HFR and 4K to be discussed at “Dimension 3″ conferences

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Michael

High frame rates will be a major point of discussion at the upcoming Dimension 3 expo in Paris from June 18-21.

Dimension 3 founder Stephan Faudeux says, “4K technology is enjoying the same buzz that existed around 3D technology three years ago. There is a synergy between 3D and 4K technologies as well as HFR film-making.”

Here are the conferences relating to HFR or 4K:

HFR – a gimmick or a technological advance?
ROOM 2
Wednesday 19 June
From 11:30 to 12:30

Following Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, new films are produced using HFR (high frame-rate), but this is a source of some controversy, and the debate is technical as much as esthetic. Objectively speaking, what are the advantages of HFR? Can this technology become widespread in theaters?

What cameras for what uses, tomorrow and in the future?
ROOM 1
Tuesday 18 June
From 10:00 to 11:00

In terms of innovation, digital cameras constantly improve their resolution, but other technological advances are planned in the short, medium and long term. What will tomorrow’s cameras be like? They will be able to meet new esthetic and technological requirements (HFR, high resolution, 3D), but also allow for more creativity and leeway during postproduction: HDR cameras, integral imaging.

There will also be a few sessions dedicated to 4K / Ultra HD:

4K – filming and workflow
ROOM 2
Tuesday 18 June
From 11:30 to 12:30

4K cameras have been in use for several months now, and early feedback can now be offered in terms of filming, as well as post-production. With the outstanding resolution of 4K and the generalization of digital processes, we can wonder whether film is still relevant as a filming media… still, producing beautiful images requires that one follow a number of criteria dealing with the consistency of 4K workflows.

Ultra HD, soon on a TV near you
ROOM 1
Tuesday 18 June
From 11:30 to 13:00

The progressive standardization of the HEVC codec will enable the broadcast of audio-visual contents in private homes, at a higher resolution than HD.
- What processes are involved in distributing, broadcasting and displaying these images?
- When will UHD displays become widespread enough to launch a new mass consumer market
An overview of the state of UHD, including the first broadcast tests and feedback from manufacturers

Immersion: what to choose between 4K, stereoscopic 3D and 3D audio?
ROOM 2
Tuesday 18 June
From 10:00 to 11:00

The increase in images’ resolution to 4K and beyond allows for the creation of new immersive spaces that can be enhanced by applying 3D technologies to video and audio. This talk will present technologies such as 3D mapping, large format projection, and 3D audio, destined to be used in museums, art installations, industrial applications or cinema theaters.

Check out the conference schedule page for a full list of conferences.

Attendees will also get the chance to experiment with HFR and 4K production and post:

“The Forum’s 2013 edition inaugurates the Big Shoot, a life-size filming set with a unique environment allowing visitors to test new generations of cameras, 3D, 4K, high frame rate filming, DSLR, etc., and view, assemble and analyze the images on a post-production workstation.”

X-Men: Days of Future Past being shot in 3D – but what about HFR / 48 fps?

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Michael

Bryan Singer just tweeted that X-Men: Days of Future Past is being shot in stereoscopic 3D and that he is using the Simul-Cam system that James Cameron developed for Avatar:

No mention yet of whether they are shooting in HFR – as you probably know, Singer praised the 48 fps of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey after seeing the premiere last year:

And Ian McKellen – who is reprising his role as Magneto in Days of Future Past – hinted to IGN that Singer might be making the film at 48 frames per second:

“I know [Bryan Singer]‘s a big fan of The Hobbit. He went to the opening with James Cameron in New Zealand, and he was very enthusiastic about the new technology. So whether we’ll be filming X-Men in 3D and 48 frames per second, we’ll find out.”

Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) on the set of X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Hopefully we’ll find out soon. Bryan’s tweet confirming the 3D went up only about an hour ago, so maybe he simply wants to give any HFR news its own tweet. Another possibility is that X-Men is indeed shooting at 48 fps, but we won’t hear about it until much closer to the release date – Fox may be wary of letting the HFR aspect of the movie dominate the conversation, as it did initially with The Hobbit.

Check out Bryan Singer’s Twitter feed for more tidbits from the X-Men set

X-Men: Days of Future Past hit theaters on July 18, 2014.

introducing FutureLeap.com – a news / database site tracking transformational technologies

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Michael

Over the past months I’ve been working on another website project!

The site – futureleap.com – tracks the latest news regarding the game-changing projects, technologies and scientific research we read about every day on the internet by maintaining a database of these projects. It went live about a week ago. I really hope you find it interesting, informative, and useful.

Here’s a short excerpt from Future Leap’s mission statement:

“Future Leap follows projects that have the potential to change the world in a significant way.

The projects tracked by Future Leap aren’t incremental upgrades: they represent entirely new product categories, major new efforts, and bleeding-edge science. The fulfillment of one of these projects would represent a leap forward in the technological development of humanity. They will be the next major breakthroughs and first-in-class products in the fields of AI, Interfaces, Energy, Biology, Entertainment/Gaming/Movies, Space, Computing and Nanotechnology.”

There are currently about 36 projects in the Project Database, and I’m aiming for hundreds. The site’s still in a very early form. Please let me know if you have any comments/suggestions!

There’s a bit of an overlap in what I cover here at HFR Movies vs Future Leap, since Future Leap also covers significant technological developments in gaming, movies, interfaces and associated technologies. But I am for now planning on keeping both sites going as best I can…HFR Movies will remain as it is. If there’s a relevant Future Leap article pertaining to high frame rates, 8k technology, etc, then I’ll post about it here too. And vice versa.

I’ll also likely be looking for writers soon for both this site and www.futureleap.com. If you or anyone you know is passionate about this stuff, can write well, and may have an interest, please send me a message.

Thanks for reading – I really appreciate the intelligent interaction I have with readers here and the passion you all have for pushing cinema technology forward.

I hope you like Future Leap!

S3D Centre posts research whitepaper on HFR, VFR

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Michael

The S3D Centre at the Emily Carr University of Art+Design has posted a whitepaper containing the results and conclusions of its research into high frame rates and variable frame rates:

Download An exploration into the creation of variable frame rate (VFR) stereoscopic 3D narrative productions [interactive, 2.8MB PDF] | [print, 5.4MB PDF]

The paper – which presents their findings regarding HFR/VFR pre-production, production, and post-production – is based on the S3D Centre’s experience last August directing “L’âme Soeur (Soul Mate) 3D”, the “first variable rate HFR shoot of its kind” as a combination short film / research project.

Researchers found that it was difficult to go back to standard frame rate footage after being treated to the extra detail of the HFR version:

While watching the SFR version of the material if felt that visual information was missing. Additionally, imperfect movements whether a shaky moving shot or jerky dance move became even more pronounced in HFR S3D. To counter this, the 23.98fps version of the clip used its blurred frames to ‘smooth’ the image compared to the HFR versions.

Similarly the dancer in the short film was a very beautiful dancer but sometimes the HFR created a kind of ‘animated’ look to her dancing. 23.98fps seemed to retain the ‘soft, graceful’ aesthetic of dance, but it also enhanced blur and judder to the point that it was unwatchable in 23.98fps. Lighting on a human subject appeared more defined in HFR, and when viewers of the material suggested it made a person look video-game like, it can be speculated that this sharper lighting was the reason. We had used fog machines to soften the lighting, so this appears to be a genuine HFR concern.

They observed that close-up shots were much more intimate (perhaps too intimate) in HFR, and that the perceived detail of background elements increased dramatically:

The HFR handheld shots were shockingly intimate, and could be intercut among different moments to create unique effects. Likewise HFR close ups of faces often broke the tolerable intimacy boundary for the viewer. It can be considered that this observation can be a strength, or major distraction depending on the focus of the story. All researchers observed that the background separated and was more defined in the HFR versions than in 23.98fps within the film. This is an advantage for S3D, but it should be noted that caution with set decoration must be taken. Any flaws in the background become more pronounced in HFR.

Overall, they found that the choice of HFR/VFR vs. SFR depends on the emotion(s) the filmmaker wants to elicit in the audience:

Early results with the variable frame rates of 24, 48 and 60 fps have shown that the emotional impact of static shots far exceeds what was originally expected for the viewers, and dynamic shots still suffer from motion artifacts that are actually caused by the HFR. A comparison of the VFR/HFR and SFR version of “Soul Mate 3D” show that VFR is indeed a valuable flexible tool dependent on the content of the narrative.

I’m curious about the video-game / animated-looking motion artifacts in dynamic shots that they claim are caused by the fact that lighting looks sharper and more defined in HFR. I understand that HFR will accentuate jerky / shaky movements of the subject, but I don’t quite understand what they mean by this concern (alas, all I’ve seen of HFR is The Hobbit and a number of amateur videos).

I hope the S3D Centre posts some of their conclusions regarding the granular application of differing frame rate to various objects within a scene (from what I’ve heard the next Hobbit movie will do this).

There is further interesting discussion of the emotional impact of various utilizations of HFR and VFR in their 4th Blog Post.

Check out all of the S3D Centre’s previous HFR Film Blog entries:

HFR Film Blog #1 ”Introduction and Creating a HFR Film” (September 13th 2012)
HFR Film Blog #2 “Effective Pre-Production and Production” Part 1 (November 8th 2012)
HFR Film Blog #2 “Effective Pre-Production and Production” Part 2 (November 21st 2012)
HFR Film Blog #3 “Effective Post Production and Dailies Pipelines” Part 1 (December 8th 2012)
HFR Film Blog #4 “Discussing HFR Technology and Standards” (coming April 2013)

Visit S3D Centre’s HFR (High Frame Rate) Research Home Page

Visit the S3D Centre’s Vimeo page for a video summarizing their HFR/VFR S3D research, 24 fps vs HFR comparison footage and a behind the scenes video of the “L’âme Soeur (Soul Mate) 3D” shoot.

Christie introduces world’s first 4K 60 fps projectors

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Michael

UPDATE: These projectors are actually part of Christie’s Pro AV series; intended for business and large screen applications, not for the cinema. Don Shaw, Christie’s Senior Director of Product Management, explains:

These are not cinema projectors… they are actually intended for our ProAV markets.

With that said, they have similar light engines and optical characteristics as a cinema projector, but totally different electronics that are not compatible with cinema security protocols and movie playback equipment.

As a stretch, you may be able to use them in film post-production, but only for unencrypted content; perhaps for reviewing dailies and for DI processing.

So although 4K HFR in the the movie theater is still beyond the horizon for now it’s encouraging that projector light engines, optics, and data storage / transfer are good to go in terms of 4K HFR. Now we just need to wait for exhibitors and motion picture engineers to provide updated theatrical distribution protocols and infrastructure.

————————————————————————————————-

Christie Digital has announced the world’s first 60 fps capable 4K (4096 x 2160) projectors: the Christie D4K2560 and D4K3560.

“Christie is the only manufacturer providing full 4K (4096 x 2160) resolution at 60 Hz and the reliability and image clarity of 3-chip DLP® all in one package. Both projectors are a quantum leap forward in video image processing and a breakthrough in high frame rate and high resolution video projection,” said Mike Garrido, senior product manager, Business Products, Christie.

The projectors, which replace the Christie D4K25 and D4K35, are available now for pre-order. They are priced at $125,000 for the 25,000-lumen DK2560 and $161,000 for the 35,000-lumen D4K3560, according to Engadget.

It’s great that Christie has pushed the boundaries with these projectors, but this announcement may be only one piece of the puzzle that has to be completed before we get to watch even 4K 2D movies at 48 or 60 fps. Christie Senior Director of Product Management Don Shaw told me back in January that the infrastructure for handling such high bandwidth doesn’t yet exist, and may not arrive for quite a while:

“A 4K HFR [3D] projector would require up to 4X the input bandwidth of our current cinema projectors (up to 120 fps total)… this would be a forklift upgrade (i.e. new projector) and the reality is that none of the current cinema infrastructure (IMBs, servers, routers, content delivery systems, etc) can handle this bandwidth. It will be a long time before we see 4K HFR in theaters and we currently have no plans for building such a projector for general Cinema usage.”

Maybe things have changed since January? At least, maybe infrastructure capable of feeding a single 60 hz 4K projector now exists. If this is the case, I’d imagine a theater could achieve 4K HFR 3D by having two of everything (server, IMB, etc). Such a setup would be quite expensive, but wouldn’t it be cool if a few select cinemas show The Desolation of Smaug in glorious 4K 48 fps 3D?

Video of Jon Landau’s NAB keynote, discusses HFR and Avatar sequels

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Michael

Jon Landau had a session / keynote at NAB on April 7 where he discussed his passions in filmmaking and the impact of technologies such as HFR and 3D. He also touched on the new underwater performance capture tech that will be used in Avatar 2 and 3 and the development of their new studio in Manhattan Beach. Watch the video of the session below:

The Hollywood Reporter has a good summary of Landau’s talk. But there’s still no firm start date(s) for the Avatar sequels’ motion capture and shooting, and the question of whether they will be 48 fps or 60 fps still hasn’t been answered definitively.

Video excerpt from Desolation of Smaug live event

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Michael

Peter Jackson has posted a 6 minute portion of the live preview of The Desolation of Smaug.

We get a couple great looks at Mirkwood concept art, hear Jackson’s approach to the story structure, and…is that Smaug’s roar at the end?

Here’s what Peter had to say (via his Facebook page):

Thanks to everyone who tuned into our Live Event last week. I’ve never done anything like that before, and I was pretty nervous. Hope it was ok.

If you saw it, it was a pretty accurate picture of what life is like at the moment. Jabez and I sit in that editing room all day, every day, editing the second Hobbit movie, and we actually start on the third next week! A lot of that movie was shot nearly a year ago, so I’m looking forward to seeing it come alive, shot by shot in the cutting room. It’s like assembling one of those complex 2000 piece jigsaw puzzles.

For us, this is really the being of 2013, so I look forward to posting a bunch more stuff as we work through the year.

I think that an edited version of the Live Event is being made available over at the official Hobbit site, and Warner Bros have kindly let me post a 6 min excerpt here, to give everyone who missed it a sense of what it was like.

Cheers,
Peter J

I’m expecting that most or perhaps all of the remaining footage from the live event will make its way online at some point within the next month or two as part of Jackson’s first official video blog for Desolation.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits US theaters in HFR 3D on December 13. See IMDB for a list of international release dates.

James Cameron talks Avatar sequels in new interview

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Michael

Play.lifegoesstrong.com has a new interview with James Cameron in which he shares some updates on the writing process for Avatar 2 and Avatar 3:

Q: Can you give us some scoop about your upcoming little film called “Avatar 2″

Cameron: “Oh believe me, it’s not that little! It’s not exactly a little, intimate drama. I’m working on ‘Avatar 2′ and ‘Avatar 3.’ I was talking the other day with Peter Jackson and said, ‘You had it easy dude. You had the books when you did the second and third ‘Lord of the Rings.’ I have to create my own books in my head and extract a script from it. I’m deep into it and I’m living in Pandora right now. There is that start up torque where you feel it’s coming to you. Then you build up momentum. That’s when it gets fun. The characters talk and it’s writing itself. I’m almost there right now. It’s building fast.”

Q: Tell us a little bit about your life. For example, what is your writing process?

Cameron: “As a writer, I need isolation. I’m calling you from New Zealand right now where I’m writing on a little farm. When you live in a special world like Pandora, you have to live in that world.”

Q: Do you ever feel the pressure of topping yourself? And do you have a release date you can share with us for “Avatar 2 and 3?”

A: “Pressure, no. It’s a little daunting because sequels are always tricky. You have to be surprising and stay ahead of audience anticipation. At the same time, you have to massage their feet with things that they know and love about the first film. I’ve walked that line in the past, so I’m not too worried about it. At the same time, I definitely have to deliver the goods…As for a release date that will be determined by when I get the script out. No pressure!”

Be sure to check out the full interview for talk about Cameron’s 3D Cirque Du Soleil movie (which was apparently shot in HFR 3D but never distributed in HFR), his life in New Zealand, what’s he’s learned since he was 18 and more.

PS4 supports 4K video and photos but not 4K games…may output up to 240 fps

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Michael

During a roundtable interview Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida stated that the PS4 will output 4K videos and photos, but not 4K games. Via IGN:

“The PS4 supports 4K output, but only for photos and videos — not games. PS4 games do not work on 4K.”

ArsTechnica interpreted Yoshida’s comments as meaning that 4K resolutions for games wouldn’t become available until the generation after the PlayStation 4. IGN reports that “Yoshida says a single console cannot natively run games in the high-resolution format.”

So there you have it: PS4 may play 4K video from upgraded blu-rays or connected media storage devices, and will be able to display 4K photos, but 4K games are seemingly not in the cards.

The question of whether the PS4 will be capable of outputting games at frame rates higher than 60 fps remains to be answered, although Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter thinks it will be capable of rendering games at up to 240 fps.

Interview with author of InterFrame: the software that created those Avatar HFR videos!

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Michael

Klaus Burton is the author of the InterFrame software which was used to create those 48 fps and 60 fps Avatar and Inception videos. According to Klaus InterFrame is what most people use to convert regular framerate videos to HFR.

Klaus tells me that InterFrame is integrated into Universal Media Server (also programmed by Klaus) for realtime conversion and that there is a third-party GUI called InterFrameGUI, and that he wrote a conversion tutorial for those unfamiliar with how to use it.

In our email interview Klaus elaborates on his software, gives his thoughts on The Hobbit in 48 FPS, contemplates the future of HFR tech adoption and shares his thoughts on how high frame rates should go before we reach the limits of the human eye:

1) Do you or InterFrame have an official website?

I publish all my software on spirton.com, the InterFrame section is http://www.spirton.com/interframe/

2) Where can I find the tutorial?

http://www.spirton.com/convert-videos-to-60fps/ It’s called “convert videos to 60fps” because I made InterFrame and the tutorial before The Hobbit was widely known (first release was around 2010)

3) Any other examples created with InterFrame that you would like me to link to?

The examples in the conversion tutorial are pretty good (http://www.spirton.com/uploads/InterFrame/20110618-Sample-Original.mkv and http://www.spirton.com/uploads/InterFrame/20110618-Sample-InterFrame.mkv)

4) Can InterFrame be used to create any frame rate? I.E. if you used it on source video that is already 48 fps (either native 48 fps or interpolated) could it output 96 fps?

Yes, any framerate. By default it will convert 25fps content to 50fps, and everything else to 59.94fps, since these are highly compatible with TVs, but you can specify any framerate by using NewNum and NewDen (standing for new numerator and new denominator)

5) How does InterFrame handle cuts in footage? For example, I would think you wouldn’t want to create an interpolated frame between the last frame of one shot and the first frame of a new shot (i.e shot one being a close up of a character’s face, and the second shot being a mountain or something).

InterFrame automatically estimates scene-changes. It occasionally makes a wrong guess that is unavoidable but in my testing it gets it right 99% of the time.

6) Is InterFrame being sold or licensed commercially? Do you see a market for post-converting regular frame rate movies, TV shows, or personal video into HFR?

It’s all free and semi-open source. InterFrame itself is all open, and we use some DLL files from another project SVP which is semi-closed source but still free.

7) What are your future plans for InterFrame?

In the near future I will continue to optimize our “tunings” and “presets”; presets control the speed of conversion at the cost of quality (useful for realtime conversion on slower computers) and tunings tell InterFrame what type of input you are feeding it so it can make better decisions with its interpolation, for example there is an “animation” tuning. I will also continue to improve quality and decrease artifacts.

8) What did you think of The Hobbit at 48 fps? What is your “ideal” frame rate for Hollywood movies? Is 60 fps enough, should it be even higher?

I love 48fps compared with 24fps, I thought it was amazing and a lot of my friends said the same; the common feedback I’ve seen is that it looked weird for the first 10 minutes but then they adjusted and it was better than 24fps. However there was still judder compared to the 60fps content I’m used to. I think the best goal at first is 60fps because of compatibility; all TVs can already display 60fps, whereas they can’t display 48fps without conversion (nor do blu-rays currently allow for that framerate), so I think that was an unfortunate choice by Peter Jackson. Most sports are already broadcast at progressive 60fps and they look great, so it shows the infrastructure is already there with TV stations as well.
In the future I think the highest we will want to go is probably 240fps. I think the average user can tell the difference between 48 and 60, but probably can’t tell the difference between 60 and 240. However for people who have trained their eyes to notice these things I think 200fps or more is the way to go, and 240 is nicely divisible with most common framerates so it seems like a good candidate for the far-future. It is possible that we will eventually want to go beyond 240fps but I think by the time there is demand for that there may be video recording techniques that no longer use framerates.

I think the process will be like going from VHS to blu-ray; right now we’re in the VHS stage of framerates and 48fps is like VCD (an improvement but destined to be short-lived), with 60fps being like the DVD which will reign supreme for a long time.

9) Do you think HFR in Hollywood will catch on?

Absolutely. The response to 48fps from critics has been terrible, but film critics are famously slow to adapt to change and have never had much influence on the vast majority of the public, and it is the general public who generate the income for movies. A quick look at the user reviews of The Hobbit on IMDB reveals overwhelmingly positive response to the higher framerate. That response coupled with upcoming movies like X-Men and Avatar at HFR will solidify public demand for HFR film. I think it will come to be seen as the mark of a modern film in the same way 3D is becoming – already if a Hollywood film isn’t released in 3D it’s a bit weird; in the near future I think people will think that if a film isn’t released in 3D and HFR then it clearly isn’t a high-end production.

I think Peter Jackson will go down in history as a pioneer of film. He was already going to be famous for LotR but that type of fame is fleeting in history, but he has initiated a process that will change film forever which really solidifies his name in history.

Thanks to Klaus Burton for his time, and for enabling the creation of those cool Avatar and Inception trailer videos!

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