One of the key elements in the discussion on improving the quality of cinema and television is the augmentation of spatial resolution, which bears the promise of showing more details and even sharper images. The corresponding formats are called 4K for the cinema and UHD (Ultra High Definition) for television.
The aesthetics of the new hyper-real images can be challenging for the filmmakers as increased information density can prove disadvantageous if the audience is distracted by too many visual details and if an enhanced closeness to reality has a disillusioning effect.
To establish the fundamental questions arising from working with the 4K digital cinema format, a short film applying a complete 4K-workflow was produced. The practical experiences gained during the various production phases served to explore the problems involved, which are not merely technical but also aesthetic.
The practice based and artistic research conducted in this project showed that 4K manifests itself only partly as enhanced sharpness or as recognizable higher resolution compared to 2K. Motion artifacts, low-key situations and insufficient focus pulling considerably impair the 4K-experience of a film that is not anxiously designed to achieve 4K-quality at all costs. Therefore 4K is a rather elusive quality feature. And, as the ultra-high resolution can only be perceived in the front row seats of a cinema due to the limited human eyesight, a paradox becomes evident: The seats best suited for detecting the resolution are worst suited to cope with motion artifacts at 24fps.
OUTPUT
Conference:
- Die Unerträglichkeit der Schärfe (The Trouble with Sharpness), Zurich University of the Arts, October 26, 2013.
Short Papers (Conference Procedings):
- Iseli C. 2016. The Paradox of 4K Cinema. In: 3rd International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences & Arts SGEM 2016, Book 4, Vol. I, p. 383-392, ISBN: 978-619-7105-53-7
- Iseli C. (2014) The Trouble with Sharpness, presentation at the annual conference of the European Optical Society, September 2014 in Berlin (unpublished). The presentation included the screening of the film The Red Shoes.
- Iseli C. Die Unterträglichkeit der Schärfe, presentation at the conference "Cinematography Days" of the Stuttgart Media University (Hochschule der Medien HdM) in February 2016 (unpublished).