Testing 3D’s drama potential

Broadcast

David Walliams’ comic novel receives the 3D treatment as the BBC explores the drama genre as part of its two-year experiment with the technology.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/in-depth/testing-3ds-drama-potential/5049262.article

The BBC’s two-year quest to examine aspects of 3D production and distribution across genres has taken in live events, studio shows and CGI, and is in the process of tackling natural history.

Casting around for a suitable scripted property, head of 3D Kim Shillinglaw alighted on the adaptation of David Walliams’ comic novel Mr Stink, commissioned by BBC1 controller Danny Cohen.

“With all of our projects, we are exploring shooting 2D and 3D simultaneously, and we wanted to understand what this would mean in a drama context,” Shillinglaw explains.

“Mr Stink looked appealing partly because of the broad family target audience, and also because aspects of the script seemed to lend themselves to interesting 3D treatment.”

Adapted by Walliams with Simon Nye, the 60-minute single, produced by BBC in-house, tells the story of a lonely young girl who befriends a local tramp and invites him to hide out in her family’s garden shed.

“We felt 3D would be effective in helping to convey the heightened reality of a world seen from a child’s point of view,” says line producer Francis Gilson. “In particular, the aspect of Mr Stink’s smell could be rendered as a physical thing, like a mist, which we felt would be creatively interesting.”

He adds: “The idea was never to use 3D for the sake of it but as a technique to enhance the story and the characters. But it also makes this project feel more of an event.”

The BBC tapped the experience of stereographer Vision3 and facility Onsight to provide editorial and technical support. Stereographer Adam Sculthorp helped first-time 3D director Declan Lowney (Father Ted, Little Britain, Moone Boy) and director of photography Philipp Blaubach plan shot composition.

This included suggestions to shoot close-ups of actor Harish Patel’s craggy face and to dress Mr Stink (Hugh Bonneville) in tweed and wool costumes, since 3D is felt to enhance an appreciation of texture.

Scenes were designed with fewer cuts and greater camera movement than normal, while care was taken to avoid traditional over-the-shoulder conversation shots where the foreground object can be disconcerting to a viewer in 3D.

By and large, though, the script, direction and production design were altered little to cater for stereo, with the 2D version produced from the lefteye 3D master with no separate edit.

Where 3D had the biggest impact was on time. Four days were added to the schedule, which included two weeks on location in Hemel Hempstead/Uxbridge and two weeks of nteriors at 3 Mills Studios.

“There is a time premium to 3D that can be alleviated to a certain extent by preparation,” says Shillinglaw.

“One focus of the BBC tests is to find the sweet position of pulling something off creatively for minimum uplift in cost.”shoot used a 10,000 sq ft stage at 3Mills that was recently employed by Tim Burton for his animated feature Frankenweenie.

Although Red Epics mounted on a single Atom rig were selected because of their light weight and size - the Reds also providing a 5K master - on-set 3D paraphernalia, including cabled recording and monitoring equipment, can increase set-up times.

In particular, Gilson reports that changing prime lenses took up to 45 minutes, although the production mostly used zooms to avoid this. A stereo assistant and stereographer were additional to the regular camera crew.

Saving time “Occasionally, we used two cameras [rigs] for coverage and to speed up the shooting process,” says Gilson.

“Since Nell Tiger Free was in every scene and licensing hours for child actors are tight, we were concerned not to lose time by having to change lenses.

“For the most part, there was no problem, although one sequence on the upper deck of a bus was a challenge, not just to fit the rig inside, but also to keep the camera physically moving during the scene.

“There is also more time required in post for the 3D version to undergo a depth grade, but we allowed for this.” The BBC has no plans yet to shoot a scripted series in 3D.

“It’s too big a commitment and we wouldn’t see proportionately greater learning than from a single,” says Shillinglaw. Gilson says the jury is out on whether 3D can feasibly be used on future comedy productions.

“The turnaround speed required for sitcoms would mitigate against shooting 3D at this stage,” he says. “I’m not sure most sitcoms would benefit from it. The bottom line is whether 3D would make them funnier, and I’m not sure.”

Mr Stink was filmed at 3Mills, edited on Avid at Onsight and finished on Mistika, with VFX by Prime Focus. It will TX on BBC1 and BBC HD (in 3D) in December.

TV dips its toe into 3D drama

Broadcast

3D fiction has been a staple of feature film releases, but only now are broadcasters and producers starting to deliver 3D drama treatments. Adrian Pennington reports

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/production-feature/tv-dips-its-toe-into-3d-drama/5049252.article?blocktitle=LATEST-FEATURES&contentID=38754%C2%A0…

Unlike in feature films, drama has been noticeably absent from the roster of 3D TV programming, but this may be about to change.

Sky and the BBC, as well as producers in the US, are beginning to experiment with the genre.

Bwark, Sprout Productions and Left Bank Pictures are each delivering 11-minute films in 3D for Sky’s Little Crackers strand this Christmas, while the BBC is producing hour-long family comedy Mr Stink as part of its two-year experiment with 3D production and distribution models.

Both broadcasters have expressed a desire to test the technology in different genres. Sky 3D director John Cassy says he wants to expand its scope towards a broader demographic rather than the male-oriented staples of sport and movies.

“At the beginning, we played to our strengths in sport and movies, but we have always been clear that we wanted to offer a broad range of programming in 3D,” he says. “We are serious about commissioning original drama, so it is logical to play with the genre in 3D.”

There are several other reasons for the sudden activity in scripted 3D, not least improvements in technology and a growing confidence among facilities and producers to use it.

Atlantic Productions chief executive Anthony Geffen, who has overseen a string of groundbreaking 3D natural history films with David Attenborough, says: “We’ve moved from a situation where the equipment was very large, where everyone was inexperienced using it and changing lenses took up to an hour, to one where the kit is lighter and more flexible. Production teams have become versed in 3D production, so planning and shooting is much quicker.”

Andy Shelley, chief operating officer at facility OnSight, which is providing on-set support and post-production for Little Crackers 3D and Mr Stink, says: “In the early days, every project was different, but now production has become routine. It doesn’t matter if a producer hasn’t done a 3D show before. We have developed the infrastructure and the knowledge to make the whole process a lot easier for them.”

Both projects are being shot simultaneously in 2D and 3D, with little difference in the editorial treatment of the two versions (though the projects have been selected because of their 3D potential).

“We were looking for a family drama to test in 3D and there were aspects of the script for Mr Stink that we thought creatively interesting,” says BBC head of 3D Kim Shillinglaw. “It included ways to use graphics to enhance the imaginative world of a child and also to represent Mr Stink’s odour.”

Sky executive producer, comedy, Saskia Schuster, adds: “3D works best when there’s lot of movement in the story and for creating certain moods, such as intimacy or tension.”

The notion that 3D requires longer shots and slower cuts than 2D can now be dispelled. “This was a mantra preached in the early days of 3D because audiences were unfamiliar with it,” says Duncan Humphreys, creative director, Can Communicate.

“There can’t be too many people now who have not seen a 3D programme or film, so the treatment can afford to be more sophisticated.”

Surprisingly, wildlife and the natural environment – some of the least controllable subjects – have had some of the first and most successful 3D TV treatments, yet light entertainment and studio-bound drama have barely been scratched.

This is put down to the fear of potentially costly knock-ons to filming and talent schedules, a result of repositioning cumbersome 3D equipment. Yet this, too, is being addressed.

“Everyone blames the technology when a schedule slips behind, but the reality is you could shoot 3D with virtually no impact,” says Humphreys. “Downton Abbey would look superb in 3D and could be shot for 2D and 3D.”

Cassy agrees. “The 2D/3D schedule gap has narrowed massively. On Little Crackers, it was almost exactly the same. When you do anything complicated that uses new technology for the first time, it’s understandable to be cautious, but those who have done it love it and find it easier and more rewarding than they anticipated.”

Left Bank managing director Marigo Kehoe admits to being concerned about the technical and cost implications of shooting the indie’s first 3D foray.

“I was worried going in but we had great help from Sony and Sky, both technically and to plan the entire storyboard,” she says. “Making a short film in one location meant that we were not moving rigs or wiring around.

It’s a step, but the next step after that – to do a 45-minute show like Strike Back with five cameras on location – is a completely different ball game and we would be more concerned.”

In the US, Sony Pictures has tested 2D/3D studio-bound shoots for NBC’s multi-camera daytime drama Days of Our Lives and ABC’s single-camera sitcom Happy Ending, concluding that 3D TV shows can be done to the same schedule as 2D, with only marginal budget differences, by using precise planning, the right technology and training existing crew.

Having acquired Left Bank, as well as co-sponsoring with Discovery and Imax, and 3D channel 3Net, Sony Pictures is likely to be more of a force in 3D TV production.

“We pitched our Little Cracker as 2D but were asked by Sky and Sony to do it in 3D,” says Kehoe. “It has real potential, provided you pay close attention to detail. Andy Harries and I have been talking about different 3D ideas but it remains to be seen what’s appropriate in 3D – and whether broadcasters will fund it.”

Indeed, the main impediment to 3D scripted shows remains the limited outlets for finance and distribution.

In the US, 3D mini-series Legends Of The Prohibition (Eyeromp Films/Vase Productions) and episodic period drama Sawdust (Sawdust Productions) are aiming to secure funding, but it seems that, both in the US and in the UK, producers and investors need convincing of the business model if 3D drama is to move beyond single shows.

“There are still only two or three large channels that can acquire, commission and pay ‘adult’ money, but producers should be thinking about dramatic shows and mini-series for VoD, Blu-Ray release and for futureproofing,” says Torsten Hoffman, who runs distributor 3D Content Hub. “There are also up to 40 channels in others parts of the world that pay less money but are looking for original 3D content.”

Cassy says that 3D pitches of any kind have to have a 2D rationale. “If the idea can be enhanced by 3D, we will look at that, but in drama, there has to be a great story first of all.”

Geffen adds: “There’s no way to get a full-scale drama funded in 3D alone. You need economic models that will work in both 2D and 3D.”

For Atlantic Productions and its 3D co-venture with Sky, Colossus Productions, that has meant Imax and cinema distribution, as well as second-screen apps and game spinoffs from specialist factual shows such as Galapagos 3D. However, the producer now has drama in its sights.

“You will see us using drama heavily inside factual productions and next year a move into full-scale drama,” says Geffen. “We will begin with one-offs to push the medium and series will follow.”

There may also be inspiration from new 3D theatrical releases such as Life Of Pi and The Great Gatsby – literary adaptations that are light on VFX-heavy action. With these releases, Hoffman notes: “We may see more producers realising the creative merits of shooting drama in the format.”

Factual series and ob docs, such as the 10 x 60-minute Safari Park Adventure (Can Communicate and Renegade for Discovery Europe), are being commissioned in 3D, but Sky Arts is testing the water for the UK’s first 3D light-entertainment series, with two of the six 60-minute editions of Michael Parkinson: Masterclass using the format to bring performances to life.

“It was a great opportunity to experiment with a block of 3D in a studio environment,” says Cassy.

“The format lent itself well too. For example, the episode focusing on ballet dancer Carlos Acosta includes a performance in which he uses the physical space in movement and depth – things that 3D does well.”

According to Chris Cary, chief executive of 3D camera-maker Meduza Systems: “Anything intimate lends itself to 3D, including Jonathan Ross or Graham Norton chat shows. We should be experimenting more with those to drive potentially large audiences to 3D.”

Colossus turns to drama for next 3D project

Broadcast 

Sky and Atlantic Productions’ joint 3D venture, Colossus Productions, is moving into drama. The producer of specialist factual shows Flying Monsters 3D and Galapagos 3D is in “active discussions about full-scale 3D drama for Sky and other broadcasters”, according to Atlantic Productions chief executive and creative director Anthony Geffen.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/colossus-turns-to-drama-for-next-3d-project/5047990.article

“In terms of technology and production experience, the medium has matured to the point where we can take on other genres,” Geffen said.

“First you will see us using drama inside factual productions, then next year we will move into full-scale drama. We will begin with one-offs, and a series will follow.”

Geffen suggested that the use of CGI to create new worlds “is an area where 3D can make a massive difference. “It makes sense to create something with a ‘wow’ factor which people will be excited to see in 3D.”

Envy to post-produce The Voice at Windmill Street

Broadcast

Envy has taken over from Evolutions as the picture and audio post-production home for BBC talent show The Voice UK’s second series. http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/envy-to-post-produce-the-voice-at-windmill-street/5048983.article

The Wall to Wall production will take over eight of Envy’s cutting rooms at its new Windmill Street base, with finishing at its Rathbone Place facility.

The Voice UK is due to TX in 2013. “It shows that we are moving further into Saturday night entertainment, which we have not done for a while. It is a genre we want to do more of,” said Envy managing director Dave Cadle.

“Together with the contract to post Top Gear series 19, it’s a big plus for us.”

Envy’s 7,000 sq ft Windmill Street building, which officially opened at the beginning of the month, represents a £2m investment. It has 24 rooms, each equipped with Avid Media Composer running on an Isis 5000 with 96TB of storage.

The building houses a Baselight, Envy’s fourth, with Dolby PRM 4200 LCD and the company’s sixth Avid Symphony, linked to an additional 32TB of Isis storage costing £100,000.

Senior colourist Tim Waller has arrived from Molinare and Jonathan Davies, ex-MPC, is the new head of commercials production.

They join 25 new hires and 15 existing staff promoted to run the operation. It is the fifth offshoot of the facility in addition to Envy’s Rathbone Place, Holden House, Margaret Street and Foley Street sites.

Envy’s turnover for the past year was £13.2m and it plans to spend £1.6m in 2013 on kit for VFX, offline and online.

BBC experiments with 3D ‘snorkel’ for Hidden Kingdom

Broadcast 

The BBC has commissioned a unique device to capture 3D footage of small creatures in the wild for natural history series Hidden Kingdom.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/bbc-experiments-with-3d-snorkel-for-hidden-kingdom/5048988.article

The ‘straightscope’ is a snorkel-type system with a wide-angle lens that attaches to the front of a camera to obtain extreme close-ups.

It is being built by optical specialist Peter Parks, who devised an original version for 2003 3D Imax fi lm Bugs!, subsequently winning a lifetime achievement Academy Award for his technological contribution to film-making.

“To depict the point of view of creatures the size of an ant, we needed a system that has a much smaller front end than a mirror rig,” said series producer and 3D director Mark Brownlow.

“The snorkel can ‘kiss’ the subject to make it look huge but the background remains in focus.”

Onsight is supplying a range of additional equipment including Freestyle rigs, Red Epics, twin Iconix mini-cams on a jib and a pair of Nikon D800 D-SLRs on a Hurricane rig for timelapse sequences.

The production is using a pair of Phantom Miro cameras fi lming at 1,000 frames a second for high-speed photography of chipmunks in North American forests.

“It reveals extraordinary, Matrixlike detail of the chipmunks fighting each other,” said Brownlow. “I don’t believe this has been seen before and it’s an experience that is not the same viewed in 2D. I want to push the throttle on the 3D and make it almost interactive.”

The 3 x 60-minute 2D series and 50-minute 3D single tracks groups of small animals including scorpions, beetles and marmosets in environments such as the Sonoran desert and Rio’s favelas.

BBC Worldwide is underwriting the BBC Natural History Unit and RTL co-production, which is scheduled for completion by November 2013.

Technicolor provides full post on Midsomer

Broadcast

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/technicolor-provides-full-post-on-midsomer/5048985.article

Technicolor has supplied full picture post-production, mastering and tape deliverable services for series 15 of ITV drama Midsomer Murders.

The facility also provided ADR, sound post-production services, Foley recording, mixing and mastering for all but one of the series.

It began providing these services for producer Bentley Productions on the last two episodes of series 14.

“As self-contained feature-length dramas, Midsomer Murders had many different grading requirements,” said colourist Dan Coles.

“As a general rule, we are trying to create a continuity of warmth and contrast - rich in colour and vibrancy.”

Editor Simon Giblin said: “Each episode has varied visual-effect requirements. For example, one episode had a requirement for a total solar eclipse, which we generated within Avid DS using plug-ins and production-sourced material.”

Meduza merges 4K and 3D concept into Titan camera

Broadcast

Meduza Systems has begun shipping the Titan 3D, a single-stereo camera, with Berlin-based rental house Tectum taking first orders. http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/news/meduza-merges-4k-and-3d-concept-into-titan-camera/5048773.article

Meduza made waves at NAB 2010 with its concept of a custom- isable, 4K and 3D camera in a single body, with its optics designed to be exchangeable with the camera body. That camera, the MK 1, was delayed subject to the development of the sensors, and the company turned its attention to an HD variant, the Titan.

The MK 1 concept has now been merged with Titan, explained chief executive Chris Cary. “The Titan delivers 1080-2K up to 60 frames a second using a standard head and a standard body. The next body for the camera will be for high- speed photography that allows the standard head to shoot up to 340fps [at 2K],” he said.

“The next head after that will have a 4K sensor, so the high- speed body will also be capable of 4K at high frame rates.”

Meduza has embarked on a tour to demonstrate the technology. Cary added: “We now have the camera to prove to indies and broadcasters how flexible shooting 3D TV can be.”

Titan weighs 5kg and features two HD 1080p CMOS sensors, with convergence claimed to be accu- rate to 1/1,000 of a degree. The unit can be operated with 3ality Technica wireless control hardware, 3Ality mobile apps or controllers from Preston and cmotion.

The body costs £35,000, the electronics £3,000 and a set of eight matched pair lenses £55,000.A rental package is around £2,000 a day.

ITVS’ Provision opens office in London

Broadcast 

ITV Studios’ kit rental subsidiary Provision is opening a London office to complement bases in Leeds and Manchester. http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/news/-itvs-provision-opens-office-in-london/5048774.article

The office, located at ITV’s Television Centre, is initially aimed at servicing in-house ITV productions.

“We are looking to extend support to ITV’s factual department,” said sales and operations manager Danny Howarth. “All our stock is fluid, meaning that all of our offices have complete access to all of our inventory.”

Kit includes Arri Alexa and Canon C300 cameras, Arri Alura Zoom lenses, Sony OLED monitors and LED Lite Panel technology.

“We are constantly evaluating our investments and will look to add new technologies as demand arises,” he said.

Recent dramas supplied by Provision’s northern offices include Kudos’ Utopia for Channel 4, shot on Red Epics, and ITV’s Vera, shot on Alexa.

BVE North expects 20% boost

Broadcast

BVE North is expected to attract more than 3,000 visitors this year, a 20% increase on the inaugural 2011 event.

Manchester’s Central Complex will house 100 exhibitors, including 35 vendors new to the show, which takes place on 13-14 November. http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/news/bve-north-expects-20-boost/5048772.article

“BVE North is about bringing together regional content and local talent with the latest industry information,” said marketing manager Amanda McCarthy. “Last year, 87% of visitors to BVE North did not visit the London event, so we are catering for a whole new market.”

She added: “The BBC is settled into MediaCityUK and more people are moving to the region to support local production. BVE North is about supporting that endeavour.”

A new series of informal round- table discussions, dubbed Skills Zone, are intended to aid the region’s freelance community in topics ranging from rights protection to job hunting.

Among the commissioners in attendance are UKTV commissioning editor for entertainment Helen Cooke and multiplatform commissioning lead at Channel 4 Louise Brown.

Several products will be making their debuts at the show, including the global launch of a trio of portable wireless technologies from Intratec, distributed by Holdan.

Bridge is a miniature on-camera Wi-Fi device that streams video up to 450Mbps over dis- tances of 250m; Bridge Duo is a radio unit capable of delivering live data streams over 500m; and WiFi Anywhere aggregates data from mobile networks to create a remote wireless hotspot.

“We’ve seen wireless encoding and streaming take off in the past 12 months,” said Holdan technical manager Richard Payne. “We are also making BVE North the UK launchpad for the Teradek Bolt, which is a £1,300 transmitter and receiver of uncompressed HD SDI for wireless working up to 100m.

“The delay is just 2 milli- seconds and it supports 1080p. There is nothing comparable on the market.”

Other products making their UK debut at the show include NewTek’s TriCaster 8000, a live production and streaming system for up to eight cameras; Studer by Harman’s compact audio console Vista 1; the Solaris LED energy-saving spotlight from Ianiro; and the Photron SA-X from Slowmo, which can record 1K res- olutions at 20,000 fps.

Sony shifts towards higher resolution with 4K cameras

Broadcast

Sony is to launch two 4K cameras, the PMW-F5 aimed at TV drama and mainstream TV production and the PMW-F55 targeted at high-end drama and commercials. http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/news/sony-shifts-towards-higher-resolution-with-4k-cameras/5048479.article

Both will be available from February and sport a new 4K-capable codec, XAVC. The two cameras are intended to help the industry make the transition towards higher resolution production.

Sony head of AV media Olivier Bovis said: “MPEG 2 is the most widely used codec today, but if you want to cover 50-60p production, or 4K, or high frame rates, then you need something different. This is our response.”

Bovis added: “The XAVC can do proxy, HD and 4K recording on a single chipset. It will become the heart of a lot of [Sony] future products. The majority of our clients still have a lot of legacy HD and even DV requirements, so a lot of people will shoot 4K for archive.”

The F5 will be able to shoot 4K at 60 frames a second compressed using XAVC recording to new SxS Pro+ cards. It has a large format Super 35 sensor and takes PL mount lenses. The addition of a new recorder, R5, will enable Raw 4K at 120fps from the camera.

Manufacturers including Avid, Adobe, Grass Valley and Codex plan to implement support for the cameras on launch. For viewing, Sony is releasing a 30-inch 4K LCD monitor, the SRM-3000. The model succeeds, but does not replace, the PWM-F3 and is being seen as a response to Canon’s C300 and C500 cameras by some rental houses.

Telegenic targets European first with 4k-capable truck

Broadcast

Telegenic is aiming to become Europe’s first 4K-capable outside broadcaster when its latest super truck hits the road next year.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/news/telegenic-targets-european-first-with-4k-capable-truck/5048480.article “We have just commissioned a new vehicle with all the necessary infrastructure to support 4K, which we believe will be a format for live cinema events and domestic TV once compression formats become more effi cient,” said Telegenic commercial manager Eamonn Curtin.

The £4-5m, multi-camera 3G unit is scheduled to be completed next May, but whether it will be outfitted with full 4K capability at that time is dependent on product development.

“We are in discussions with major manufacturers regarding the new 4K cameras and resulting signal fl ow, with a view to forming strategic partnerships,” said Curtin.

“The industry is moving towards higher-resolutions and it’s our job to stay ahead of the game.”

Telegenic commissioned the world’s fi rst bespoke 3D truck, T18, in 2009 and has since designed and built three further 3D/3G-capable units, primarily for Sky 3D contracts, including more than 100 EPL matches.

The other major UK outside broadcast supplier to have declared interest in 4K tests and investments is Visions, which is also contracted by Sky for EPL coverage.

As revealed by Broadcast, Sky is testing the 4K technologies as a prelude to a possible future launch of an Ultra-HD service.

BBC head of 3D questions the format’s appeal

Broadcast

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/news/bbc-head-of-3d-questions-the-formats-appeal/5048481.article
Head of 3D Kim Shillinglaw has become the latest BBC executive to question the consumer appetite for 3D.

Shillinglaw is leading the BBC’s two-year trial into the production and distribution models for the format.

“There’s a further dimension [to the trials], which is assessing whether people will ever want to consume 3D wholesale,” she said. “My gut feeling is that 3D is a ‘high days and holidays’ experience for most people. They want to opt in to 3D for a particular experience, such as the final of Strictly, rather than watch 3D continually.”

She added: “This may change with the advent of glasses-free displays and the audience trend towards greater visual immersion.”

Other BBC staffers to have queried the 3D TV experience include director of sport Barbara Slater and executive sport producer Paul Davies.

Roku chief exec sounds death knell for DVRs

Broadcast

The chief executive of streaming media platform Roku has told the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) that DVRs will ultimately be replaced by on-demand streaming. http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/news/roku-chief-exec-sounds-death-knell-for-dvrs/5048478.article

In his keynote address to SMPTE’s annual conference, Anthony Wood said the DVR was going to “go away”. “The capabilities of the DVR will next go to the cloud and then simply become an element of the on-demand world. The end point is where any piece of video is available in any language, anywhere, via streaming.” 

Much of the event was dominated by debate around shooting feature film at more than 24 frames a second. Advocates, including veteran film-maker Doug Trumbull, believe that rates of 40fps or above yield a more immersive viewing experience. However, the cost of changing cinema projectors to the new format remains a concern of exhibitors.