News From Here & There

Sony PMW-F3 for Stereoscopic capture
Seems there's been debate about whether shallow-depth of field could be used for 3D movies:

...anything that is out of focus in a movie in 3D, will actually attract the audiences attention, who’s eyes and brains, after a quick scan give up and move on. If this occurs often enough in a movie it can lead to headaches from mild to extreme, depending on the audience

But then someone made TRON, and now it's been decided that yes, you can!

TRON was shot using the Super 35mm chipped Sony F35 camera, but the much cheaper Sony PMW-F3 has a chip with the same dimensions - it's not the same chip - and can produce the same depth-of-field results.

Real Vision got to demonstrate shooting stereoscopic 3D with the PMW-F3.

The Sony F3 camera has a few more enhancements that are ideal for stereoscopic 3D movie making, and will be shortly enabled simply my software and/or feature updates. Full 4:4:4 output and 3D link are just some of them

RealVision: Sony’s PMW F3 brings Depth of Field to Stereoscopic 3D movie making



Another Roger Deakins Interview
Seems everyone is interviewing Roger Deakins, and here's Movie Lines:

If I had a digital option when we started True Grit I’m not sure I would have shot it digitally, just because of the nature of the film. But I don’t know, it’s a real transition now. I don’t personally think film emulsion is going to be used for very much longer at all. I know people have been saying that since — well, since I started in the business — but I really think this year and next year will be it, really.

MovieLines: Roger Deakins on His True Grit Oscar Nod and the End of Film: ‘Next Year Will Be It’



Slow Motion using Adobe Premiere and After Effects
Björn Gramm did a short slow motion test with Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 (Time Remapping) and After Effects CS5 (Timewarp). The Source Video was short with a Canon 5D Mark II @29,97 fps

His conclusion is that the Timewarp offers the smoother motion, but it produces some more or less weird motions in the video. Time Remapping (frame blending on) in Premiere Pro just isnt that smooth.

Looking at the 720p on YouTube, I found the distortion going on in the background with the After Effects clip very distracting. I think I'd rather use the Premiere clip.
Twitter: Björn Gramm
YouTube: Slow Motion Test: Adobe Time Remapping vs. Timewarp



Panasonic AG-AF100 not as sharp as GH2?
We already knew that the GH2 video was sharper than the video from Canon's DSLRs, and that the Panasonic AG-AF100 was better than the Canon's too...but I think we all assumed the GH2 and AG-AF100 would be identical or very similar. Surely if one was better, it'd be the AG-AF100?

But the German website Slashcam shot some test charts, and they found that the GH2 was sharper than the AG-AF100.
EOSHD: Panasonic GH2, AF100 pixel peeped - AF100 loses



More Sony PMW-F3 Footage
James Houk has posted a video shot with the PMW-F3 using 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm LOMO primes. Some grading was done.
Vimeo: PMW-F3 Test Footage with Karen Waldrup
http://vimeo.com/groups/70448/videos/19912416