Peter Jackson has recently shown some footage of The Hobbit that has created a rather large fuss, and not necessarily in a good way. Ten minutes of footage revealed Jackson's use of a rather divisive breakthrough (more like breakdown, according to some) technology: The film is being shot at 48 frames per second, rather than the standard 24 fps. That may sound like gobbledegook, but it's actually quite easy to picture. You know that cheap-looking sharpness on some TV shows (it is sometimes referred to as the "Soap Opera effect"), where you actually feel that you are in the same room as the characters, usually saturated in blink-inducing colour? Well it looks like that. You can imagine it, can't you?

The difference is obviously quite alarming, judging by the reactions it provoked from the attendant media, with some declaring outright that "it didn't look particularly good" while others were content to hedge their bets slightly with pronouncements that judging it from the 10 minutes shown wasn't really "the right representative look at it" - more needs to be seen before the nay or the yea is fixed upon. 

I am a little wary of it myself. Obviously I haven't seen it yet, not being lucky enough to be at the Las Vegas Comic Con, but the descriptions seem to be that it's quite an intrusive and shocking effect. I love the trilogy so much, for its beauty, escapism and grandeur as much as anything else, and it seems as though this 'realistic' look will almost certainly detract from that. You may hold the example of 3D up as a template for new technologies, but I think you would be making a tiny mistake: 3D is far from accepted as successful, especially by little old me. However, I have faith in Peter Jackson. I have faith that he knows what he is doing and that his vision for Thorin, Bilbo and Smaug will be nothing short of his usual excellence.