‘The Hobbit’ VFX Supervisor Joe Letteri on 48 FPS and How It Enhances 3D

Joe Letteri, The Hobbit‘s visual effects supervisor, talks to Movieline about the boon 48 fps brings to 3D. He says, “I think it’s beneficial with stereo. One of the artifacts of stereo — for example, if you look at something that’s out of focus, maybe an over the shoulder shot, this is where stereo differs from the real world. In the real world, wherever your eye focuses that object snaps to focus. So if you’re looking at a big screen and your eye wanders to something that is out of focus, your eye expects it to go into focus. It can’t. So you’re sitting there focusing on an out of focus object…Well, if you go to high frame right, it is in focus. Your eye can focus on these fast moving objects or even slow moving ones and the detail’s always there. So your brain can make sense of it.”