'Hobbit' Creates Big Data Challenge 245
CowboyRobot writes "In the past five years there has been an 8x increase in the amount of content being generated per every two-hour cinematic piece. Although 3D is not new, modern 3D technologies add from 100% to 200% more data per frame. In 2009, Avatar was one of the first movies to generate about a petabyte of information. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was shot in a new digital format called High Frame Rate 3-D, which displays the movie at 48 frames per second, twice the standard 24-fps rate that's been in place for more than 80 years."
But with digital storage transcending some other limitations of conventional projection techniques, it's not just framerate that directors are now able to play with more easily; it's the length of movies themselves, which stats suggest just keep getting longer.
How big was the hobbit? (Score:5, Interesting)
I read TFA, and nowhere does it say how big The Hobbit was.. only that Avatar was about a Petabyte. Why isn't this stated anywhere? It's very frustrating, and also makes the article less useful, since its entire premise is that "The Hobbit creates big data challenge" with no specificity.
Comment on Movie length (Score:5, Interesting)
Am I the only one who longs for the return of an intermission? If only for a little relief rather than ducking out for 3-4 minutes and missing that one important little line of dialogue on which the whole thing pins?
Re:Smart play by the studios (Score:4, Interesting)
That's only relevant for the first copy.
Beyond that, content will be heavily re-compressed. It doesn't matter if it's Apple pushing the bits or The Pirate Bay.
it's the length of movies themselves (Score:4, Interesting)
which stats suggest just keep getting longer"
And in the Hobbit's case, longer, and longer, and...... just waay too long. LOTR movies had 1000 pages of book to fill them with interesting content. Hobbit, not so much. In many of the scenes you can almost feel the director guy just out of camera view making that "stretch" motion with his hands.
I love long films if... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a HUGE Tolkien fan, and went to the LOTR Extended Version Trilogy Marathon recently before seeing The Hobbit.
I was surprised at how well the longer versions of the films held up, after not watching them for around five years.
However, The Hobbit film was a let down on several levels, most of which I won't go into here. My main complaint? You do not need three films to tell the story. PJ has thrown in everything but the kitchen sink into The Hobbit, and it drags. Even the uber-videogame-esque "escape from the Goblins" scene drags... Too much of a good thing can ruin a film.
I would also say the same thing about the last Batman film. Too long and drawn out. Scenes that should be edited or removed alltogether. Thats why they call it the Directors Cut!
It makes me wonder if there aren't people involved in the film such as producers or editors who tell guys like PJ or Nolan, "hey bro, you might want to trim things down, just a smidge... You know, just to kind of keep the flow of the film going"