Compared to his work on the Lord of the Rings series, Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy is really having a bizarre production process. First it was announced that the two movies would be spread out into three last week, and now Jackson’s controversial decision to convert the movie to 48 frames-per-second is making the news. According to Variety, The Hobbit will play in this format in, "only select locations, perhaps not even into all major cities.”
Up until now, the normal way to watch a movie would be at 24 frames-per-second, but Jackson wanted The Hobbit to go to 48fps because of the clarity and realism that the format would bring to the overall look. But some critics claim that this format makes movies look almost too realistic, thus making the imperfections in wigs, makeup, and props appear more evident.
It was a divisive decision to want to release the movie like this in the first place, and it appears that Warner Bros. has backpedaled on it a bit. Peter Jackson and James Cameron are both on the forefront of the 48fps movement, so if these limited screenings of The Hobbit are successful, we might see more movies converted in the near future.
