Footage from the upcoming first installment of The Hobbit was recently screened at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas.
Scenes from a number upcoming blockbusters were shown at the venue, including The Dark Knight Rises, yet reaction to the Hobbit footage was very mixed.
The reason? Peter Jackson shot the footage at 48 frames a second, and it’s a brand new look that reminded people more of a soap opera shot on video than a feature film.
With reports all over the Internet about the mixed reaction to the footage, Peter Jackson finally responded to Entertainment Weekly about all the hubbub.
First of all, Jackson said, “Nobody is going to stop. This technology is going to keep evolving. At first it’s unusual because you’ve never seen a movie like this before. It’s literally a new experience, but that doesn’t last the entire experience of the film; not by any stretch, after 10 minutes or so.”
When asked how he would address the critics of the new fomat, Jackson responded, “I can’t say anything. Just like I can’t say anything to someone who doesn’t like fish. You can’t explain why fish tastes great and why they should enjoy it.”
Much like Martin Scorsese just said about 3D, the whole goal of cinema from day one was to capture texture, depth, and a realistic recreation of life. One of the points of 48 frames per second is to make the film look more lifelike, and hurt your eyes less when watching 3D. (That alone would be very welcome). Jackson is certainly hoping “you[‘ll] settle into it” once the whole movie’s rolling, and some are indeed withholding judgement until they see the whole thing.
Not to mention as EW tells us, there’s going to be six versions of The Hobbit coming out this December: 3D, flat, Imax 3D, and all of those versions will be in both 24 and 48 frames a second, which will make it interesting to compare and contrast and see what’s truly better, although Peter himself sure doesn’t need convincing.
