Stranger Things creator says turn off “garbage” settings • Hacker News Board

Re: Stranger Things creator says turn off “garbage” settings

#831

Post by account42 » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 12:21 PM UTC

echelon wrote: post #200

PunchyHamster wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The choice wasn't intentional, it was forced by technology and in turn, methods were molded by technological limitation. What next, gonna complain resolution is too high and you can see costume seams ? The film IS the burger, you said it yourself, it shows off where the movie cheapened on things. If you want a steak you need steak framerate

> The choice wasn't intentional, I'm a filmmaker. Yes, it was. > What next, gonna complain resolution is too high and you can see costume seams ? Try playing an SNES game on CRT versus with pixel upscaling. The art direction was chosen for the technology. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jh2ssirC1oQ > The film IS the burger, you said it yourself, it shows off where the movie cheapened on things. If you want a steak you…

> The art direction was chosen for the technology.

And it's time for the art direction of films to take advantage of modern technology just like we have games made for HD resolutions toady - including ones that are made to evoke the feel of older systems while smoothing off the rough edges.

> You don't need 48fps to make a good film. You don't need a big budget either.

And you don't need HD resolutions either, but they do make it look even better - and so do high frame rates when the production is up to it.

Re: Stranger Things creator says turn off “garbage” settings

#832

Post by account42 » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 12:24 PM UTC

Zak wrote: post #639

UltraSane wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

24fps was never an intentional choice but more of a compromise for economic reasons.

Anyone choosing 24 FPS with a digital workflow is absolutely doing it intentionally. Part of that may be historical reasons or matching expectations, but it's also a factor in some of the illusion that goes into movies.

Not true in all cases - for example Blu Ray doesn't support 48 FPS which is probably the reason why we never got high frame rate home video releases of The Hobbit and Avatar rather than the directors thinking that we should see those movies in 24 FPS when at home.

Re: Stranger Things creator says turn off “garbage” settings

#833

Post by account42 » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 12:25 PM UTC

Zak wrote: post #740

UltraSane wrote: post #726

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had the same issue with when TV switched to HD. It is a bad argument.

I agree in part. I'd like to see movies shot at higher framerates if and only if the filmmaker can actually pull off a good result, but I suspect it isn't always viable.

I suspect it's almost always viable without much or any additional effort.

Re: Stranger Things creator says turn off “garbage” settings

#834

Post by mrbadguy » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 7:10 PM UTC

eudamoniac wrote: post #774

mrbadguy wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, the idea that there’s anything “objective” about art is kind of hilarious. Yes, it may be technically better in that there are more frames but does it make a more enjoyable film?

It's not kind of hilarious, it's actually the default mode of thinking for the entirety of human culture until the mid twentieth century. Thousands of years of great thinkers would have found the postmodern idea that all art is subjective to be, if not hilarious, then disturbing in its wrongness.

You’re right. My point was more about the idea that “higher frame rate = better movie because the number is objective” rather than “all art is subjective”. In other words, I don’t think we should try to value art on narrow physical axes. I’d like to think that the people you’ve mentioned would agree on that. The traditional notion of “objectively beautiful art” isn’t tied to technocratic things like that and, for what it’s worth, I agree with it.