"All stories that are separated from feelings are hooligans, and vice versa."
1. 120 FPS has greatly changed the meaning of motion shots.
According to the information, the average sampling rate of the human eye is around 45 FPS, and a few people can reach 60+. But considering that the human eye should be a non-uniform sampling, 120 FPS can still bring more information than 24 F, or even 60 F.
As a result, motion that is too fast in some regular frame rate movies is just right in "Billy", such as a press conference before the start of a ball game, which has a relatively fast panning shot. It basically does the "look around" action, which would take more than twice as long to complete the same function in a 24 F movie. (This shot is supposed to be an "amateur" disaster at 24F.) Fast movement in 24F movies is often used to express feelings like "dizziness", "surprise", etc. In 120F movies it needs to be faster to achieve Lyrical function. For example, Billy fantasizes about having sex with a cheerleader girl at home, there is a set of shots that enter the room, and the speed is already fast, but still not fast enough, resulting in insufficient impact. (This set of shots may be just right in 24 F.) A similar flawed shot is at a team meal. There is a pan + shift lens for the meal, and that lens is obviously too slow at 120 F to reproduce the "attention shift" action, which looks very mechanical.
At the same time, slight wobbles in some sports shots were also more pronounced, magnifying imperfections in the orbital shots.
2. "Animal" spring?
For the same reason as in the previous point, slight movements of any actor are easier to perceive. Frowning and frowning are more visible, which greatly enhances Billy's ability to convey emotion. Several close-ups of Billy are touching. Shaking leaves, birds are also more infectious. In contrast, some "dead objects" appear lifeless, and the indoor scenes are even a bit suffocating. (Perhaps a new direction for horror films.) It seems that, by and large, the 120 F will be an "animal", "action" world.
The loss is that the symbolism of the characters is basically gone. Since the rate of human motion cannot fluctuate significantly (unlike camera motion), i.e., people cannot blink slowly or frown too quickly, it is difficult to achieve super-everyday effects. Example: The previous practice of obtaining a "sculptural sense" by controlling the actors' limbs has basically failed, and "The Passion of Joan of Arc" is impossible at 120 F.
3. Ang Lee didn't waste 120 F.
From some angles, Ang Lee has reached the end of the 120 F.
The basic paradigm in the early days of film was 24 F + fixed lens, 24 F lost some detail, and fixed lens was a forced gaze, which allowed us to see more clearly. The two cancel each other out, and we obtain a world that is not too far from the natural feeling. The motion shots of the early films were also dominated by stabilized motion. Subsequently, handheld photography emerged, and the frame rate remained at 24. Because human vision comes with a stabilization system, handheld lenses basically let us see "less". This type of film constitutes a "secondary vision," which of course partially compensates for the sharpness of the digital image. (From this point of view, it may not be a coincidence that the handheld wave is basically synchronized with the rise of digital machines, but it is not so closely related to the portability of machines. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain that after the emergence of handheld cameras in the 1950s, fixed lenses still dominated the mainstream for a long time.) Ang Lee uses 120 F makes the picture more realistic, and at the same time allows us to see more clearly through the fixed/stabilized motion lens. The final effect may be called "hyper-vision", coupled with the relatively realistic performance, that is "hyper-supervision".
Moreover, Ang Lee used super vision to shoot scenes that were "unbearable to watch" - killing enemies on the battlefield, and also shooting scenes that were "unwatchable" - a stadium with tens of thousands of people. From this point of view, Ang Lee has done his best. So the whole film feels a bit overdone, like a 120 F exploitation film.
From this, it is predicted that 120 F + handheld lens, the visual experience may be a bit more natural under the two-phase offset, and I look forward to Andrea Arnold coming to 120 F. "Billy" has a very amazing shot, 360 around Billy. It's easy to lose focus at 24 F with such a turn around, but it's just fine now. This is the first time I've fully felt the "gazing" effect conveyed by a surround shot, which is lame compared to previous surround shots. I believe that there are many wastelands that can be reclaimed.
Or a 120 F+ tokenized performance? Looking forward to Cai Mingliang making a 120 F. In fact, what he did in "Walker" and "Journey to the West" has already gone in this direction.
In addition, will the film move towards "super vision" or "sub-vision"? Or remain impartial?
4. Questions and Discussions
Why is the lighting in the film so even and unsightly? Something to do with 120 F?
If 120 F is a bit oversampled, what effect does the accompanying shutter speed have on visual reception?
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