Do movies have to be 24 frames a second?

A journey into the history of 24fps and beyond. For the last 100 years we have basically filmed and screened movies at a single speed. But do we have to?
From Douglas Trumbull to Ang Lee, from Peter Jackson to James Cameron, from filmmakers in the early 1900s to KZbinrs in the year 2024, watch how some creators have attempted to break the mould and change the way we look at the world.
Please watch in 1080p 60fps. If you do not see a difference in the comparison sections, the video has possibly not been set to that resolution.
/ byronwylder
00:00 - Intro
03:03 - 1900's
7:16 - Television
8:46 - The question
9:21 - Peter Jackson and Douglas Trumbull
14:36 - Ang Lee
22:04 - The Greatest Pioneer
26:39 - Gaming
28:09 - Sports
28:50 - Documentary
30:17 - Why does this matter?
34:14 - The potential
Sources | KZbin
Intro
HDR-X Video Converter. (2023, January 29). 4K 60 FPS HDR 5.1 | Tron Legacy Open Matte (2010) • HDR-X Video Converter 1.2.1 by TEKNO3D Labs [Video]. KZbin. • 4K 60 FPS HDR 5.1 | Tr...
LG Global. (2023, April 18). LG OLED : The Circle 4K 60fps | LG [Video]. KZbin. • LG OLED : The Circle 4...
LG Global. (2022, February 11). LG OLED : DAYDREAMS 4K HDR 60fps | LG [Video]. KZbin. • LG OLED : DAYDREAMS 4K...
Douglas Trumbull
hudsonharbor94. (2015, March 7). Trumbull Studios: The Magi Process [Video]. KZbin. • Trumbull Studios: The ...
Brian Berneker. (2019, January 19). “Slate it” - Douglas Trumbull’s Brainstorm (60fps mixed HFR Test) [Video]. KZbin. • "Slate it" - Douglas T...
Brian Berneker. (2023, February 3). Brainstorm 60FPS / HDR upsampling demo - “Knock my socks off” [Video]. KZbin. • Brainstorm 60FPS / HDR...
Future of StoryTelling. (2018, October 11). Douglas Trumbull on the future of film [Video]. KZbin. • Douglas Trumbull on th...
Peter Jackson
Rotten Tomatoes Coming Soon. (2012, March 12). The Hobbit - Full Production Video Blogs 1-6 - Lord of the Rings - HD Movie [Video]. KZbin. • The Hobbit - Full Prod...
Red Carpet News TV. (2014, December 5). Peter Jackson Interview - High frame rate 3D - The Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies Premiere [Video]. KZbin. • Peter Jackson Intervie...
Ang Lee
ARRIChannel. (2017, October 23). The Filmmaker’s View: Ang Lee - Dedicated to the impossible [Video]. KZbin. • The Filmmaker's View: ...
4K Clips And Trailers. (2019, August 18). Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk | Vin Diesel’s Sacrifice | 4K HDR HFR (60FPS) | 5.1 Surround [Video]. KZbin. • Billy Lynn's Long Half...
James Cameron
Yahoo UK. (2022, December 9). James Cameron: “3D was a novelty but it’s a consumer choice for Avatar 2” [Video]. KZbin. • James Cameron: '3D was...
Gaming
LevelCapGaming. (2023, September 2). Best looking games ever made (4K Ultra settings) [Video]. KZbin. • Best Looking Games Eve...
Leon Mincy. (2023, July 12). Red Dead Redemption 2 Close to realism! MAX Settings - RTX 4090 [4K60FPS] [Video]. KZbin. • Red Dead Redemption 2 ...
Documentaries
Jacob + Katie Schwarz. (2018, July 17). Morocco 8K HDR 60FPS (FUHD) [Video]. KZbin. • Morocco 8K HDR 60FPS (...
Jacob + Katie Schwarz. (2017, April 9). Peru 8K HDR 60FPS (FUHD) [Video]. KZbin. • Peru 8K HDR 60FPS (FUHD)
Jacob + Katie Schwarz. (2023, May 5). Hawaii in 8K | HDR 60FPS [Video]. KZbin. • Hawaii in 8K | HDR 60FPS
Wow sport. (2020, November 13). 4k Ultra HD 60 fps Surfing Relax [Video]. KZbin. • 4k Ultra HD 60 fps Sur...
Sources | Articles
Wexler, J. (2015, December 4). 24fps: where does it come from? [Online forum post]. JWSOUNDGROUP.
jwsoundgroup.net/index.php?/t...
Withers, S. (2021, July 3). What is HFR, and what does high frame rate mean for sports and gaming? TechRadar.
www.techradar.com/news/what-i...
Phipps, K. (2019, October 15). Ang Lee and the uncertain future of High-Frame-Rate filmmaking. The Ringer.
www.theringer.com/movies/2019...
Laforet, V. (2013c, June 17). The Hobbit: An Unexpected masterclass in Why 48 FPS Fails. Gizmodo.
gizmodo.com/the-hobbit-an-une...
Little White Lies. (2022, December 20). Is HFR the future of blockbuster cinema?
lwlies.com/articles/is-hfr-th...
Music licensed through Audio Network
Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for FAIR USE for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing.

[@gabmedblack]

Biggest shame of my life is watching Gemini man at 2k 60fps instead of 4k 120fps

[@B_Ahmed1234]

Very well made video. Hope to see more.

[@rowansmithmusic]

this is AMAZING!!!!

[@pj85438]

Loved it!!! :D:D:D

[@Franki3stone]

YES! So keen to see more. This answers the questions i've been wondering for so long when watching movies (especially in avatar) hit the nail on the head man. Stoked. :D

[@jarsofgrey]

This analysis is extremely well done! Subscribed!

[@KimReddin]

This is a discussion, a think piece, an investigation, an educational travelogue through time and cinema* (*with examples included) but it also has some thought proving laughs! Bravo Wylder!

[@briandrysdale5735]

On PAL TV productions, they shot film at 25fps per second, rather than 24fps. The latter is used in NTSC counties. Just a note that the frame rate on interlaced video is half the field rate, so that PAL TV is 25fps, with 50 fields is termed 25i. Confusion came about when HD was introduced, when they described the same process as 50i, where they count the fields, rather than the frames.

[@ringopaulusch]

Great video! What irritates me more than the frame rate in Ang Lee's examples are the images themselves, the compositions, the colors, the focal lengths, the lighting. I wonder what they were thinking, it just looks like bad cinematography.

[@737gez]

This is a great video and engaging. Makes sense to me now when I watch modern TVs and the look they produce. Looks fake.

[@filmsr4ever_andever863]

Correct higher FPS should b dedicated for video journalism, travel documentaries etc, not for cinema. At least no all of us consider the idea of fantasy associated to what I want to c out there. Today all those films based on a super reality that doesn’t exist in our physical world have drpart from the natural principle given by the photographic axiom of reality itself. The constant manipulation of that frame rate is what it feels unnatural. Idt cinema will go into a higher FPS. Content and video sure will go separating even more from the power of the natural system of photographic representation. Cinema came forward even before its evolution from photography but it was until then that it came to us, we were already been seasoned into it way before 1895. For me higher FPS will get us eventually there but not as an evolution from cinema but as a departure from reality into an era of video consumption. Wasn’t photography the replacement of baroque painting from where even at its best could only contemplate an objective somewhat exaggerated form of reality. What did photography did?