48 FPS, Coming Soon

I had previously posted about the RED EPIC cameras being used to shoot Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, for which the shooting is underway in New Zealand right now.

Well, Peter posted on his Facebook page that New Line is allowing them to shoot the film at 48 Frames/second, which is a very, very big deal.

"Originally, 24 fps was chosen based on the technical requirements of the early sound era. I suspect it was the minimum speed required to get some audio fidelity out of the first optical sound tracks. They would have settled on the minimum speed because of the cost of the film stock. 35mm film is expensive, and the cost per foot (to buy the negative stock, develop it and print it), has been a fairly significant part of any film budget."

Here's why this is so significant:

48 fps is twice the speed of the movie theater standard of 24 fps obviously, and the increase in motion fluidity and realism is a quantum jump as anyone who has seen material using higher framerates. Peter Jackson said they have been looking at the dailies from The Hobbit and they are just blown away by the difference between 48 fps and 24 fps.

So, looks fantastic, so no-brainer, right? Well, not exactly. There are some serious considerations New Line had to mull through before giving the ok for this film speed:

- This will be the first major motion picture shot at 48 fps

- It will double the storage required for the digital film elements (and double that because this film is also in 3D)

- It will significantly increase the post-processing costs of the movie because all effects shots must be rendered at twice the frame-rate and this doubles the effort required (and as above, double it again because of 3D).

- When the final movie is sent to digital theaters, the data will be twice the size. All digital projectors will need to be upgraded to handle 48 fps. Some of the newer ones can be upgraded with a firmware update, but older projectors must be replaced.

- When the final movie is printed for display in film theaters, the film will be twice as long and new projection equipment will be required that can do 48 fps. This cost is so huge that most theaters will probably just buy new digital projectors.

But The Hobbit, if it sees anything near the success of The Lord of the Rings, will more than pay for these extra costs and the good news is that it will open the floodgates for more movies to be shot at 48 fps.

I really can't wait to see the effect the higher framerate has on picture quality. Peter Jackson, as well as the master of movie picture quality, James Cameron, both swear by the magnitude of the difference.

And the really good news is that most Blu-ray players are capable of displaying 48 fps with a firmware update, and HDTVs can all display at least 60 fps.