I have seen the future, and it plays at 48 frames per second. It may not currently be without notable flaws, but technological revolutions seldom begin as such.

This week I saw a Digital IMAX projection of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in HFR. HFR (High Frame Rate) is a marketing term for digital video projected at 48 fps (frames per second), exactly twice the current film frame rate standard of 24 fps.

As some have accurately criticized, to the unaccustomed eye this has the tendency of making the film look like a 70’s BBC TV drama or an old soap opera (that’s because rather than using film, pre-HDTV era soap operas were acquired using economically efficient video cameras which captured at a rate of 60 interlaced fields per second, or the equivalent of 30 frames per second).

During scenes populated mostly by CGI characters I often felt I was watching a cutscene from a fantasy videogame. The high frame rate also appears to reveal more potential imperfections, particularly in scenes involving actors. At times Ian Holm‘s (older Bilbo Baggins) face looked so waxy and dull I thought his makeup was applied by morticians. Makeup artists are going to have to be more stringent than ever in the HFR world. In fact, I’d say the majority of criticism attributed to the “eerie” look of this new process is an indication that all filmmaking disciplines will need to reinvent themselves to meet the challenge of the medium.

Earlier this year, when it was announced that Mondo had acquired the rights for Lord of the Rings, fans of the art house and J.R.R. Tolkien surmised that there would be a poster for released in conjunction with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, opening in theaters this Friday. Well the wait is over, and with the film hitting theaters in less than two days, Mondo has unveiled Olly Moss‘ vision of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Check out both – yes there are two – versions of the poster below.

So how do you get this “precious” poster in your hands? Well like most of the previous Mondo releases, you have to follow Mondo on Twitter to find out when the poster goes on sale. Remember Mondo could post the poster on sale at any time.

Having a huge event film in its post-production stage up until only a few days from its world premiere is not exactly unheard of in the motion picture industry, especially when it involves the completion of crucial visual effects and music. Such is the case with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which is still being worked on as its theatrical opening looms largely with less than three weeks to go before it bows on 2D and 3D movie screens across the U.S.

To give us a modest taste of the massive amounts of work that go into making The Hobbit look and sound as epic and unforgettable as it needs to be director Peter Jackson is here with the ninth in a series of video production diaries.

You can watch the video here below.

Amidst all the controversy surrounding The Hobbit High Frame Rate in 3D and decision to expand to a full-length trilogy, Peter Jackson and his team could not have seen this one coming. A report from the AP says that animal wranglers who worked on the movies claim that up to 27 animals died during the course of filming the trilogy. Jackson’s team is refuting the argument by saying that “no animals were harmed on set” and the American Humane Association, the organization which oversees animal welfare on film sets, confirms this claim, although they added that they don’t have the “jurisdiction or funding to extend that oversight to activities or conditions off set.”

A spokesman for Jackson said that while no animals were harmed on the set, there were two horses that died outside of production and that those deaths were avoidable. The spokesman said the that the production company moved quickly to improve conditions after the death of the horses and that the other animals’ deaths were from natural causes.

The animals were reportedly housed at a farm located 186 miles from the main film set and 26 miles from the soundstage that the animal wranglers claim was filled with bluffs, sinkholes, and other “death traps.”

In one month’s time audiences around the world will be taking a return trip to J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Middle-Earth via the comfort of a plush theater seat for the first time in nearly a decade when The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the opening chapter of Peter Jackson‘s eagerly-anticipated three-part adaptation of the 1937 classic fantasy-adventure Tolkien tome that would serve as the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, hits cinema screens from Oregon to Oslo. To bring this heroic endeavor to life on the big screen Jackson recruited nearly every integral member of the cast and crew that together made the LoTR trilogy the epic achievement in genre filmmaking it almost wasn’t, most prominently composer Howard Shore, who won Academy Awards for his vibrant and awe-inspiring orchestral scores to The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King.

Fans of Jackson and Shore’s previous collaborations were wondering how their latest musical jaunt through the land of wizards and monsters would sound, and most importantly how much of Shore’s compositions for the Lord of the Rings movies would be utilized for the Hobbit trilogy. They can rest easy because the score for An Unexpected Journey, which won’t be available for sale until the Tuesday prior to the movie’s opening, is now streaming for free in full online.