120fps as a Universal Production Format for Motion Pictures

For decades motion picture production was locked into the 24 fps frame rate as the release standard for cinema exhibition, despite the shortcomings of that rate for representing movement of both the photographed subjects and the camera. With the advent of digital projection in theaters there are more frame rate options, as some recent movie releases have shown. Not only may movies be photographed and exhibited at higher rates, but the prospect of digital cinematography combined with digital projection has opened up the possibility of new filmmaking workflows, including the intentional decoupling of capture and display frame rates. — By using a frame rate of 120 fps during original photography, DCP masters with frame rates of 24, 30, 40, and 60 frames/sec may be generated from the same source material. One might call this concept “oversampling motion,” and has many of the same benefits as does oversampling in audio processing. — There are several additional benefits: the director can control the effective shutter angle thereby optimizing motion blur versus aliasing artifacts; decide whether to employ a slow motion effect, and if so how much – all in post-production. Additionally the method eliminates the need to implement 3-2 pulldown for subsequent broadcast or home video release. The method combines frames using a simple blending scheme and doesn't introduce the motion artifacts typical with frame rate conversion.

Published

2014-10

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

Frame rate, HFR, The Hobbit, Avatar, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Doug Trumbull

DOI

10.5594/M001564

ISBN

978-1-61482-954-6