JACKSON PREDICTS YOUNG MOVIEGOERS WILL LOVE HOBBIT‘S SHARPER LOOK

Director Peter Jackson is defending his decision to produce his two Hobbit movies using a higher frame rate — 48 frames per second rather than the standard 24 frames. Responding to published comments that exhibitors, who have each spent hundreds of thousands of dollars converting to digital projection, will now be forced to incur additional expense to convert to 48 frames, Jackson told Deadline.com, “With the advent of all the digital projectors, they’re all capable of high frame rates.” Referring to the fact that the 24-frame-per-second standard was introduced in 1927 with the advent of sound (the previous standard was 16 frames per second), Jackson said, “Why, as an industry where we have dwindling audiences especially among the kids, should we be content to sit back and say that we got it right in 1927? … No! The kids aren’t going to [care] about the frame rates. If something feels immersive to them, if it feels more exciting, spectacular, sharper, clearer, that’s what they’re going to like.” So why didn’t he show his demo reel of The Hobbit to those same kids at Comic-Con in the 48 fps format? Jackson referred to the reaction of his showing to exhibitors at CinemaCon in April when all of the discussion about his film centered on the frame rate. “Nobody was commenting on the footage, good or bad. Everyone had opinions about the 48 frames. You had the film purists saying, this doesn’t look like cinema. … Those negative comments were getting picked up and spun around the world by all the bloggers. I didn’t want to risk that at Comic-Con. I wanted people to look at the actors, at the performance, the story, and I didn’t want Comic-Con stories to be all about 48 frames.”