the rhythm of film

film runs at 24 frames per second. I'm trying to really learn how fast this is.

24 frames = 1 second

12 frames = 1/2 second

6 frames = 1/4 second

3 frames = 1/8 second

1 frame = 1/24 second

1 second (or 24 frames) can be thought of as 60 bpm (beats per minute) because at 60 bpm you get 1 beat per second, or 60 beats in a minute.

In this same way, you could say that every 12 frames hits at 120 bpm because the beat hits twice per second. So if I need 1/2 second accuracy in my planning, I can use a metronome running at 120 bpm.

To get 1/4 second accuracy, I would set the metronome for 240 bpm. At 240, every beat would equal 6 frames worth of time. This is about as fast as I can slap my hand on my leg, so it's a good measure to plan timing with.

In the video above, I tried to express all of this in a muscial way.

Each second can be thought of as a musical 'measure'. I've represented 1 second as a whole note.

Each whole note = 24 frames

The second can be broken in half to get a beat every 1/2 second. I've represented this as a half note.

Each half note = 12 frames

The second can also be broken into quarters with a beat happening 4 times a second. I've represented this as quarter notes.

Each quarter note = 6 frames

I could break the second of time down further, into eights (eighth notes), but this would run at 480 bpm which I can't count out.

Each eighth note would = 3 frames

That's reeeeeally fast!