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The Hobbit


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hey guys i just want to open this discussion to see what you think.

 

I went yesterday to watch the hobbit in IMAX 3D and was very disappointed.

 

First because of the director's choice of depicting certain characters the way they did ( example: Radagast)

 

Second because the film looked horrible to me. It looked WAY too real ! with all the 3D and digital stuff i thought that that was a joke ! come on ! it didn't have an "EPIC" look at all. I don't know too much abut the process they used to film it, but i don't really like the output.

 

 

what do you guys think ?

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Lorenzo,

I have to disagree with "It looked WAY too real". There is nothing any more real with how 48fps renders motion. I found that most of the motion was actually less realistic with a lot of jitter between frames, it almost exaserbated it. It looks sharper, which when things are moving isn't really the case in real life.

 

It took about half the movie to put a finger on what it was I didn't like about it and it hit me. Everything looked like it was moving to fast. As though it was being fast forwarded and the audio was ADRed on top of it, it made me physically uncomfortable. The up side is there was no "3D headache" to speak of...

 

The problems with the movie where their own after that. Though what happend to the miniature unit?

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Lorenzo,

I have to disagree with "It looked WAY too real". There is nothing any more real with how 48fps renders motion. I found that most of the motion was actually less realistic with a lot of jitter between frames, it almost exaserbated it. It looks sharper, which when things are moving isn't really the case in real life.

 

It took about half the movie to put a finger on what it was I didn't like about it and it hit me. Everything looked like it was moving to fast. As though it was being fast forwarded and the audio was ADRed on top of it, it made me physically uncomfortable. The up side is there was no "3D headache" to speak of...

 

The problems with the movie where their own after that. Though what happend to the miniature unit?

 

 

really ? because i thought the opposite ! I mean there are a couple of scenes where I don't know what it was but it was like watching a telenovela ( hope you understand). As francisco said a $150000000 movie for TV !

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Just saw Hobbit in IMAX 3d and left with a huge headache and eyestrain! FIrst time this has ever happened to me. All the fast cutting and videogame-like tracking shots taxed my brain and left me numb. Another disappointment was the fact I could see all the makeup during the closeups! Shooting on RED epics seems like a big step backwards when you have a budget of this size.

 

The 2k finish did not hold up well on the large IMAX screen.

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Though what happend to the miniature unit?

 

There were models used for art dept. planning, but the early tests with miniatures seemed problematic. That's according to stuff I heard for an article I did on the film's cinematography & vfx (skip to the last page for the miniatures reference)

http://www.hdvideopro.com/display/features/to-middle-earth-and-back-again.html

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Besides all technical stuff, I was also disappointed from it as a movie.

Maybe because the Hobbit is a childrens book, but I found it too slapstickish (regarding directing and acting) to grab me.

LOTR was deep, dark, mystic epic, but those 3 camping trolls where just like the Three Stooges and the dwarfs and goblins like from the Muppet show (I was just waiting for a tap dance number), let alone that guy with the bunny sled.

 

Jackson lost me for the next two. And it's not because of 24/48 3D or not.

So for the moment, my preferred Hobbit frame rate is zero fps.

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It might be for the better, leave this fun fantasy film to the kids, because sad aging guys inevitably will be disappointed by such explosion of colors, especially in that strange weird-looking HFR 3D. Put that digital nonsense away and get off my lawn!

 

I dont think this post, nor your attitude are going to get you far here. But I will be entertained by the responses you garner.

 

LOL What a first post...do you come from REDuser?

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In the interviews it sounds a bit like he's making excuses for a bad choice.......

 

I was looking at the early part of this interview.

 

Peter Jackson discusses 'The Hobbit' .

Director Peter Jackson spoke with Hero Complex contributor John Horn at Comic-Con International in July, just before announcing that the two-film adaptation of "The Hobbit" would become a trilogy.

 

He's definately the lead lemming for the new. Paraphrasing him........There is no eye strain with 48fps apparently, you just have to get used to it. And if the industry is going in this direction then he / we just need(s) to go with it. (paraphrasing him....these are not my thoughts).

 

At arounf 5-00 minutes is he equating the Epic at 4k pixels to 65mm film or is he just talking about the size of the camera rigs (3D vs 65mm)?

 

In the year 2525.........

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I gave the 3D HFR version a chance. Sat through the first 5 minutes of the film, in anguish. And it wasn't because I'm "not used to it", I AM used to it, I'm used to seeing it on TV soap operas and daytime talk shows, which I hate. The VFX also seemed a lot worse as well, like watching a video game. Everything seemed like it was in focus, negating the 3D realism effect (something Claudio Miranda does really well). On top of that, HFR is still digital projection, and I just felt like I was watching television with a room full of strangers.

 

Luckily, the auditorium next door was playing the 3D 24fps version, starting 10 minutes afterwards. Genius planning by AMC Theatres for those who couldn't stand HFR. So, I saw the movie. It was OK, more of the same from PJ really. Made me really wish Guillermo Del Toro had done it in the end.

 

I was surprised at how bad HFR was though, but it made me curious about refresh rates of digital projection vs. film projection. If there were a film out of The Hobbit, printed and projected at 48fps, would it have the same "TV look"?

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I was surprised at how bad HFR was though, but it made me curious about refresh rates of digital projection vs. film projection. If there were a film out of The Hobbit, printed and projected at 48fps, would it have the same "TV look"?

 

I'm going to have to say yes, if only because if you "true motion" (god why whould you?) a movie it turns into the same fast forward looking trash. I was stuck at a house watching the origional evil dead on a tv I couldn't turn that off. It takes you out of the story and really makes you only look at the camera work. Distracting is an understatement.

 

I think it has to do with persistance of vision and our mind not being given any time to really interpolate the motion on it's own.

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I've just gotten back from seeing it tonight in 24fps 3D (don't think you can get anything else here at the moment).

 

I didn't think it looked all that bad, but I didn't think it looked all that good either. Despite all the Red Bull we've been subjected to, the Epic still doesn't the highlight handling capacity of film. The killer was the candles they had everywhere. When you shoot a burning candle with film, it still looks pretty much like a candle. The candle flames in The Hobbit all looked like wan white oblongs.

I don't know what it is; but on film, the yellowish glare of the candle flame tends to look real.

 

The outdoor sequences had a weird look that looks exactly like the result of IR pollution from using too many NDs. But surely PJ would be wise to that by now. (Yeah, yeah; I know; that poxy look was the effect he was striving for. When all else fails, it was an artistic choice...)

 

It's the same old same ol' same ol'; the CGI sequences looked more natural than the live footage.

 

As for the film itself, it really drags for the first hour, but the action picks up towards the end.

 

"The Hobbit" was only a very short book; nowhere is there enough story in there for THREE movies, particularly the length of the one I've just seen.

 

I really don't understand why the Red cameras seem to get used on so many expensive why-did-they-bother movies. I literally had trouble staying awake during Prometheus and The Amazing Spider-Man, as well as the first halt of The Hobbit

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