‘The Hobbit’ Shooting With Technology That James Cameron Called “The Future of Cinema”

Last week at CinemaCon, James Cameron gave a big presentation called “A Demonstration and Exclusive Look at The Future of Cinema”. You might remember reading about it here on /Film.

At the demonstration, Cameron noted that not only will he shoot Avatar 2 with this new technology, but George Lucas and Peter Jackson were also in support of the changes, and that Jackson had even explored shooting The Hobbit at high speeds. Cameron had heard that Jackson suffered illness before he could complete the tests and convince studio brass to make it happen. But it seems that Cameron heard wrong….

The basic gist is this: Cameron proposes that future movies should be shot and projected at either 48 or 60 frames per second. All of the digital film cameras are able to shoot at that speed, and all of the second generation digital cinema projectors (2010 on) should be able to project at that speed with a software upgrade. The result is a lot smoother movement, less of the strobing effect, which gives the impression of an enhanced resolution. And of course, the higher frame rate will help with the discomfort some experience with 3D. The footage I screened during Cameron’s presentation, shot/screend at 48 frames a second in 3D, looked incredible. The best way to describe it, is to quote Cameron: “If watching a 3D movie is like looking through a window, then [with this] we’ve taken the glass out of the window and we’re staring at reality.”

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