frame rate: The rate of changing from one frame to the next, the speed at which the frames are presented to the viewer, is called the frame rate. (FPS) The speed of an action is determined by the number of frames that are used to represent that action. The speed of presentation of those frames is controlled by the frame rate (FPS). The frame rate is going to be a constant for your film so its only value is to be used as a tool for calculating screen time. You use the frame rate to convert time into frames.

“On screen” time is simply the amount of time an action is visible on the screen. “On screen” time is determined by the number of frames used to represent an action. Frame rate is only the tool we use to know that we need a specific number of frames to represent a specific amount of “on screen” time. How much screen time we want to show for an action is its speed and that translates to some specific number of frames. The more frames used to represent an action the slower the action appears and conversely the fewer frames used to represent an action the faster the action appears, because it is on the screen less time. You don’t change the frame rate to control the speed of an action. You change the number of frames used to represent the action.

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