Ang Lee is a filmmaker that takes chances. He really swings for the fences with each and every project he releases, much like his peer, James Cameron. And lately, the films that Lee is releasing, though ambitious in their technological achievements, have been unmitigated financial disasters. So, even though “Gemini Man” is a bomb, at least he put his High Frame Rate tech out there for the world to see. However, according to James Cameron, he’s not all that sold on High Frame Rate (HFR), just yet.
Speaking to Collider, Cameron was asked if audiences can expect to see the HFR technology that Lee is pushing in films like “Gemini Man” and “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” will make it into the filmmaker’s upcoming “Avatar” sequels, the director is pretty blunt with his reasoning for why HFR isn’t the future of cinema, as Lee would have you to believe.
“I mean, I have a personal philosophy around high frame rate, which is that it is a specific solution to specific problems having to do with 3D,” said Cameron. “And when you get the strobing and the jutter of certain shots that pan or certain lateral movement across frame, it’s distracting in 3D. And to me, it’s just a solution for those shots. I don’t think it’s a format. That’s just me personally.”
He continued, “I don’t think it’s like the next 70 millimeter or the next big thing. I think it’s a tool to be used to solve problems in 3D projection. And I’ll be using it sparingly throughout the ‘Avatar’ films, but they won’t be in high frame rate.”
While Cameron does espouse some of the virtues of HFR technology, there is a very real, logical reason why he thinks that the format doesn’t work for every type of situation. The immersive, real sensation that HFR offers audiences is actually counterproductive when you’re trying to make something fake look real.
“To me, the more mundane the subject, two people talking in the kitchen, the worse it works, because you feel like you’re in a set of a kitchen with actors in makeup,” he explained. “That’s how real it is, you know? But I think when you’ve got extraordinary subjects that are being shot for real, or even through CG, that hyper-reality actually works in your favor. So to me, it’s a wand that you wave in certain moments and use when you need it. It’s an authoring tool.”
So, yeah, Cameron is aware that Ang Lee is trying to take a page out of his book and push the film medium forward with technology. However, in this case, Cameron doesn’t think that HFR offers a be-all, end-all solution, which is saying something, right? I mean, if he actually talks badly about a newfangled technology, then it can’t be all that great. Cameron is basically the man who invented the modern proof-of-concept film, with his “Avatar” series.