Movie fans who were intrigued by director Peter Jackson’s use of high frame rates in The Hobbit are now getting a chance to see the super-clear format online.
The second season of the YouTube Web series Video Game High School is being released online at 48 frames per second (fps), double the 24 fps that has been standard in movie theatres for the past century. The season’s second episode debuts Thursday after the premiere episode attracted nearly 2 million viewers.
Online video programming is growing fast as major networks and small upstarts go after young audiences who increasingly watch shows on laptops, tablet computers and mobile phones. Laying claim to the high-frame-rate niche could help Video Game High School stand out in a crowded field.
By capturing moving objects on camera at higher frame rates, filmmakers are able to cut down on blurriness because the camera’s shutter opens and closes much faster. That reduces the amount of time that an object moves across an open lens and gives each image, or frame, more clarity.
The experiment is partly a way to explore how to use high frame rates creatively while pioneering a new business model online.
Seeing the format online requires a special video player that exists only on RocketJump.com, which is owned by the show’s creators. Pulling viewers onto their own site improves their cut of advertising revenue compared to views on YouTube. For now, YouTube has no plans to introduce a high frame rate player of its own.
“There’ll be a reason to come to our site,” says Freddie Wong, 27, one of the owners of Rocket Jump and the co-creator of VGHS. “What 48 (frames per second) brings is a gritty realism to it. It feels hyper-real.”