Grant: College - University Idea to Innovation Grants

The proposed project ""3D High Frame Rate Movie-making: Creative and Technical Foundations for Widespread Commercial Adoption"" is a partnership between vision scientists from York University's Centre for Vision Research, filmmakers from Sheridan College's Screen Industries Research and Training Centre, and Christie Digital a innovative high-technology company headquartered in Kitchener, Canada. Christie is the world's premier provider of digital cinema projectors and is leading the industry in the development and adoption of high-frame rate cinema. High frame rate movie-making refers to the capture and projection of movies at frame rates several times higher than the traditional 24 frames per second. This higher frame rate theoretically improves the quality of motion portrayed in movies and helps avoid motion blur, judder and other undesirable effects. Despite these theoretical advantages there has been little investigation of the impact of high-frame rate techniques on the viewer experience. Further, the best practices for exploiting the benefits of these new techniques remain unclear. The goals of the proposed project are to (1) measure the perceptual impact of high frame rate technologies in both laboratory experiments and in the theatre and (2) to develop, evaluate and refine best practices and technical standards for the creation and delivery of high frame rate movies. High-frame rate cinema is an important new market for Christie and for the Canadian movie industry. This work will provide the scientific foundation for this new market along with the artistic and technicalunderstanding to produce the compelling content needed to make it vibrant and successful.