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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is shaping up to be a groundbreaking event for film technology. First, we heard that Director Peter Jackson shot the film at 48 frames-per-second, and now he’s telling us that the film’s sound will be mixed for Dolby’s ultra-intense new Atmos system.
Dolby Atmos allows a film’s sound designers to map sounds to each of up to 128 locations in a theatre—including above the audience. (How many of the 128 potential elements are used is up to both the designers and the constraints of a particular theater, but the minimum number of speakers is thirty-two.)
The technology is a huge leap forward from the 7.1 channel surround sound available to designers before. The system launched earlier this summer with Brave at just a handful of locations in the US, but Dolby says that the Empire cinema in London’s Leicester Square is currently the only UK cinema with Atmos, and they’re not yet sure if The Hobbit will be screened with the Atmos mix when the film comes out on December 14th. [Dolby via Engadget]
Not in the UK.. Great!
“Dolby says that one cinema in London’s Leicester Square will have the Hobbit’s Atmos mix by the time the film comes out on December 14th (more to be confirmed shortly)”
Could be here soon though…
I’m just waiting for Dolby’s UK office to get back to me on that.
So its only available in the US and Canada then.
I did some research through the UK side of the Dolby website. Seems they best they offer here is 7.1 and they haven’t even updated the film list to include the Hobbit. Also, it doesn’t even include Bradford iMax on the list. Im confuzzled.
I wonder if the BFI IMAX has anything even close to this.
In the name of traditions, sometimes UK lags behind in so many things. Our cinemas are archaic and yet expensive. Cineworld and Vue, you twats.
never mind that. i would love to see 7.1 available in front wifth rather than surround rear. its much better and really adds width to the soundstage rather than additional rear channels that the ear cannot perceive so much.
I’m still wondering if I’ll be able to see it in 48fps. We have an Imax screen but I don’t know if that helps or not really?
Anyone have any ideas where to find out?
I’m finally glad we’re getting away from 24fps, in action movies you always see a low frame rate. I mean it’s a trick to make everything look chaotic with fast camera shots that the frame rate cannot keep up with. It ends up making the fighting scenes look more dramatic than if they were film at a higher frame rate, sadly it always makes you dizzy too…
I cannot believe we’re even only doing 48fps now, I mean home cameras are better than what we currently have.
24fps seems to have been fine for the last 90 years of film making. And for the record, ‘home cameras’ aren’t ‘better’ than ‘what we currently have’. A whip pan mixed with fast cutting will still be dizzy inducing.
black and white was fine for years…
so was SD TV
so was Mono
So was stereo
times change
having said that i will wait and see. lots of people saying it feels odd to watch but until i see some 48fps material on a decent screen i withhold judgement.
You’ve already seen 48fps – on your TV.
The reason Peter Jackson & James Cameron are pushing for this can be summed up in one word – 3D. 48fps throws more light onto the cinema screen so dull looking 3D is improved. Most cinemas will be showing 24fps.
As long as the story is good, it won’t matter one jot.