The Hobbit...

[gregbrown]

The reality is that 99% of people won't even know about it or notice

I think this'll be the case if only because there are still surprisingly few HFR theaters out there. For example, I'm in Raleigh, NC—a fairly large metropolitan area with around 1.8 mil once you add neighboring cities—and we don't have any. The closest is two hours away!

[melmer]

So just googled public enemy, I actually saw that at the cinema. it was 30fps, I didn't know that at the time and I think I remember thinking it looked a little fake... Almost too real

Eeek. Maybe 97.3% then

[Ben X]

he said later that the book was not specifically written for children

Waaaiiiiit a minute, didn't Tolkien write this specifically for his children? I thought he improv'd it as a bedtime story/sent it chapter by chapter back to them from the WWI trenches?

Besides, you can't tell me that a book starting like this:

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

isn't a children's book. NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT.

TP, I'm hoping anyone going to see it on a weekday lunchtime will be an informed nerd such as ourselves.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Yeah, The Hobbit was written for his children. It started as a bedtime story and grew from there. When he came to write the sequel, he decided to shoehorn in the mythology he'd been creating for years -- but he apparently never went back and took out the early childish stuff (Tom Bombadil).

Ben; Yep, I am hoping as much. Plus it's the O2: More tourists, less unemployed/care in the community people. (Fingers crossed.)

[ThunderPeel2001]

So just googled public enemy, I actually saw that at the cinema. it was 30fps, I didn't know that at the time and I think I remember thinking it looked a little fake... Almost too real

Eeek. Maybe 97.3% then

Yep. I'm pretty sure it was probably projected as 24fps, too -- so The Hobbit is going to look a WHOLE LOT more video than that. It's definitely going to be jarring.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Found an interesting take -- not that I was looking for it, on The Hobbit's HFR:

At its best, HFR does provide something quite extraordinary. Tiny details on the texture of wood, the writing on a sword, or the wisps of hair on a Dwarven beard, all are etched in at times astonishing detail, not simply as a still image but during movement. These feel less like video images, and more like a series of great photographic depth. After all, photography hasn't been limited to shooting at 1/24th of a second, and a capable photographer can capture and time digital imagery to create appropriately glossy, rich imagery without it appearing to be some soap opera. Yes, the increase in resolution helps a lot, but more than that, the ability to capture without the aggravated motion artifacting opens up the world on screen in a way that's pretty unique.

I fully expect a slew of negative rants about the process. It's almost more of a radical departure from normal 24fps capture as High Definition television was from SD, and the established ways of what we consider to be "cinematic" are extremely entrenched. It's a bold move on PJ's part to go in this direction, and once the shock has worn off (and even being well prepared for what I was to expect, it was quite a shock) I think many will be more than satisfied with the look of the piece.

[Ben X]

It's definitely going to be jarring.

...for five minutes, then it's going to be LIFE-CHANGINGLY BEAUTIFUL.

[Ben X]

Found an interesting take -- not that I was looking for it, on The Hobbit's HFR:

Source, please!

[TychoCelchuuu]

http://twitchfilm.com/2012/12/an-unknown-journey-the-hobbit-brings-high-frame-rates-to-the-masses.html

(you can paste anything you want into Google and it will find the website with that phrase)

[Twig]

Waaaiiiiit a minute, didn't Tolkien write this specifically for his children? I thought he improv'd it as a bedtime story/sent it chapter by chapter back to them from the WWI trenches?

For a long while, I'd heard that the book was written specifically for children. Somewhat recently (as in, a year or so ago, maybe?) someone told me that wasn't strictly true and supplied a quote that proved it to be so, and I have no idea what that quote was or what it even vaguely sounded like.

Besides, you can't tell me that a book starting like this:

isn't a children's book. NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT.

I can and I will. I don't think simple and, what's the word... "fun"? Not really. I can't think of it. Something like that. I don't think simple and "fun" necessarily means "for children".

I also still don't really care. I'M EXPRESSING MUCH MORE CARE HERE THAN I ACTUALLY HAVE.

EDIT: "Light-hearted" maybe? Eh, still not right. This is bothering me now. Either way, this is probably the last I'll say on the subject unless something interesting comes out of a response to this post. SORRY FOR THE BOTHER.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I recently re-read The Hobbit. It's definitely for children.

[Ben X]

http://twitchfilm.co...the-masses.html

(you can paste anything you want into Google and it will find the website with that phrase)

Well yeah, but it's easier to make you guys do it!

[Ben X]

I recently re-read The Hobbit. It's definitely for children.

No it's not, it's just light-hearted!

[ThunderPeel2001]

I know you're joking, but I have to say that I find it very difficult to believe that an Oxford professor wrote the following for adults:

A big jug of coffee bad just been set in the hearth, the seed-cakes were gone, and the dwarves were starting on a round of buttered scones, when there came-a loud knock. Not a ring, but a hard rat-tat on the hobbit's beautiful green door. Somebody was banging with a stick!

Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered-this was the most awkward Wednesday he ever remembered. He pulled open the door with a jerk, and they all fell in, one on top of the other. More dwarves, four more! And there was Gandalf behind, leaning on his staff and laughing. He had made quite a dent on the beautiful door; he had also, by the way, knocked out the secret mark that he had put there the morning before.

"Carefully! Carefully!" he said. "It is not like you, Bilbo, to keep friends waiting on the mat, and then open the door like a pop-gun! Let me introduce Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and especially Thorin!"

"At your service!" said Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur standing in a row. Then they hung up two yellow hoods and a pale green one; and also a sky-blue one with a long silver tassel. This last belonged to Thorin, an enormously important dwarf, in fact no other than the great Thorin Oakenshield himself, who was not at all pleased at falling flat on Bilbo's mat with Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur on top of him. For one thing Bombur was immensely fat and heavy. Thorin indeed was very haughty, and said nothing about service; but poor Mr. Baggins said he was sorry so many times, that at last he grunted "pray don't mention it," and stopped frowning.

"Now we are all here!" said Gandalf, looking at the row of thirteen hoods-the best detachable party hoods-and his own hat hanging on the pegs. "Quite a merry gathering!

I hope there is something left for the late-comers to eat and drink! What's that? Tea! No thank you! A little red wine, I think, for me." "And for me," said Thorin. "And raspberry jam and apple-tart," said Bifur. "And mince-pies and cheese," said Bofur. "And pork-pie and salad," said Bombur. "And more cakes-and ale-and coffee, if you don't mind," called the other dwarves through the door.

"Put on a few eggs, there's a good fellow!" Gandalf called after him, as the hobbit stumped off to the pantries. "And just bring out the cold chicken and pickles!"

"Seems to know as much about the inside of my larders as I do myself!" thought Mr. Baggins, who was feeling positively flummoxed, and was beginning to wonder whether a most wretched adventure had not come right into his house. By the time he had got all the bottles and dishes and knives and forks and glasses and plates and spoons and things piled up on big trays, he was getting very hot, and red in the face, and annoyed.

"Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!" he said aloud. "Why don't they come and lend a hand?" Lo and behold! there stood Balin and Dwalin at the door of the kitchen, and Fili and Kili behind them, and before he could say knife they had whisked the trays and a couple of small tables into the parlour and set out everything afresh.

Gandalf sat at the head of the party with the thirteen, dwarves all round: and Bilbo sat on a stool at the fireside, nibbling at a biscuit (his appetite was quite taken away), and trying to look as if this was all perfectly ordinary and. not in the least an adventure.

(I can just imagine a parent reading this to their kids at bedtime -- there's lots of opportunities silly voices, etc.)

[Twig]

Eh, fair enough. Most of what I remember is from the middle of the book, not the beginning, where things are a lot less goofy. Probably.

It doesn't help that I am a three-year old, maybe.

[syntheticgerbil]

Hmmm, I've heard people complain that it looks like tv soap operas or something, but I'll file that along with the people who complained about widescreen when it was first introduced.

This is my main reasoning for seeing it, first movie at least. I want to see what I think about the increased frame rate without bringing in personal bias. I'm especially curious since we're all used to 60fps as video game players. 60 fps should in theory look good when the frames are there instead of the the frame interpolation nonsense HDTVs do. Jackson is doing 48 fps which seemed kind of arbitrary to just double the film frame rate, but it looks like you guys are saying the reasoning was for what the digital projectors could handle.

However in many ways I don't support the notion of upping frame rates because it is hell on animators and effects artists who spend their whole life worrying about how nice each frame looks. Double the frames, double the workload (well 1.5x it maybe). But if a higher frame rate looks good, it looks good and we have to accept it.

Also before all of the high frame rate debate on the internet I had no idea soap operas were filmed at 60 fps, thinking they were limited to NTSC standards, but that explains a lot.

[Ben X]

Never fear, Ben, Cineworld are doing HFR 3D screenings!

http://www.cineworld...news/402/detail

Hey TP, I just looked at this again, and it seems they are now only doing HFR screenings on the 13th. Was that always the case? I was considering seeing it again in HFR at the weekend...

[Thrik]

Cineworld only tend to flesh out their times relatively close to the actual day so it could just be they haven't put all those showings up yet.

[Ben X]

Yeah, but HFR may be a special case. Plus I could have sworn it had a few other days on the pdf the first time I looked at it...

[ThunderPeel2001]

You know, I didn't notice. Maybe we should watch it twice just to make sure we get the whole experience

Scary that it's so rare. I hope they don't fuck up our pre-ordered tickets!

[Lu]

There's only 1 theater in the Netherlands that's projecting it in IMAX 3D HFR, and by joe, that's where I'm going!

[Roderick]

Joe is the name Jupiter uses when he's in a bar out with friends and doesn't want to be recognized.

So basically, Pirate, you're going to Amsterdam Bijlmer?

[melmer]

Ha, the poster was in Elvish. Cool

[Orv]

My mind refuses to not translate that as La Pimp.

[Lu]

So basically, Pirate, you're going to Amsterdam Bijlmer?

HOW DID YOU... *gasp*