The Hobbit?

[d.reamonn]

Hello Sylvester McCoy. He was my doctor, he was.

[simmerdown]

as time as gone by i have thought back on it a few times, and as i have i became more annoyed and disappointed

bring on part II, but i wont be holding my breath

[machine+1]

The whole TELEPLAY look is fucking UNWATCHABLE to me.

Un
Watch
Able



It's like watching some shitty BBC production of Richard III from the 1970s.

omfg.

Well yeah. The first thing I thought when I saw the phenomenon was the BBC Hitchiker's Guide series.

But why is it happening with shows I've already watched that didn't have that look on an older HDTV?

Seems like on some TVs (Samsung for example) the default setting on HD material adds additional "virtual frames" to create a "smoothing" effect on motion. So even if the film was shot 24fps it is "scaled up" to a higher frame rate. Personally I think it looks like dogshit, but it's being marketed as a super-awesome image enhancement.

There seems to be a growing divide amongst viewers on the High Frame Rate issue. IMO it breaks down like this:

Love HFR:
-Chumps, who get sold the "new thing" at Best Buy, then have to justify their purchase even though they can't see the difference anyway.
-Gamers, for whom high frame rates have been a selling point for a while, and who generally prefer the look of video games (and like their movies to look like video games too, e.g.: Avatar).

Hate HDR:
-People who have actually been to the movies in the last ten years, instead of watching torrents on their laptop.
-People old enough to remember the last 10 overhyped fads in film, and how long they lasted... (Dogma '95 comes to mind )

On the subject of 3D, it was garbage in the '50s and is garbage now. Amongst the many reasons, read the letter to Roger Ebert from Walter Murch, on the subject of convergence/focus:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2011/01/post_4.html

edit:
I was able to defeat the teleplay look on Samsung TVs by switching to "game mode", ironically...

[beats me]

Peter Jackson's 'The Hobbit' Stays Faithful To Original Book, Denny's Menu

http://www.theonion.com/video/peter-jac ... gin,30748/

[Pitch Black]

Just saw it in 3D/48fps. For me the frame-rate per se wasn't an issue at all, but the resolution/clarity of the image was. I didn't see any problem with movement (the so-called "Keystone Cops" effect some complain of) and it made the 3D cleaner, but I found the image resolution - especially the actor's faces - to be too harsh and "clinical".

The CG characters look GREAT in this format, I found the faces of Gollum and the Trolls to be more real and believable than the actors' faces, which looked "hyper-real" in a way that booted me out of the film. I "saw" an actor, rather than a character. In many of the outdoor scenes I thought the image looked crappy and too contrast-y, especially the pony-ride in the rain. In shots containing an actor plus a CG character or environment, the CGI looked the "correct" resolution, and the actor looked too harsh/hyper-real/video-like, whatever you want to call it... mis-matched.

I think 3D/48fps would be AMAZING format for documentary features and the like, but for Epic Fantasy I found it to be an infuriatingly counter-intuitive choice. Why go to all the trouble of world-building a fantasy environment only to undercut it with a hyper-real image? I would have much preferred the whole film to look consistantly painterly and impressionistic. Going back and forth between the "video" look of the actors and costumes to the painterly look of the wide-shots/miniatures/CG/mattes just kept me from getting immersed in the story. I wish it had all been graded (de-graded?) to look the same. PJ had no qualms slathering on the soft-focus in LOTR (the introductory shot of Arwen, anyone?) but this was like an oil painting with patches of a Photoshop job poking through it.

Its great that we can now achieve this clarity of image, but did it serve this story? For me, no. Speaking of story, it definitely suffered from a King Kong-sized case of over-extension. WHY PJ, WHY? apart from the revenue of 3 films... a bad call.

I'm actually keen to see this again in 2D/24fps to see if it becomes any more "immersive".

[H20nly]

so i watched it last Thursday, as i said i would... i really don't know what all the fuss is about. it was as good as, if not better, than any of the Lord of the Rings movies. i watched it in standard format, not 3D, i wasn't bothered by any of it. i enjoyed the movie for what it is... a movie.. correction... an adaptation of a fictitious book made into a movie. i thought it was great. my son loved it. my girlfriend liked it a lot. at least 4/5 stars from us.

it blows my mind that some of the naysayers in this thread will type up entire paragraphs about how mind boggling a move like The Thing 1982 or some other much older movie is... you're capable of suspending your disbelief for any number of movies that were made in the 70's and 80's but you pick something made in the last decade to pieces to the point of making me ask: were you even sitting back and watching the movie or just on a hunt for flaws with an overpriced tub of popcorn between your legs?

if you need real life that bad... reality TV awaits!

[JuanSOLO]

I do this work for a living, so I tend to be hyper critical.
Not just critical of CG technique, but of story, edits, timing, acting, design etc.
Although, Blade Runner and Alien really stand the test of time, I do love some current flicks.

However in the realm of "wizardry" once you're spoiled on something like Game of Thrones,
all else needs to kick it up a notch.

That said, I new the Hobbit was gonna bore me before going.
It did as a child, and I remember that.

I though LOTR was pretty great. The Hobbit seemed lack luster to me.
And if you didnt see the HFR 3D version then you didn't get the full scope of how video game it was intended to look.

we still need to get a beer sometime.

[Pitch Black]

...if you didnt see the HFR 3D version then you didn't get the full scope of how video game it was intended to look.

exactly, some shots looked un- or under-graded to me. when you're sitting there going "is this how it was supposed to look??..."

there's some (admittedly, purely subjective!) sweet spot to find between "clarity" and "artistry" for any given project... sometimes you want things rezzed up and sometimes you want things rezzed down depending on the material. that's why i'm really keen to see it flat/24 to see if it makes it more transporting. i'm as patriotic a kiwi fanboi as they come... i want the magic again, daddy!!!

hey Juan, is any of your work online mate? i'd be keen to see what you do!

[JuanSOLO]

hey Juan, is any of your work online mate? i'd be keen to see what you do!

http://moonbotstudios.com/
Our first Short Film did pretty well "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore" http://morrislessmore.com/
Along with the accompanying app.

We've done a few things since, some that are public, some the clients backed out of.
However, we got a new project coming out for Sony Wonderbook called "Diggs Night Crawler." It's kind of an augmented reality game for kids. Next summer I think.
Then we have a comercial for Chipoltle that will come out soon as well.

My Boss just released "The Guardians of Childhood" with Dreamworks, and "Epic" (formerly known as Legend of the Leafmen) will be released by Blue Sky pretty soon.

Although I think all these projects look great, they like many movies get watered down in the Hollywood Machine.
Hopefully things will go our way soon and we will release our own feature, in house, and it will be the labour of love we hope to release.

Here's something I did at work for an Augmented Reality App load screen. https://vimeo.com/43929780
Too me these AR apps and games are parallel with 3D and HFR attempts.
I see them as gimmicks that dont necessarily make the story any better.

[beats me]

I just heard somebody refer to the movie as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Frame Rate and then compared viewing it in IMAX 3D to extreme sports. I

[elektrastallion]

Great movie.

[crumhorn]

I thought it was great. I've never seen imax or 3D before so I was well impressed. Loved the rabbit drawn sledge and the secretary orc and the moth that seemed to fly right out of the screen and over your head.

[crofter]

Saw it at the Imax, brilliant movie.