Mission: Impossible – Fallout duo Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie posted an urgent message on Twitter last night from the set of Top Gun 2. Some late casting news, perhaps? Had a wild-eyed Kenny Loggins turned up to set with a fishing rod and a chicken? No, something far more urgent needed to be addressed: motion smoothing. The default setting on your telly that makes everything look like an episode of Eastenders needs to chuff off for good, and Cruise and McQuarrie want to play their part.
“If you own a modern high-definition television, there’s a good chance you’re not watching movies the way the filmmakers intended, and the ability for you to do so is not simple to access,” Cruise explained in the Public Service Announcement, before McQuarrie suggested ways that motion smoothing could be turned off.
Motion smoothing, occasionally referred to as ‘interpolation’ is supposed to be a cool option, according to manufacturers. It prevents blurring! Which is all well and good if you’re watching the footie, but not so great when you’re watching a film on an evening. Adding frames to the picture usually just ends up making you feel like you’re in a room with the actors, and not in a good way.
You can watch the full video below…
Cruise and McQuarrie aren’t the first people in the business we call show to long for the demise of motion smoothing – Christopher Nolan, Rian Johnson and Paul Thomas Anderson have all publicly wailed on the HDTV function in the past.
Twitter has already had a lot of fun responding to Cruise and McQuarrie’s plea, naturally…