60 FPS movies: features of creation and perception

As you know, the beginning of modern cinema was laid at the end of the 19th century by the Lumiere brothers, who developed the standard for shooting and projection at 16 frames per second. This was due to both economic prerequisites and the technical features of the first commercial cinema equipment. For the current generation, the resulting β€œdumb” slide shows may seem like low-budget crafts, but the approved standard successfully existed until 1932, when progress finally made it possible to massively demonstrate full-fledged sound films, and the frame rate rose to the usual 24 frames per second. Then the viewers were shown widescreen films with a frequency of already 30 FPS, television people mastered NTSC, and then came the era of high definition, the evolution of which the viewer is currently observing.

Television and Cinema

Modern television broadcasting standards allow you to shoot and broadcast with high frame rates (48-60 FPS), which is perceived by viewers absolutely normal. News reporting, a concert, numerous shows and sporting events - all this thanks to modern technology looks very realistic. On the screens of TVs and monitors, users observe clear and ungreased lines and contours of objects, smooth movements with minimal blur, and the level of detail of all elements in the frame is very high. Does this apply to cinema? How will viewers react to films at 60 FPS? There is no single answer and cannot be, since many factors influence the perception of a picture.

A clear demonstration of the difference in the number of frames

Economic component

It should be noted that despite the abundance of professional cameras that allow shooting with high frame rates, the film industry continues to actively shoot films that fall into theaters in the classic twenty-five frame version. This is not happening at all because of concern for the health of consumers, but for banal commercial reasons: the re-equipment of a huge network of cinemas for projectors capable of outputting high frequencies is considered economically inexpedient. Although the same Cameron actively advertises future sequels of Avatar, shot with such frequency, the question of their reproduction is still open.

Accordingly, each of the films with a high frame rate downloaded from the Internet is not a ready-made studio product, but a custom post-processing of a classic 25-frame video sequence using interpolation - inserting additional frames. When downloading such content from the section with the proud title "Movies 1080 60 FPS" of any site, you can get a very high-quality processed video sequence, or you can get to outright hack, full of numerous artifacts and tears. It all depends on knowledge, software, and, of course, the power of the user equipment involved in such a peculiar improvement of films.

Avatar at 60 FPS

Cinematic component

One of the main problems of films in 60 FPS that can turn a high-budget blockbuster into a collection of tricks (albeit spectacular) among the artificial scenery shot by the operator on a television camera is perception. It often flatly refuses to accept the action displayed on the screen as a work of art, which leads to the loss of cinematography and the loss of the very β€œmovie magic”. Over time, this problem is likely to become less acute, as addiction can come sooner or later. But while this is still a long way off, and the audience who consider such a cinema format unacceptable, at the moment almost the majority.

Physiological component

Not every viewer is able to perceive normally films with an increased frame rate just because of their hyper-realism. The lack of the usual motion blur effect in dynamic scenes for many users can cause poor health (from pain in the eyes and headache to more serious consequences). In this case, everything will depend not only on age, but also on the characteristics of a particular organism.


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