Unsure About Higher Frame Rates In Film? Let Douglas Trumbull Show You The Light

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, film tech pioneer Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters Of A Third Kind, Blade Runner, Tree of Life) not only hailed Peter Jackson for The Hobbit's 48 frames per second, he said we should up the ante to 120! He's been experimenting with high frame rates with test audiences in the past couple years, and gives his results below.

The wider the screen is, the more displacement there is from one frame to the next. So we shot tests with 24, 36, 48, 60, 66, and 72 frames a second and showed these films in a laboratory to see if we could actually measure people’s physiological stimulation levels as a result of frame rate. I had tremendous success when the content of the film was very experiential and very directed towards the audience. I had a lot of scenes I was experimenting with where the actors actually talked to the audience; I had a hypnotist hypnotize the audience; I had a beautiful actress try and seduce the audience; I had Ricky Jay do slight of hand card tricks. And that is when we proved to ourselves and the United States Patent Office that it was absolutely true. There’s a perfect curve of increased stimulation with increased frame rate.

In a brilliant video resulting from a series of film tests he did in 2010, Trumbull showed not only the possibilities of an increased frame rate, but also how to integrate it into the industry standard of 24 frames per second. It's really interesting stuff if you don't know a lot about the process and benefits of increased frame rates. It certainly showed me a couple possibilities I wasn't aware of!

Oh brief disclaimer on the film: Although you can still see the effects and get the gist of what's being said...Youtube only allows for 30 frames per second, so keep that in mind before you comment!

Email Me: MickJoest@Geektyrant.com Twitter: @MickJoest