4 years of..

[Vin]

Some time back, someone asked whether it was worth buying “Four Years of Thunder”. Cannot recall who. I think that those who had seen it praised the original footage but were otherwise critical. The trouble with videos is that they are on television. Television has a soporific effect on one, especially at Christmas - New Year so you have to keep rewinding to pick up on what you missed. I recently used up some gift vouchers at the ABC shop and bought it. Even given the non sequential nature of my viewing, I thought that some of the original footage was terrific. I was struck particularly at how slow the combat scenes seem to be. Very enjoyable if a bit pricey.

Thanks Cam, now if I can only get my CD rom drive to work again.


Vin

About the slowness of the actual footage. A lot of early film were made at different speeds than the now standard 24 frames per second (fps). For a while, Hollywood used 20 fps as a standard, which explains the comical fast motion of some early films. However other film (non Hollywood) was shot at speeds as fast as 30 fps, which may explain the slow combat sequences. (what used to take 1 sec is now taking 1 1/4 second at 24 fps)

This explains why sometimes you'll see soldiers some times going "Over The Top" at break neck speed and at other times like they are the 6 million dollar man.

Tobias

Well actually, Tobias, 16 frames per second is normal action speed and was until the late 1940's when TV adopted 24 frames per to optimize picture clarity when broadcast and received on small screens.
The reason that early (WW-I) films were accellerated was due to the hand cranked movie cameras of the day, that were erratic.
Most 1940 era cinema cameras (I had a Bolex) used 16 for normal speed and 32 and 64 frames per second for slowing down motion.

[Phil]

Vin,
I'm the one who asked about the video "Four Years...." Thanks for the info. I haven't had a chance to buy it yet, but I thank I'm going to after all the positive feedback I've received about it. Once again Thanks!!
Phil

[Vin]

De rien, Phil

Vin