As the final research project of my studies at stuttgart media university, I got really deep into the topic of Higher Frame Rate (HFR) video. The common opinion on HFR in the film industry is rather negative, as people usually connect HFR footage to a TV like, soap-opera look that is not considered "cinematic". The goal of our research project was to proof that HFR footage can indeed look very cinematic and has lots of technical advantages over the standard frame rates, especially when screening High Dynamic Range (HDR) content.
We shot a fictional short film with 100fps in two completely different visual styles: Each shot was captured twice, with a different lens, in a different aspect ratio and in post production, two different color grading versions. Then, the two final movies were each mastered in 25fps, 50fps and 100fps. In our study, we then compared the more cinematic version to the more broadcast-like version in all three frame rates. The results showed a general favor of the more cinematically shot version, with the most favored one being the 100fps master.
This proved to us that HFR video can bring benefits to the film industry and will surely play an important role in the future of filmmaking.