Whilst it isn’t perfect - it can produce movement artifacts, like strobing, flicker and motion blur - it is this frame rate that gives film its unique look. To eliminate flicker, the film was projected at 48 images a second by using a dual-blade shutter to repeat each frame and more recent 35mm projectors even use triple-blade shutters to repeat each frame three times, thus creating an image without obvious flicker.įor over 80 years, those 24 frames running through the camera each second have remained the standard by which all feature films are shot. Between 19 the use of 24 FPS was chosen as the standard for 35mm sound film production because it offered the best compromise between a high enough frame rate to maintain audio fidelity and a low enough one to keep production and distribution costs down. These early optical soundtracks required a minimum speed to achieve fidelity of the sound, but 35mm film stock is very expensive, so the frame rate also needs to be as slow as possible to minimise cost.

However, with the introduction of sound in 1927, the film industry needed to agree a motor-driven, constant camera speed to ensure synchronisation with the new optical soundtracks. As a consequence, silent films began to use higher frame rates to improve motion handling, and projectors would use dual-blade shutters to multiply the frame rate and reduce flicker. A frame rate of at least 14 frames per second is enough for the human eye to perceive motion, but the results will appear jerky and have flicker.

So what is the normal frame rate for film production? In the early days of cinema the frame rate used was between 14 and 24 frames per second (FPS), depending on how fast the operator hand cranked the camera. Since Jackson had already made the decision to shoot The Hobbit in 3D he felt that using a higher frame rate than is normally used for film, would help reduce image blur and give the 3D a greater sense of realism. Well, Peter Jackson, the director of The Hobbit, decided to shoot the film digitally using the RED Epic camera, which not only provided a resolution in excess of 4K, but also offered the option to record at a higher frame rate.

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