James Cameron’s vision in Avatar 2: Creature of the Water was too big. Some Japanese theaters where projectors started to break down couldn’t handle it. The staff were forced to lower the quality so that viewers could watch the show without technical problems.
It took Cameron 13 long years to make Avatar 2. The scale of production, the latest graphics and special effects proved too ambitious for … cinemas, where the company is currently shown.
Reports began to come in from the Land of the Rising Sun that Avatar 2: The Essence of Water had bypassed equipment in Japanese cinemas. The staff had to resort to drastic measures to tame the titanic production.
Avatar 2 breaks projectors in Japan
Many theaters across the country have begun reporting technical problems with Avatar 2. Some venues were even forced to cancel screenings and refund tickets to viewers. The film was so powerful that it paused and restarted projectors, including theaters at United Cinemas, Toho, and Tokyu Corp.
What is the problem? Avatar 2: Creature of Water uses high frame rate (HFR) technology, and the video is displayed at 48 frames per second instead of the standard 24 frames per second. Interestingly, the movie only uses HFR for action scenes, while dialogue and less active moments still take up 24 frames.
This most likely led to a situation where the video was initially displayed correctly, but during the first skirmish, the hardware simply jammed, unable to cope with twice the number of frames. According to available information, one of the Japanese cinemas in the city of Nagoya solved the problem by reducing the number of frames to the classic 24.
Japanese movie theaters are notorious for slow investment in projector upgrades, so the problems aren’t much of a shock. But who can blame them? Movies at 48 frames per second are as rare as white Christmas in Poland.
Videos shot at 48 frames per second are still extremely rare.
Films in 48 frames have been known for a long time, but this technology is not widely used among producers and directors.
Most often, 48 FPS take on the role of a marketing ploy and a reason to slightly increase the ticket price. On the other hand, every gamer knows that the more frames, the smoother the content. However, this works a little differently in movies than it does in interactive games.
The most famous production, with 48 frames, was Gemini Man 2019 (directed by Ang Lee, starring Will Smith). Director Peter Jackson also played with technology in The Hobbit trilogy - An Unexpected Journey (2012), The Desolation of Smaug (2013), The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). Even then, HFR technology didn’t always convince viewers.
Source: Wprost
