Twenty-Four a Second
Three short lessons on the numbers inside film: frames per second, aspect ratios and black bars, and how slow motion is made.
For grown-ups, from what ReelPals teaches children at Spark & Anvil.
A sticky-note flipbook
You'll need: A pad of sticky notes, a pencil.
- On the last page draw a ball at the bottom. On each page before it, draw the ball a little higher, then a little lower: a bounce.
- Before flipping, guess how many pages a one-second bounce needs if you flip about 12 a second.
- Flip the pad with your thumb and watch the ball move. Then try drawing the steps closer together to slow it down.
A little history, and what nobody knows
Twenty-four
Silent films were shot and shown at varying speeds. When sound arrived in the late 1920s, film settled on 24 frames a second.
Why 24 and not a nearby number is not settled; accounts differ.
Source: Frame rate (Wikipedia)
The same idea at every age
- Ages 3–5Make It Grow
- Ages 6–8When Does the Film End?
- Ages 9–14Not made yet
- Ages 15–18Ease In, Ease Out
Your child will meet this idea again at every age. The tools and courses here are the part for you.