Behind the Lens

1.5The Film Look— Frame Rates

As we’ve discussed before, there are four main properties to the “film look”:

• Aspect ratio
• Frame rate
• Sensor size
• Resolution

This article will discuss the second factor: frame rates.

In the early days of the evolution of motion pictures, Thomas Edison and George Eastman started to set basic standards for the new medium. They determined the size of the film— 35mm—the number of perforations per frame—four—and the speed at which the film would travel through the camera.

Physiologists aren’t entirely sure why human beings can see a series of still images shown in rapid succession and the brain interprets that as motion. Early on there was the theory of persistence of vision; later the theory of the phi phenomenon ...