The Hobbit @ 48 FPS

I saw The Hobbit in 48fps 3D today. The movie itself was enjoyable but too long and not nearly as good as the original movies.

But what I really want to talk about is what it was like to watch a 48fps movie. I'm generally pretty positive about the experience, but not completely:

• The film feels extremely crisp and raw. By that I mean you pick up every detail in the actor's expressions, and you notice every imperfection in the motion of the camera. It feels like a veil has been lifted between you and the actors, and that you're right on set with them. Double the framerate means that your brain can pick out double the details. In many ways it felt a lot like watching live theater.
• It took me about half an hour to stop being conscious of the increased framerate. After that it seemed pretty natural, with some exceptions.
• There were a handful of shots of very simple things that felt oddly *fast*. For example, Bilbo closing a chest or picking up a quill pen, and I wanted to shout at him to slow down. Mostly that was at the beginning, so perhaps I just got used to the speed. I found the timing of some cuts to feel awkward at first, but quickly got used to it.
• I thought that the high framerate made the 3D somewhat easier to watch. I usually feel slightly strained when starting to watch a 3D film, and I did not get that at all.
• I did not feel at all queasy as some people have reported, although I'm not very susceptible to that kind of thing.
• I thought that 48fps made both foreground elements and long shots absolutely stunning. Also I really loved all the silky-smooth, slow-motion battle shots.
• I've heard some people complain that it makes the CG look bad. Personally I didn't think that the CG looked any worse than CG normally does.
• Some people have complained that 48fps makes the sets look like sets, and I found this to be true in many scenes. It seemed to me that this was worst in scenes with a high range of depth -- that is, scenes with both near foreground elements and farther middle-to-background elements. The foreground elements look absolutely terrific, but I hypothesize that the 3D technology just can't give the farther elements enough depth to feel right, and so the combination of insufficient depth combined with very high detail makes the backgrounds feel like sets. I'd be really interested to see how the movie looks at 48fps in 2D, but there's no such version of the film right now.
• 48fps certainly gives a sense of hyper-realism, but I'm not sure that's appropriate for a movie like The Hobbit. I can see it being really spectacular in a movie like The Hurt Locker where you really want a strong feeling of realism, but at times the realism felt out of place in The Hobbit. This was most prevalent in scenes with real sets, such as those in Hobbiton. I wonder whether additional post-processing to make those scenes feel more fantastical would have been appropriate.

48 Hour Film Project: SGmOVIEmAGIC's Quack

Last week we (us Schell Games folk) wrapped filming on our submission to the 48 Hour Film Project. The result is called Quäck. I play Zombie Hitler, brought back to life by a magical umbrella. So be warned, this film should not be viewed by anyone easily insulted by Nazi jokes. Here it is:




Oh, and we made this awesome poster too!

Danger! High Voltage - Music Video

My team, The Warner Brothers, recently wrapped filming of our final video for the Visual Story class at the ETC.

I star as the lead actor. Co-starring is Michelle Cohen. It was conceived and directed by Charlie Kim, and it was filmed and special-effected by Mike Honeck. Special thanks to the S&S Candy & Cigar shop in Southside Pittsburgh.

Future Walt is super proud that this video has become kind of legendary within the ETC student body, though he's a bit chuckled that this, of all things, is what he gets recognized for.

Sadness

For the Visual Story class at the ETC, my team, The Warner Brothers, made this super-sad film. I personally didn't have much to do with it because I was super busy at the time, but I'm really proud of my teammates for pulling it off. Future Walt says: This was one of only 3 videos from the whole semester that were chosen to be shown during the end-of-semester Building Virtual Worlds show.

Dan Driscoll wrote and stars, while Mike Honeck directed and gorgeously filmed it.

Tanky-Tank Infomercial & Scribblenauts Commercial

As part of the Visual Story class at the ETC, pairs of teams collaborated to create video advertisements for video games.

First, one team did the pre-production for a game, including writing the script and creating the storyboards. Then that team would hand off the pre-production materials to another team that would actually film and edit the final video.

For the pre-production, my team chose to create an advertisement for my own game, Tanky-Tank. I wrote the script, and "Columbia Pictures" (another student team) filmed and edited. Mike Honeck stars.



From another team we received the script and storyboards for a commercial for the video game Scribblenauts. We filmed and edited the final video. That's me inside the ninja costume, and also that's my giant hand descending from the sky.

"Old School" Reenactment

Here's a video worth maybe a couple laughs. Especially if you want to see me in drag.

For the Visual Story class at the ETC, my team, The Warner Brothers, re-created a scene from the movie Old School. I co-star along with Dan Driscoll.

Introducing: The Warner Brothers

First year students (like me) at the ETC are required to take a class called Visual Story, which is basically a film class for folks who aren't Film majors. Us students are assigned into teams by the instructors, and then we go off and make movies!

My team is I think really fantastic. Jan, Dan, Mike, and Charlie are really great to work with.

Here's a little introduction video we made. It's not gonna win any Oscars, but it was a blast to make!