Surface Textures

A similar comparison can be made between music and film when discussing the concept that a work that is too clean lacks soul.   As recording techniques improved during the 1970's some bands made recordings that favoured a dry production sound with very little reverb.  In his book 'Perfecting Sound Forever' Greg Milner uses Steely Dan as an example of a band who spent so long perfecting their sound they ended up removing all the warmth and risked alienating the listener.  On their 1980 album 'Gaucho' they used 42 session musicians, 11 engineers and took a year to record just 7 tracks.

It was interesting to see the reaction to Peter Jackson's 48fps version of  'The Hobbit'.  This article gives a pretty good explanation of why shooting 48fps made it look too clean:

The Technium// Pain of the New

Shooting with a greater number of frames per second to give the audience more detail isn't a new concept.  Douglas Trumbull was experimenting with high frame rate shooting back in 1978 and developed a system called Showscan that projected 70mm film at 60fps.  This article makes the possibilities of HFR sound very exciting and well worth further development, especially the bit about the physiological tests carried out that showed the audience's pulse to be notably quicker when viewing the 60fps material:

The Verge// Douglas Trumbull 

I haven't seen the Hobbit but from what I read most people seem to agree that the exterior shots look spectacular at 48 but the interiors look over lit, with the sharpness highlighting the actors make up, making the sets look fake and giving the film a high definition TV look.  It sounds like it may be impossible to shoot films that will work when projected at both 24fps and 48fps  as the interiors need to be lit differently for each format so I guess the next logical step would be for a film to be made in HFR with no interior locations and filmed using only natural light.

At the other end of the scale are films that purposefully set out to degrade the picture; the Tarantino/ Rodriguez Grindhouse films, Harmony Korine's 'Trash Humpers' (above) that was shot and edited on VHS and  Pablo Larraín's Oscar nominated 'No', shot on U-matic video cameras to look like the anti Pinochet Chilean TV ads the film is about.

All of these films are testament to the fact that it is what's under the surface that really makes a film - the story, the characters and the emotion.  The way a film looks is very important but it needs to service and enrich the story and be the look that is best suited to the subject matter.  A clearer image may help make the film a more submersive experience but will not necessarily make it a better film.