SMPTE 2012: Industry Pioneer Encourages Experience-Creating Cinema
By Rob Scott
October 26, 2012
October 26, 2012
- Filmmaker and inventor Douglas Trumbull likes to make films that are an immersive experience, and hopes to use larger, brighter screens as well as 3D and high frame rates to improve the cinematic experience.
- “Most people rightly think movies are a storytelling medium, but for me it is an experience-creating medium,” he said during a SMPTE keynote this week in Hollywood. “I’m very passionate about the idea of creating movies that are powerfully immersive.”
- “Trumbull — who developed the Showscan system that incorporated 65mm film at 60 frames per second — admitted to ‘tremendous disappointment’ when years ago his large format system didn’t get off the ground,” writes Carolyn Giardina for The Hollywood Reporter.
- However, he argues that the current troubled state of the film industry calls for innovation. “For movies to survive as a business, we have to make it better. It is just not good enough when the multiplex is [also available in one’s] pocket,” he said.
- “You can’t globally apply one frame rate to all movies,” Trumbull added, emphasizing the need for the right tool for each project. “24 frames per second looks great for dramatic performances. [Higher frame rates might be applied] to giant screens, hyper-reality, [viewer] participation in the movie.”
- “Trumbull is aiming to provide an aesthetic choice by developing a system that effectively allows filmmakers to embed high frame rates such as 48 or 60 fps into a standard 24 fps movie,” writes Giardina. “He refers to this system as Showscan Digital.”
- He is currently in the process of planning a movie to be shot at 120 fps using virtual sets.
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