Ang Lee, the director of Life of Pi, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, and Gemini Man, says that he has no plans to produce in 3D and 120fps HFR again.
Life of Pi earned Ang Lee an Oscar in 2013 and was a commercial success, but Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and Gemini Man were box office flops and did not exactly generate excitement among audiences for high frame rate movies upon their release in 2016 and 2019.
Both of the latter movies were shot in 120fps to elevate the 3D experience, but very few cinemas screened them in 120fps. Most did not even screen them in 60fps.
- "I tried higher frame rate and I tried 3D," Ang Lee told IndieWire in an interview. "I tried new ways of making movies. Those pictures are really sharp. That's a lot of pressure. Everything is difficult, so that is always a great pressure."
Do you remember Life of Pi's beauty and use of 3D?
"Whole ecosystem is bad"
The poor reception and lack of technical video upgrades in cinemas have apparently caused the acclaimed director to lose interest in advocating for change.
In the interview with Indiewire, he criticized the screening of 3D movies and lamented their often dim appearance.
- "3D in general … (is) so bad," Lee said. "The filmmakers are bad. The theaters are bad. The whole ecosystem is bad. It's not made for (3D). I refuse to complain, to blame it on the medium… it's the audience, and the industry, (who) were not prepared."
- "The theaters are stingy. It's really dim, you can't really see it. It's flickering, and the 3D... People do a poor job, (it) gives you a headache, it's purely bad. You can't blame the audience for not liking it because it's bad. And they're asked to pay more money. When it gets good, people like it. It's simple. 3D is different than 2D. Your mind works differently. You cannot compare the two. One is sophisticated and the other is like a baby."
Also see: The 3D movie database
No 3D for Bruce Lee biopic
For his next feature film, a Bruce Lee biopic, Ang Lee plans to revert to "the old way of making movies", with no plans for 3D or high frame rate.
Since Gemini Man, James Cameron has released Avatar: The Way of Water in 3D and HFR, but at only 48fps, a frame rate within the capability of many modern cinema projectors. The majority of cinemas are still not bright or fast enough for true high frame rate.
Also read: HFR – The one UHD technology you rarely hear about
Despite Ang Lee's exit, movies in HFR have started gaining momentum with Apple, Disney, Universal and Warner on board, utilizing a new motion grading approach called TrueCut. These movies are still "only" 48fps but the new approach in theory works with any frame rate.
- Source: IndieWire
