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Mad Max Fury Road: Smooth Slowmo and Strobey Fast Action
I figured I’d ask this here as well as it could be an editing question even more than a cinematography one.
On mad max I found this quote:
Something like 50 or 60 percent of the film is not running at 24 frames a second, which is the traditional frame rate,” said Seale. “It’ll be running below 24 frames because George, if he couldn’t understand what was happening in the shot, he slowed it down until you could. Or if it was too well understood, he’d shorten it or he’d speed it up back towards 24. His manipulation of every shot in that movie is intense.”So, it says he decided in post to either slow or speed the frame rate.
What frame rate do you think they shot in to be able to have the option to do both?
I’ve like scoured the Internet and can’t find any consistent opinions on this.
I’ve shot some test footage at 24fps and interpreted it to like 26-33 and get the nice sped up choppy effect. But if I decided I wanted to instead slow the action and still export it at 24 it wouldn’t be smooth slow motion cause the clip only had 24 frames per second to work with.
So here is where I’m confused. If I wanted the option to slow down OR speed up could I just shoot the entire thing in 60 or higher?
1. Would I be able to interpret it at like 70fps to get the choppy motion in a 24p sequence or would it not look the same as native 24?
2. Would the 60 fps footage I didn’t alter the speed on look bad because of premiere frame dropping to get it to 24fps? -
10 Replies
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[Jon Shank] “What frame rate do you think they shot in to be able to have the option to do both?”
You don’t shoot for both. If you have a super cool slowmo shot that is planned in advance and shot with gear that will enable that.
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But it says he decided in post… Not during shooting
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If you are shooting high speed footage it will be played back at the frame rate needed. If you need a slowmo shot at 240 fps then you shoot that at the required frame rate and run it at 24 so it will be ten times slower. Because it has all the frames it needs for slow motion it’ll be smooth.
One doesn’t shoot a whole movie at high speed. That would require insane amount of data and a very patient post house.
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Here’s a 2 hour talk about the shooting process: https://vimeo.com/127381179
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I have a camera that shoots at 120 and I know how slow motion works.
I also know the actual frame rates it’s just MUCH quicker to use the simplified number as most cameras do in their menus. Strictly for practical typing purposes lol.
Now say I had 60fps
I just found this equation ehich would allow me to export at 23.976 instead of 60 to keep a cinematic look.
X = Frame Rate you shot at
Y = Desired frame rate look
Z = Speed multiplier.First I would interpret my 59.94 to 23.976.
Now say I wanted it to be mad maxy and look like it was shot in 21fps for that quick Strobey effect.
X= 59.94
Z=21
Solve for Y.If I take my conformed footage and multiply the speed by 285% (59.94 divided by 21) it should have that under cranked look right?
I’m gonna test this later today.
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If I did export at 60 like you said and wanted to do the frame rate conversion in AE how would you do that? Say 15 like in your example. Would I just speed it up 4 times in AE, render it, then put it back in the 60 timeline.
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Oh nice, thank you!!
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[Jon Shank] “Now say I wanted it to be mad maxy and look like it was shot in 21fps for that quick Strobey effect.”
The shutter angle also plays a big part in getting that strobe look since you can use the shutter to increase/decrease motion blur, and 24fps is such a low frame rate that w/o enough blur the motion will look very choppy.
[Dave LaRonde] “Here’s how to make 15 fps footage out of 60 fps footage:…”
How does that method compare to using the Interpret Footage setting in PPro (which allows you to tell PPro what frame rate to play the footage back at)?
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[Andrew Kimery] “is such a low frame rate that w/o enough blur the motion will look very choppy.”
Bingo. Shutter angle has a HUGE effect on the perceived choppiness of a scene. Some famous examples include the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan and some of the action scenes in Spike Lee’s Inside Man. Both shot at 24fps, but with a very tight shutter.
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[Dave LaRonde] ”
If you use AE’s interpret footage settings, and you type in a new frame rate, you CONFORM footage.”Ah, right. I got my wires crossed reading the post.
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