Eric Westphal is eyeon's
New Senior Product Manager
"No, that's not German, I'm just tired of
the fascination the industry has with 1920s
technology. What is it about blurry, shuddering
cinema that's so consistently
attractive?
Edison, who first started using 35mm film
in 1892, originally favoured 46fps - "anything
less will strain the eye" - and his main rival's
camera typically shot at 40fps. However, due to
the slow and expensive film stocks of the day,
directors frequently shot at slower speeds - often
varying the speed within the same shoot! In 1915,
a projectionists' handbook declared, "One of the
highest functions of projection is to watch the
screen and regulate the speed of projection [by
hand-cranking] to synchronise with the speed of
taking", though exhibitors regularly sped up the
film to fit more reels in. Silent films often went
as low as 16fps, but with the advent of "talkies"
formats using optical sound strips on the film,
cinematographers were forced to standardise on a
consistent speed:
24fps."
