Until last year, the technical aspects of film didn’t get talked about much among the general public.  That changed somewhat last year with the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which was released in both a standard 24 frames-per-second version and a 48fps version.  This brought some of film technology to the forefront of the conversation, if only for a little while (I imagine the discussion will resume this fall with the release of the 2nd film of The Hobbit trilogy).  But it started me thinking both about what is required for something to be considered a movie and how the art of film can be influenced by the different technical options open to storytellers.  There are a myriad of choices, from framerate to aspect ratio, color or black and white, sound or silent, spoken or musical, live action or animated, not to mention all of the different storytelling methods, and all of these choices have an impact on the way the story is told.

What has gotten my attention, and has me questioning what truly defines the film, is a story that is currently being told at the rate of one frame per hour, and has been ongoing since March.  It began with the simple image of two people, and has gradually grown into an epic tale of a journey for answers, all with only one frame per hour.  But here’s the twist, and the reason why people will tell me it’s not a movie: it’s from a webcomic. Continue reading →