Sir Peter Jackson has started his direct communication with fans worldwide through his newly created Facebook account! The first article is titled ’48 Frames a Second’ and talks about shooting The Hobbit in the much faster film speed. Here’s an excerpt. Follow the link for the complete article:
Time for an update. Actually, we’ve been intending to kick off with a video, which is almost done, so look out for that in the next day or two. In the meantime, I thought I’d address the news that has been reported about us shooting THE HOBBIT at 48 frames per second, and explain to you what my thoughts are about this.
We are indeed shooting at the higher frame rate. The key thing to understand is that this process requires both shooting and projecting at 48 fps, rather than the usual 24 fps (films have been shot at 24 frames per second since the late 1920’s). So the result looks like normal speed, but the image has hugely enhanced clarity and smoothness. Looking at 24 frames every second may seem ok–and we’ve all seen thousands of films like this over the last 90 years–but there is often quite a lot of blur in each frame, during fast movements, and if the camera is moving around quickly, the image can judder or “strobe.”
Earlier this week, Philip Straub, our Art Director here at Snowblind, posted a developer blog about the Art Direction process. This corresponding developer video uses gameplay footage from War in the North to support his points. Watch it to see examples of our environment design process and get a look at the loot that you can use to customize your character’s appearance and defenses.
Our Art Director, Philip Straub, uses production materials and gameplay footage to walk viewers through the Art Direction process for War in the North.
[See below for info on two upcoming events with TORN blogger Ethan Gilsdorf]
I recently had a conversation with a man who scoffed at gaming and fantasy. The guy was a sports fan. So was I. But we didn’t see eye to eye. “That isn’t reality,” he said of my years reading J.R.R. Tolkien, playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and my other interests in so-called “escapist” hobbies.
The folks from Treetop Media Ltd. send this in: British actor John Rhys-Davies (alias Gimli the dwarf in Lord of the Rings movies) talks about The Hobbit and Peter Jackson.
Dr Dimitra Fimi writes: Regarding the announcement of the Tom Shippey lecture you kindly posted a few weeks ago I thought you might like to know that the lecture was recorded, and two video extracts are now available via YouTube here: