Peter Jackson unfazed by criticism over new technology in ‘Hobbit’ movie

Wellington: Peter Jackson, who was criticised for his movie’s new look after a 10 minute trailer showing in Hollywood, has said that it creates a more life-like picture and will be easier to watch in 3D.

The 50-year-old filmmaker, who is shooting ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ at his Stone Street studios in Wellington, has broken with the convention of shooting 24 images or frames a second and has gone to 48. When Warner Bros. showed off 10 minutes of footage this week at CinemaCon, the annual convention for theatre owners, many complained it looked more like a movie set than the atmospheric, textured world seen in ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Smaller theatre chains are complaining that the Hobbit’s technology means they will have to upgrade projection equipment. Jackson’s told Hollywood’s EW.com nobody is going to stop new technology in movies and critics will change their mind when they see the finished film. “At first it’s unusual because you’ve never seen a movie like this before,” Stuff.co.nz quoted him as saying. “It’s literally a new experience, but you know, that doesn’t last the entire experience of the film; not by any stretch, after 10 minutes or so. “That’s a different experience than if you see a fast-cutting montage at a technical presentation,” he said. What was seen in the trailer was a new experience, but it doesn’t last the entire that through the whole movie. Jackson said that at CinemaCon the critics seemed to like the trailer as it went on. “A couple of the more negative commentators from CinemaCon said that in the Gollum and Bilbo scene [which took place later in the presentation] they didn’t mind it and got used to that. “That was the same 48 frames the rest of the reel was. I just wonder if it they were getting into the dialogue, the characters and the story. “That’s what happens in the movie. You settle into it,” he added. ANI