaches...)

Dylan Brady

Im not sure about this yet, We just got a New TV that comes with smooth motion/cinema mode
I had to turn it off because it has the strange effect of making everything look like a bad soap opera.
I wish i could express it more intelligently but thats exactly what it seems like.

But im all for smoother motion, plus it makes it easier to get a good still shot from a movie for reference!

pior

Yeah same here - I've seen these many times and couldn't shake out the cheap feel. But since these TV do interpolate the inbetween frame "the best they can", it can only be an approximation and won't reduce the blur from the 24FPS footage - so maybe they make things way worse because of that ? And maybe the brain picks it up when the interpolation is "wrong" ?

pior

What ? I never said it was a problem, I'm saying that I want to see more of it, but not the interpolated kind.

Dylan Brady

Hboybowen wrote: »

I have faith in the masters of cinema to know their craft. New decades come new techniques. Coming from a film background I don't see what why you guys are saying its a problem. They have had scenes with 48 and 60 fps for some time but it was transition scenes for tv series but not many people notice if you don't know what your looking for.

Dont take that tone with mehboy.
Srsly tho i agree, i wasnt saying that it will never work out, just that so far i havent seen it put to good use, kinda like motion controlls. (lol?)
but if P.J. thinks its worth it than ill probably love it.

Saman

Bonebrew22 wrote: »

Im not sure about this yet, We just got a New TV that comes with smooth motion/cinema mode
I had to turn it off because it has the strange effect of making everything look like a bad soap opera.
I wish i could express it more intelligently but thats exactly what it seems like.

But im all for smoother motion, plus it makes it easier to get a good still shot from a movie for reference!

My brother's tv has that too and I agree with you. The higher framerate videos sound pretty cool though. Think of the slow motion capabilities!

eld

I believe there is some kind of mental connection between high framerates and soap operas.

But there's also the thing where games and their cut-scenes will just look perfectly beautiful the higher the framerate is.


I think it's going to be very interesting seeing how the hobbit will end up looking, especially with panning scenes and the motion.

_Shimmer

Its funny how they try to get the blur out of the picture while we try to get it in in every engine/game.

seems cool. I can imagine it to be interesting.

only this interpolation thingie sucks on modern tv. I totally agree it looks like soap opera. soap operas with interpolation look like porn though.

Entity

I think you can get crisp frames even at 24fps with a high shutter angle, of course this has to be done in camera and is a pretty hard effect to get right in post.

pior

Shimmer, yeah thats the irony of it - I find games with more and more post processing effects to be harder to play!

HonkyPunch

I'm with Pior on that.
I recently got Shadows of the Damned and the way lighting is handled makes me cringe when I play it. Too much post processing can take away from the experience, really.

pior

BTW here's a clear example on fast shutter speed :
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RZywlKEWMM[/ame]

So I got to say it does look sharper, but also a lot more "strobe-esque" especially for fast motions, with 24fps simply being not good enough... It works well on Jason Statham's actions scenes tho!

A good read on the 60fps Showscan format and the emotional response to it :
http://my.nero.com/index.php?__path=Blog%3A%2F%2FDisplayBlogComposite%2FIanFarquhar%2F7100886&NCSS=a102jEHEOyXwmE0qEK0jMnJFT6KIB2GfASP8#0