April 21, 2018

Understanding Dan Harmon’s Story Circle Through the Lens of ‘The Dark Knight’

Even an ostensibly complex story like “The Dark Knight” follows the simple curve of the Story Circle.

Story structure can be a difficult beast to tame, namely because it’s hard to know which structure is “best.” In one ear, screenwriting gurus are telling you to follow one of a million storytelling formulas and in the other ear, naysayers are telling you to ditch formulas all together and ride your story bareback through the wilderness of unblemished narrative freedom.

The short answer: do whatever you want. Personally, I like a story structure that is easy for me to navigate so I don’t get lost when adding all of the necessary elements and one that I’ve come across that has sated my craving for simplicity is Dan Harmon’s Story Circle, which is basically a simplified version of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth.

How simple is it? Well, in this video, StudioBinder broke down Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight to reveal how a seemingly complex plot can actually adhere to the “rules” of Harmon’s uncomplicated 8-step story structure template. Check it out below:

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Source: NoFilmSchool

April 21, 2018

6 In-Camera Transitions That Are a Cinch to Pull Off

Got a camera? Is it in your hand? Then you’re ready to do some super easy, super stylish in-camera transitions.

Simple cuts can not only be boring, they can also eat up a lot of screen time as you try to breadcrumb your way to that editorial sweet spot. That’s where in-camera transitions come in. They’re stylish, exciting, and cinematically economical ways to go from one shot to the next. Plus, they’re really simple to pull off. In this tutorial, Kellan Reck shows you six easy in-camera transitions that even the noobiest noob can do. Check out the video below:

Even though the traditional cut is going to make up 99% of all of your transitions, these in-camera transitions are a great way to add a little flair and pizazz to your work. The best thing about them, especially for those who are just starting out, is that they’re so easy to do with just a few motions of your hand and don’t require you to add a bunch of post-production effects to make them work.

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Source: NoFilmSchool

April 20, 2018

‘Phantom Cowboys’: How a Filmmaker Grew Alongside the Subjects He Documented

In parts of America long ignored, a filmmaker found stories worth telling.

For many of us longing to reflect on our adolescent upbringing, we take to old photographs, home video footage, elementary school essays, and dusty journals. We’re desperate to connect who we became with who we were; a narrative throughline with indicative hints must exist, right? What would we tell our former selves? To follow our dreams? That things work out? To stress less? To work harder? What if we had no choice in the matter at all?

Daniel Patrick Carbone’s Phantom Cowboys, an elegiac documentary that quietly invokes those questions via three young men living in different parts of the United States, offers cumulative evidence rather than concrete answers. Life does the same.

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Source: NoFilmSchool

April 20, 2018

Watch: 4 Iconic Camera Moves that Define ‘Breaking Bad’

This video looks at four trademarks that gave the series a uniquely hypnotic aesthetic.

When people talk about the legacy of Breaking Bad, one name usually comes up: Vince Gilligan, the series’ creator, writer, director, and showrunner. But the series, as famous for its cinematic aesthetic as its Shakespearean storyline, had another titanic creative force: DP, Michael Slovis.

Slovis arguably played an equal role in shaping Bad, which was one of the most stylized TV series ever to hit airwaves. This video from ScreenPrism looks at four trademark camera moves from the series, dissecting how they worked with the show’s existential themes to create a unified work of American art.

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Source: NoFilmSchool

April 20, 2018

Oculus wants to stretch your skin to see what it feels like to be human

In patents filings made public this week, Oculus describes a couple different technologies that could make its virtual reality even more immersive. The patent filings describe simulating touch with a “skin stretch” instrument

The post Oculus wants to stretch your skin to see what it feels like to be human appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source: Digital Trends VR

April 20, 2018

Ray Kurzweil’s “The Power of Ideas to Transform the World is Accelerating” Featured Session at SXSW 2018 [Video]

“The strategy that makes the most sense is to try to practice the values that we espouse and hold dear in our social and political systems to begin with. . . AI is really an amplification radio of human judgements, human policies, and human ideas.”

At the 2018 SXSW Featured Session, The Power of Ideas to Transform the World is Accelerating editor-in-chief of Mashable, Jessica Coen, leads a conversation with optimistic futurist and a Director of Engineering at Google, Ray Kurzweil, about the rapid advancement in technology that we are experiencing across all fronts, but notably in artificial intelligence.

Much of the conversation focuses on Kurzweil’s optimism about future technologies, and many of Coen’s questions provide a platform for Kurzweil to elaborate on the mental, physical, and economical labor that technology already performs and the great potential of these technologies in the near-future. Kurzweil’s prediction in the late 90’s that AI would pass the Turing test, an intelligence test for a computer, by 2029 provides a prime example of his ambitious stance on the speed of technological development. From this viewpoint, he discusses how other emerging technologies will potentially affect the human experience over the next 30 years.

“When this teenager in Africa spends $75 for a smartphone, it counts as $75 of economic activity, despite the fact that it’s literally a trillion dollars of computation and communication circa 1965, a billion dollars circa 1980. It has millions of dollars of free information apps. . . one of thousands is an encyclopedia much better than the one I spent thousands of dollars for as a teenager. . . we don’t count all these fantastic productivity gains, because a dollar is still a dollar.”

Watch the video above for the full 2018 SXSW Featured Session The Power of Ideas to Transform the World is Accelerating, where innovative futurist and author Ray Kurzweil talks about the accelerating pace of technological advancement and previews his upcoming book Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine. Learn from a diverse group of thought leaders at SXSW – browse more 2018 Keynotes, Featured Sessions, Red Carpets, and Q&A’s on our YouTube Channel.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and SXSW News for the latest SXSW coverage, recaps, announcements, and stay tuned for information on SXSW 2018.

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2018 Teaser Photo by Jesus Aleman

The post Ray Kurzweil’s “The Power of Ideas to Transform the World is Accelerating” Featured Session at SXSW 2018 [Video] appeared first on SXSW.

Source: SxSW Interactive

April 20, 2018

Gaming is just the beginning. Here are 8 innovative ways VR is being used today

Steven Spielberg’s movie adaptation of Ready Player One is introducing virtual reality to a whole new audience. Want to know how VR is being used in the world right now? Here are eight ways.

The post Gaming is just the beginning. Here are 8 innovative ways VR is being used today appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source: Digital Trends VR

April 19, 2018

SXSWfm 2018 Showcasing Artist Interview: The Marías

At SXSW 2018, SXSWfm was given the opportunity to interview Los Angeles indie band The Marías. Before their show at Palm Door, Maria, Josh, Edward, Jesse, and Carter discussed how the band formed, musical inspirations, and how they are similar to a smoothie. Read an excerpt of the interview below, and listen to it in full on our Mixcloud.

Listen to SXSWfm Interview with The Marías

The Marías Interview Highlights

Is this your first time at SX?

Maria: It is. It’s The Marías first time at SX.

What brought you guys here? Why was it important for you guys to come?

Maria: I think we just kind of wanted to branch out from LA. We haven’t played a lot of shows outside of LA and this is out first tour. And Austin and SX just seem like the perfect stop along our tour, and it’s just great being here with all of the other artists. We are excited to play.

Let’s take it back. How did you guys meet and form?

Carter: I can speak to meeting Maria. It was super serendipitous. I had just moved to Los Angeles from New York and was scrambling to find stuff to do out here. And I had done some teaching and Maria hit me up on reverb.com or something. I had put “I can teach theory! I will teach you theory!” It wasn’t quite that desperate, but it didn’t scare Maria off. It was a couple lessons in and she said “my boyfriend and I are putting a band together, do you know anybody that plays bass?” And I was like “well yeah I do – I could be definitely down.” And then going up and meeting Josh was like it was an instant hook up for me. I remember “Only In My Dreams” was the first song I had heard and we played just the three of us and I was like, oof – I have to be a part of this.

Edward: I actually met Maria when I moved back from New Orleans four years ago at a chance meeting through a mutual friend. And I’ve known Josh since the beginning of high school, and a year after I met Maria, Josh ended up bringing her to one of our friends houses. So that was a coincidence. And then Jesse I’ve known since high school, and I met Carter when we started the band.

Maria: I was playing a solo show at this place called The Kibitz Room next to Canters Deli in Los Angeles. Josh was running sound, and afterwards, he came up and said that he really liked the set the songs and that he wanted to record some of them. So we got together and then the rest is history.

Jesse: Josh and I had been playing in bands since we were ten, so that’s just something we’ve been doing for a long time. And then all of the other stories you just heard happened, and then this band formed about a year and a half ago.

How would you describe your sound to new listeners?

Maria: Somebody had asked us if we could describe our music as a fruit, what would we pick? And we picked passionfruit.

Why?

Maria: Because it’s really tasty. I said guava and passionfruit. But I think [our music] is just really dreamy and psychedelic, but also funky and bringing all of our… influences together to make it something special.

Josh: Taste is definitely the main adjective I would [use to] describe The Marías. It’s a group effort to blend sounds together, rather than “Yeah my tone’s fucking awesome. I don’t know what he’s doing over there, but my tone is great.” There is none of that. It’s really just all of us together, blending our tones.

Carter: We’re a smoothie.

A passionfruit, guava smoothie.

Tune in to hear the full interview with The Marías below. Keep checking our Mixcloud page in the coming weeks as more interviews with 2018 SXSW Showcasing Artists are released. You can listen to SXSWfm 24/7 via our online player.

Listen to SXSWfm Interview with The Marías

2018 Showcasing Artist, The Marías – Photo by Shelby Magness

The post SXSWfm 2018 Showcasing Artist Interview: The Marías appeared first on SXSW.

Source: SxSW Music