Reed Morano VS. Smooth Motion

Right on. Right on. Fight the good fight, people!
http://filmmakermagazine.com/88128-...ainst-tvs-smooth-motion-setting/#.VFEeBedRFmt

 

I see a lot of monitors in NYC (some outside of real TV networks) set to smooth motion...

 

I hope the TV makers listen up. Motion interpolation is one of the great horrors of modern life.

 

It is absolutely horrible, and Mr. Morano is 100% right. I wish the entire American Society of Cinematographers would lobby against motion interpolation in TV sets. They aren't calling for it to be removed... just that when people first buy a TV set, the default mode is for "smooth motion" to be turned off. The user can always elect to manually turn it back on.

The Japanese engineers at Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, and other companies have complained for years that they dislike the 24-frame look of theatrical film, and have pushed faster frame rates for a long time. George Lucas said in interviews that Sony had to be led "kicking and screaming" into making digital cameras that shot at 24fps for his Star Wars prequels. I understand the engineers' point, that 24fps has motion artifacts solved by faster frame rates. But they forget that there's an emotional aspect to watching films, and that the 24fps "flaws" are part of what gives film that look.

This would be as bad as if audio receiver manufacturers set up a built-in EQ to automatically add lots of extra bass and "sizzle" to music. It's just wrong to F with the mastering decisions approved by the creative people who made the project.

 

That's Ms. Morano, but I have to admit I thought she was a he as well just going by the name.

 

My bad! I know four other guys named Reed, so that's a mistake on me. Very talented by any name.

 

I'd love to see this happen as well. In the early days of interpolation a salesperson at the Sony store was demoing it for a couple with the parkour sequence from Casino Royale. I just saw all these motion artifacts around moving objects, especially whenever one object passed in front of another, and voiced my distaste. The salesperson replied that people want TV to be more real "like looking out of a window." Must've been a standard line given at a sales meeting. A couple of years later I watched golf on another set where the ball in the air was leaving trails from the messy interpolation.

In all fairness the tech has gotten better since those times. But 24fps needs to look like 24fps, until Jackson, Cameron and Trumbull have their way. And all hope is not lost. I was eying up a UHD TV at Best Buy and used the remote to shut off the smoothing feature. The salesperson saw what I was doing and actually thanked me. Maybe they're trained that the customer is always right, or maybe it's just a less important sales tool than 5 years ago.

Mark

 

The article states smooth motion looks "too real" but then in the same breath says it looks and feels fake. Which is it? Smooth motion has never looked "real" to me. It's always looked artificial and weird and cheap. It always looks sped up and not how people move in real life.

 

Is it not a lighting issue mostly though?

Lighting that looks good at one frame rate, looks oddly bright at a faster rate.

 

Also, I was going to add, "smooth motion" actually makes everything jerky.