Upcoming Tamil romantic-drama "Ore Nyabagam", being made in 2D High Frame Rate (HFR), promises to elevate visual experience, says its director V. Vignarajan about his directorial debut.
"Ore Nyabagam" is said to be the first film to use 2D HFR technology. Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" used 3D HFR when it released last year.
"Typically, films are made at 24 frames per second, but HFR allows you to shoot at 48 frames per second and even more. HFR helps in reducing the motion blur and elevates the visual experience for the audiences," Vignarajan told IANS.
"HFR is the future. It works like a flip book. If you look at images in a flip book, it's smoother and swifter. That's how the visual output will be when you shoot at 48 frames per second. The output is best experienced on the big screen," he added.
What inspired you to go use the technology?
"We wanted to do something different. That's when our digital cinema designer Balaji Gopal suggested that we shoot in HFR. We did some test shoots and were quite happy with the output," he said.
Of course, HFR technology comes with a set of challenges, but Vignarajan says it's worth it.
"HFR require more light than shooting with normal camera. This is because you lose one stop of exposure while shooting in any light and, therefore, HFR requires a little more light," he said.
He added: "HFR images need high storage space. You need three times more storage space for the images. Its editing and digital intermediate (DI) process is time consuming."
He, however, says HFR guarantees sharp, crystal clear output despite these challenges.
"It's a trade off a filmmaker should make. If your goal is to give the audiences better visual experience, then this is the technology," said Vignarajan, who is hoping to release the film by the year-end.
The film's first-look teaser has garnered a lot of attention.
"We wanted to tease the audiences with an impressive first look. We shot it at 48 frames per second and the feedback has been phenomenal. We are now working towards releasing the trailer soon," he said.
The team has kept the identity of its lead cast under wraps.
"It's a deliberate move not to reveal the identity of the lead cast. Even the first look teaser doesn't reveal their faces. We plan to reveal the identity of the lead cast soon, but until then we want to build curiosity," he added.
Shankar Tucker has been roped in to compose the music for the film, which is being produced by K. Poornachandra.