i have a short film i shot at 24 fps on super8. what will my footage look like if i run it in the projector at 18 fps?
my understanding is that it will be slowed down a bit. will this look bad, or give it a surreal dream-like look?
fps help
Moderator: Andreas Wideroe
Slow
It will be a bit slower. Surreal, however, is in the eye of the beholder.
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Old Uncle Barry
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Having just finished some extensive tests in shooting at 24fps,quite honestly I dont know what all the fuss is about regarding the two speeds.The ONLY visible advantage is that the pans are very smooth at the higher frame rate.Possibly there is a slight advantage with picture sharpness.Transfer to any video media displays no distinct advantages.
If shoots are for personal consumption stay with 18fps,if however commercial realisation is your aim then go for 24fps.
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Maurizio Di Cintio
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I do not agree: regardless of personal taste issues etc. the differences between 18 and 24 fps shots are so dramatic to my eye that I would never recommend anyone to go for one of them instead of the other, without some introductory consideration.
First of all, because at 24 fps you get more “dynamic†information per each second of recording, as opposed to filming at 18 fps the end result is more even, not just in the case of pan shots, but in almost ANY possible situation, except – maybe – if you are filming a close up of a motionless person speaking at the audience. Thanks to that extra amount of information, each frame can be viewed only for a shorter time during projection, and the viewer’s eye will blend each of them more consistently and (consequently) pleasantly, because 24 fps is farther to the minimal eye image persistence time of 1/16 of a second (18 fps is much closer instead and causes a lot of strobe and flickering effects, dynamic wise). It’s just that any medium, in recording moving images, breaks down the movements into a certain amount of ‘phases’ or frames, if you like it (50 in the case of PAL TV, 60 in the case of NTSC, and 24 or 25 in the case of cinema); but there is always a certain amount of movement that is skipped during recording, when the system shifts from frame 1 to frame 2 and so forth (i.e. during pauses inherent to recording). The faster the frame rate, the smaller the amount of missed information, the more pleasant the end result (and incidentally the definition, because the emulsion particles keep moving faster and tend to be less noticeable). I don’t think all this can be overlooked, because ‘movement’ is just what cinema is all about.
Moreover even if you are not filming for professional purposes, you may not want to film at 18 fps, especially if you are planning to have your film transferred to video. That’s because (at least in Europe) films shot at 18 fps are transferred at the actual speed of 16 frames plus two thirds of a frame per second (16 2/3): the result is even less pleasant than usual, let alone if the film has sound. Instead films shot at 24 fps are transferred at the actual speed of 25 fps, that’s a minimal speed change, and therefore the result is closer to the original.
Hence I would suggest to make some tests for a certain time, filming and projecting at 18 fps. After one has got used to that, he should swap to 24 filming & projecting, filming the same subjects as previous. If the differences will be found subjectively significant, than one should film at 24, otherwise at 18.
As for surrealism and the like, it is possible achieving a similar result by filmng at 30 36 fps and projecting at 24. I hope this helps. :roll:
First of all, because at 24 fps you get more “dynamic†information per each second of recording, as opposed to filming at 18 fps the end result is more even, not just in the case of pan shots, but in almost ANY possible situation, except – maybe – if you are filming a close up of a motionless person speaking at the audience. Thanks to that extra amount of information, each frame can be viewed only for a shorter time during projection, and the viewer’s eye will blend each of them more consistently and (consequently) pleasantly, because 24 fps is farther to the minimal eye image persistence time of 1/16 of a second (18 fps is much closer instead and causes a lot of strobe and flickering effects, dynamic wise). It’s just that any medium, in recording moving images, breaks down the movements into a certain amount of ‘phases’ or frames, if you like it (50 in the case of PAL TV, 60 in the case of NTSC, and 24 or 25 in the case of cinema); but there is always a certain amount of movement that is skipped during recording, when the system shifts from frame 1 to frame 2 and so forth (i.e. during pauses inherent to recording). The faster the frame rate, the smaller the amount of missed information, the more pleasant the end result (and incidentally the definition, because the emulsion particles keep moving faster and tend to be less noticeable). I don’t think all this can be overlooked, because ‘movement’ is just what cinema is all about.
Moreover even if you are not filming for professional purposes, you may not want to film at 18 fps, especially if you are planning to have your film transferred to video. That’s because (at least in Europe) films shot at 18 fps are transferred at the actual speed of 16 frames plus two thirds of a frame per second (16 2/3): the result is even less pleasant than usual, let alone if the film has sound. Instead films shot at 24 fps are transferred at the actual speed of 25 fps, that’s a minimal speed change, and therefore the result is closer to the original.
Hence I would suggest to make some tests for a certain time, filming and projecting at 18 fps. After one has got used to that, he should swap to 24 filming & projecting, filming the same subjects as previous. If the differences will be found subjectively significant, than one should film at 24, otherwise at 18.
As for surrealism and the like, it is possible achieving a similar result by filmng at 30 36 fps and projecting at 24. I hope this helps. :roll: