Hello Everyone,

It’s Josh here from Loveridge Digital, this week on “Getting into it with Loveridge Digital” we are going to cover what Framerates are!

You are in the middle of your pre-production process with your chosen production company and they ask you, “What framerate would you like the delivered video to be in?” When asked this you then raise your brow as you have no clue what they are talking about! Fear not as today we will demystify what framerates are !

Essentially Framerates which can also be referred to as Frames per second or FPS is the speed at individual still images are taken by your camera. These images are referred to as “frames” hence the name framerate, The reason they are also called frames is that originally before the digital video camera era, videos were played through a projector onto a screen which essentially stored a “reel” of film which was composed of lots of frames stitched together in one long string and then played back at a certain rate by the projector to achieve what appeared on screen to be smooth motion. For those that don’t know a projector is a machine that is used to project rays of light through slides or film onto a screen.

When recording a video a minimum of 24 frames per second are required to achieve smooth motion within your video, if the number is below 24 it will appear choppy whereas if the frame rate is above 24, let’s say at 60 fps then the video can be slowed down 100% and still have smooth motion, This is why you will commonly see action cameras advertising they can shoot in a very high framerate as slow-motion is generally desired for action videos. The most common framerates that you will find are 24fps, 30fps, and 60fps each of which has its own benefits and drawbacks that are specific to your production, typically you should ask your production team which they feel is most suitable for the style and look you are going for. It is also important to note that sometimes your distribution plan will dictate your framerate, for example, if you are planning to broadcast your new piece of content on television in Europe your frame rate will need to be 25fps rather than 24fps, This is due to broadcast regulations within certain regions and varies throughout the world so it’s always important to keep this in mind.

While this may all seem like technical jargon to you, I have a very strong belief that knowledge is power and the more you know when having your video created the better informed you will be to make decisions that are not only right for you but your team.

Thank you very much for taking the time to watch the video, I hope you found it informative and engaging, until next time.