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With the first press screenings of The Hobbit beginning to take place worldwide, much talk has surrounded the use of 48 FPS cameras, with many critics complaining that the effect was distracting.
Peter Jackson has taken the opportunity to come out in defence of the technology, explaining why he wanted to use it in the first place, and stressing that the option still remains to watch the film in other formats.
“I'm fascinated by reactions," said Jackson. “I'm tending to see that anyone under the age of 20 or so doesn't really care and thinks it looks cool. I think 3D at 24 frames is interesting, but it's the 48 that actually allows 3D to almost achieve the potential that it can achieve because it's less eye strain and you have a sharper picture.
“Warner Bros were very supportive,” he continued. "They just wanted us to prove that the 24 frame version would look normal, which it does, but once they were happy with that, on first day, when we had to press that button that said '48 frames' even though on that first day we started shooting at 48 FPS, you could probably say there wasn't a single cinema in the world that would project the movie in that format. It was a big leap of faith.
“The big thing to realize is that it's not an attempt to change the film industry,” says Jackson. “It's another choice. The projectors that can run at 48 frames can run at 24 frames - it doesn't have to be one thing or another. You can shoot a movie at 24 frames and have sequences at 48 or 60 frames within the body of the film.”
“You can still do all the shutter-angle and strobing effects. It doesn't necessarily change how films are going to be made. It's just another choice that filmmakers have got and for me, it gives that sense of reality that I love in cinema.”
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in the UK on 14 December 2012.
