Indeed, Douglas Trumbull invented Showscan in the early 80's. It was a high FPS 65mm film process, and it resulted in a overly "real" subjective effect very muc

Indeed, Douglas Trumbull invented Showscan in the early 80's. It was a high FPS 65mm film process, and it resulted in a overly "real" subjective effect very much this article is complaining about. Showscan was demoed at some conferences and some critics (Ebert?) were big fans but it was never used for a feature film (although he tried to get the studio to use for his film Brainstorm). It was positioned against IMAX and lost (although to my eye, IMAX suffers greatly from strobing and could use a frame rate boost). But there's something else going on with the Hobbit. I watched the trailer, which is definitely not 48 fps, and more than once I got the feeling of watching an actor-on-a-stage-on-video. This might be more related to the use of RED cameras than the framerate. Using my film degree about once a year here on HN!