A blog about 3D cinema

  Background: It could be argued that the first X-Men (2000) film began the modern-day phenomena of blockbuster superhero franchises. 4 films and 2 spin-offs later into this series, X-Men: Days of Future Past arrives in 3D, directed again by the series' original helmer, Bryan Singer . This is not the first time we've seen Wolverine and his pals in 3D, so we've a lot of precedent to judge this effort against. How's the 3D in X-Men: Days Of Future Past ? Read on to find out! Native and Post-converted 3D X-Men: Days Of Future Past is a hybrid stereo film. Interior and dialogue scenes were largely shot in native 3D . Several key sequences were post-converted sequences from a mono source. Other shots are largely CGI in nature, and the responsible effects houses were able to natively render their footage to stereo. It's therefore quite a confusing film to critique. To do the job properly, one would need a shot list or production schedule. We'll do our best ...

We don't talk about 3D TV much on this site, because we're technically a site about 3D Film. This week though, serious news broke that might very well have an impact on the future of both the cinematic medium and its televised equivalent. So, we interrupt usual film-based discussion to take a brief look into 3D TV and its - now somewhat perilous - future. Post- Avatar, it seemed that movie theaters were guaranteed 3D movie-going successes. All eyes (literally) turned towards the home theater industry, to see whether TVs would be able to catch up. In the short-term at least, the holy grail was to get Avatar   3D into living rooms as soon as humanly possible. A deal was struck so that copies of Avatar would be shipped with a particular brand of TV. Other TV manufacturers were stuck hawking Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs   and a few made-for-Blu efforts. The thing the TV industry neglected to mention was that you'd only get a couple of 3D glasses with your $3500 tel...

This is a compilation of 3Defence's 3D film reviews. Hopefully the table below provides a quick resource to see all of our reviews at a glance, and also shows we're not overtly biased in one direction or the other between 2D and 3D versions of films*. Enjoy! Film Title What type of 3D? Which version to preserve? Edge Of Tomorrow Post-Converted 3D 2D X-Men: Days Of Future Past Native 3D 3 D Godzilla Post-Converted 3D 3 D The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Post-Converted 3D 3 D Captain America: The Winter Soldier Post-Converted 3D 2D Gravity Rendered 3D 3 D The Wizard Of Oz Post-Converted 3D 3 D Pacific Rim Post-Converted 3D 2D World War Z Post-Converted 3D 3 D Iron Man 3 Post-Converted 3D 2D Man Of Steel Post-Converted 3D 3 D Jurassic Park 3D Post-Converted 3D 2D Oz The Great And Powerful Native 3D 2D Life Of Pi Native 3D 3 D Bait 3D Native 3D 2D Frankenweenie Post-Converted 3D 3 D Dredd Native 3D 3 D Katy Perry: Part Of Me Both 2D The Amazing Spider-Man Native 3D ...

Today Warner Brothers released the first trailer for their upcoming epic The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug . It's filled with dramatic wide-angle shots and sword-bearing creatures leaping towards the camera. Even when viewed on YouTube, the footage looks devoid of motion-blur, very much like the 48fps HFR version will in theatres. Check out the trailer below: What do you make of the trailer? Are you excited to see an explosion of butterflies in 3D, or a waterfall scene at twice the frame rate of any waterfalls from the original trilogy? You'll be able to see the trailer in 24fps 3D this Friday, as it's likely attached to most Man Of Steel 3D prints.

Background Oz The Great And Powerful is Sam Raimi's first 3D movie. Having licked the wounds of  Spider-Man 3, Oz  marks Raimi's return to the land of gigantic budgets, tons of CGI and 'franchise friendly' material. Optimists viewed the release of Oz as an opportunity for L. Frank Baum's classic novels to be visualised in the modern age, leading to a series worthy of their reputation as American Mythology. Cynics viewed the film's existence as a greedy crash-grab by Disney, fuelled by the phenomenal +$1billion box-office success of Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland . Meanwhile, others fretted that the 1939 classic Wizard Of Oz was just as fresh today as it was then and, frankly, didn't-need-a-prequel-thank-you-very-much. So... having set the scene for audience expectations, let's dive into the 3D of Oz The Great And Powerful ! Native 3D If you fell in the 'cynic' camp of the audience, you might be surprised how little 'cash-gr...

Background Considered an 'unfilmable' book, Life Of Pi has been kicking around Hollywood for years. Despite being briefly in the hands of Shyamalan and Jeunet , the burden of adapting Yann Martel's award-winning novel eventually fell to Ang Lee. A proven master of visual effects in films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hulk, Lee seemed a good fit for the material. Eyebrows were raised though, when Lee announced he would film in native 3D; the wider industry seemed to ask, "doesn't he have enough trouble with the tiger and the ocean?" If you're after more background info. Native 3D Life Of Pi was shot using Alexa cameras on Fusion 3D rigs provided by the  Cameron Pace Group (as in, James Cameron). In charge of the film's visuals was accomplished cinematographer Claudio Miranda , whose most recent film was the similarly stunning Tron: Legacy . Between these films, his prior work with David Fincher, and upcoming film Oblivion , Mi...

If you're reading this site, you're probably savvy enough to understand what it means to watch a film with a higher frame rate. If you're interested in a real discussion about the shift in projection technology represented by the first Hobbit ( An Unexpected Subtitle Journey ), then read our post on the matter . If, however, you want a corporate-styled explanation, then feel free to read the officially released briefing below (click the image to expand)

Background: It's 3Defence's mission to chronicle the development of 3D Cinema. Dredd arrives at an interesting time in the medium's modern history: ultra-violent, reverent to the comics it's based on, filmed in native-3D on location in South Africa... it's hardly 'the norm' amongst 3D films in 2012. To make things even more interesting: Dredd was written by Alex Garland, who is fast becoming the 'go-to' writer for dark and semi-believable takes on near-apocalyptic sci-fi tales. Dredd is also probably the most kick-ass English language action film to come out along in a long time. But... how good is the 3D? Native 3D: The majority of the film was shot using Paradise FX rigs, on location and in sets in South Africa's Johannesburg and Cape Town. Digital extensions were used to transform the city into the post-nuclear-war landscape of Mega-City One, but the original footage was seamlessly integrated into this sprawling urban chaos. I...

A couple of days ago, Ang Lee unveiled his new film  Life of Pi  at the New York Film Festival. Though the film's not quite finished (Lee has another fortnight of tweaks to go, apparently) it's amazing that a version of it exists at all. There's an old Hollywood adage, that says "never make a movie about kids, animals or water," yet Ang Lee has somehow managed to make a film about all three. If an 'unfilmable' novel weren't challenge enough for him, Life Of Pi is also Lee's first 3D film. What can we expect from Ang Lee's usage of 3D? Well, for one thing, the film itself is going to be painterly. If the trailer 's anything to go by, the film is a fifty-fifty mixture of real-world footage and digitally-created backdrops. Life Of Pi 's crouching tiger is a CGI construction too, though computer-assisted characters have come a long way since Ang Lee attempted one in 2003's  Hulk . In sum, with all this digital information avai...

Background: Katy Perry now ranks amongst the best of the early-21st Century's pop stars. She ties a record with Michael Jackson for the most number one hit singles from one album, and was the first female to do so. It's been several years since she invaded the airwaves with  her hit single,  I Kissed A Girl , and now Perry is out to dominate movie theatres with her own quirky take on the doco/concert film. To do this, she's recruited  the directing team of Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz. The pair are producers on the wildly popular 'the show must go on' TV series  Project Runway , and they made Justin Bieber's 3D film  Never Say Never   in 2011. Safe to say they know how to manipulate documentary footage into a narrative! Since Katy Perry: Part Of Me 's release last week, critics have been unexpectedly kind to this particular manipulation of Perry's life and recent worldwide tour. It deftly juggles three narratives: Perry's rollercoaster of a personal...

We at 3Defence have decided that film critics aren't giving audiences enough information about the usage of 3D in modern-day cinema. As such, we've been working on an ongoing series that can help you decide whether to fork out a few extra dollars or not to see the latest and greatest blockbuster while wearing glasses. Today we're looking at The Amazing Spider-Man, the fourth webslinger film, and the first to get the stereoscopic treatment being heavily pushed by Sony. You'll notice the article below is separated by sections; we've standardised these sections, to help regular readers compare one film's usage of the 3D technique to another. Let us know if you think of anything else that'd be useful in the comments section! Native 3D: Like Prometheus , The Amazing Spider-Man was filmed using Red Epic cameras, in 'native' 3D. In 2012, we've seen a string of high-quality post-production conversions, and we were hoping that Spidey webslinging in thre...