# Is the "film" look in movies mostly motion blur? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 3, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-film-look-in-movies-mostly-motion-blur/854978 "2020-06-03T13:45:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-film-look-in-movies-mostly-motion-blur/854978/41 "2020-06-05T00:48:54Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I confess I was no longer involved in the Hollywood film industry by the 1990’s, but I think you may have jumped the gun a bit. Professional movies were [recorded primarily on film](https://stephenfollows.com/film-vs-digital/) until ca. 2012, when the industry switched over to digital (50/50 in 2012). I would hate to do non-linear editing on pre-2000 computers unless I had years to kill while waiting. Unless I got turned around, you were responding to **jjakucyk** who was responding to **Ascenray** who was discussing soap operas, not film. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-film-look-in-movies-mostly-motion-blur/854978/42 "2020-06-05T00:57:45Z")
Also, Musicat, you’d be surprised how much NLE was used in films in an indirect way early on. I watched Robert Rodriquez cutting [Desperado](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112851/) in ca 1994 on a [Lightworks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightworks) system. Basically the raw footage would get telecine’d to SD video and edited, then an EDL would be produced and the film cut for the final production. Which sounds like a nightmare to me, but they made it happen. Audio was done on several Pro Tools systems then wedded to the cut film. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-film-look-in-movies-mostly-motion-blur/854978/43 "2020-06-05T00:58:08Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Unless I got turned around, you were responding to **jjakucyk** who was responding to **Ascenray** who was discussing soap operas, not film. I was responding to post #37, primarily. My film experience is pre-1990 (digital video, post-2010), and mostly in audio, not film, so don’t consider me to be an expert even tho I was formerly involved in the Hollywood industry. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-film-look-in-movies-mostly-motion-blur/854978/44 "2020-06-05T01:10:25Z")
**Squeegee,** that’s very interesting. I wonder why they used computers for editing if it was so hard and slow, and required rendering back to film for projection. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-film-look-in-movies-mostly-motion-blur/854978/45 "2020-06-05T01:41:33Z")
“American Graffiti” was shot in Widescreen 16mm (instead of using widescreen format, they used film shot in a half-height format to get low-resolution widescreen). The low-resolution projection is part of what give the film a “documentary” feel. (That, and the director selecting shots where the actors made mistakes). ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-film-look-in-movies-mostly-motion-blur/854978/46 "2020-06-05T02:08:01Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > **Squeegee,** that’s very interesting. I wonder why they used computers for editing if it was so hard and slow, and required rendering back to film for projection. Because it was incredibly cheap to do. They used a 3rd party to telecine the film (a competitive industry at that time and this was LA) then a PA would digitize it all onto hard drives. The director/editor (Rodriguez) would edit the whole thing himself in a set of scenes that would get cut (good old fashioned razor-blade style) on the original film using EDLs converted to feet+frame code. And it wasn’t slow - the lightworks system was quite sprightly (because SD) and had a dedicated edit controller peripheral; Rodriguez was incredibly good with this system, and he could cut scenes very quickly (he was seriously quick with the Lightworks control system; I saw). There was no render back to film: the film itself was cut using the edit decisions from the SD transfer. Basically offline editing. All of the post work was done in Rodriguez’ house in LA: ProTools in the living room, edit in one of the bedrooms, all the footage hung up in the garage. Rodriguez made a name for himself making his own film, [El Mariachi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Mariachi), using $7000 of his own money. It was well received and he basically became an sold himself as an advocate of better/cheaper/faster film making. Desperado was the project immediately following El Mariachi, and I guess hewed to that philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![vonespy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vonespy/32/6204_2.png) [@vonespy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vonespy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-film-look-in-movies-mostly-motion-blur/854978/47 "2020-06-05T19:27:46Z")
> [@Kedikat](#): > > Even at 60 FPS on the 4K Bluray, it is noticeably different. I didn’t notice any difference on The Hobbit. But maybe I don’t have the right discs. > > It was just an average action flick. But when I re watched it after noting the reviews. I am inclined to give it a pass as to quality of overall plot/story line. It is a more one to one character story, with a very big backstory. It would have been a much longer movie to flesh out the complicated backstory. But it might have been worth it with good writing. I just checked out Gemini Man and wow. You’re right, it’s not a great movie, but it’s stunning how different 4K60 looks vs. 4k30. Thanks for mentioning it! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-film-look-in-movies-mostly-motion-blur/854978.md?page=2)