Crank2 Is Shooting With Cheap Digital Cameras
Did you like “Crank”, a movie about poisoned man who has only an hour to live unless he keeps his adrenaline going? So a few days ago “Crank: High Voltage” production started. And I was really surprised to know that crankteam is using store bought cheap digital cameras to shoot the film.
Actually they are using the Canon XH-A1 ($3,300) and the Canon HF10 ($900) as primary ones, and all action scenes they are going to film with nearly 12 cams.
As Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, film directors, said, they will put cameras in unusual places so that the film will obtain its famous crazy visual style.
The main pros of that using simple HD cam are their lightness and inexpensiveness. Mark and Bryan can put, let’s say, ten of these cameras in places where professional cameras won’t suit, or move the cameras in outrageous ways with the risk to destroy them and not to worry about expenditures.
Directors claimed they are using these cams to perform innovative and striking tricks and methods of shooting to make it look not like home video, but like a movie you’ve never seen before! They love the fast digital shutter and shooting with negative 3 gain to create aggressive look that would scare anyone.
That’s pretty cool way to move faster with these light cheap digital cameras. Mark and Brian love red mode of that cams, and they compare a 35mm film, where you need a ton of AC’s with a lot of time for set up and the cameras they are using. With the ability to simply point and shoot the team has the same image quality as on “Crank 1”.
That will be very interesting to see the result. HD 1920 x 1080 resolution makes me wonder.
The investigation was held by Collider.com
Latest Old Fashion Trends In Graphic Processors – Harmonium
This thing is old-fashioned and modern at the same time. This thing is so gorgeous that it makes me feel great fascination and pleasure when I view it. The Harmonium is an old fashion trendy mechanical computer, which was designed to draw and analyze sine wave curves.
64-year-old Dutch inventor Tatjana van Vark turned this complex gadget into life. She has been building complex gadgetry since she was 14 (first creation was oscilloscope).
This magnificent gadget has two capabilities. The first one is a mechanical sine generator, with the help of which it draws a sine wave curve onto a paper drum. The only thing you have to do is to feed in the amplitude and phase angle and it performs its favorite function of scrabbling away.
The Harmonium’s second ability is a bit more complicated: it has a mechanical integrator that can be used to trace the sine curve and make straight analysis to extract the phase and amplitude of the curve, demonstrated on two dials. I said that it’s a bit complicated for cognition, so let’s summarize that this elegant Harmonium can perform a function of a $100 graphing calculator with a some thousand dollars of precision engineered metal. You can investigate van Vark’s site for more fascinating and brainstorming photos.
The whole-part picture shows three main components:
- the sine wave generator (top right)
- the mechanical integrator (top left)
- the paper drum (on the bottom)
View latest old fashion trends at van Vark’s site
Hottest Weekly News, Brightest Gadget Views
Here is the list of this week’s hot news. All the news are sorted out to provide you with the latest reviews on striking up-to-date hot issues of gadget world from world’s famous sites. Keep yourself informed and enjoy these speedlinks:
Lightning Review: LG Vu for AT&T
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/281697099/lightning-review-lg-vu-for-att
LG’s Vu, a multimedia touchscreen phone that launches AT&T’s mobile TV service, and one of the two biggest phones to debut at CTIA.
Upcoming Xbox 360 Skateboard Controller Lets You Shred, Fight The Man, Retake Geometry For the Third Time
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/281683409/upcoming-xbox-360- skateboard-controller-lets-you-shred-fight-the-man-retake-geometry-for-the-third-timeActiga’s partnering with Microsoft to make officially sponsored third-party wireless peripherals, the first of which is a skateboard controller.
Kohler Fountainhead Toilet Makes Crapping So Luxurious You Won’t Even Want to Wipe
This Kohler Fountainhead toilet looks so not like a conventional toilet that we’ll probably have second thoughts about putting our asses on it and letting fly.
Japanese Somela Fast Dehydrator Sucks Water From Clothes With Your Help
This Somela Fast Dehydrator, seems to be a quick and fairly easy way of drying your clothes in a trash can-sized appliance.
Hard Drive Crusher: How Much Would You Spend to Secure Your Data?
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/281617628/hard-drive-crusher -how-much-would-you-spend-to-secure-your-dataWe all know that sensitive data left on a discarded hard drive can be a security risk, but would you be willing to drop upwards of $11,500 on a machine that ensures its destruction?
Paper GPS May Be Simplest “SatNav” System Ever
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/281405040/paper-gps-may-be -simplest-satnav-system-everAvailable on the Perpetual Kid website, this paper GPS is the perfect sat-nav system for technophobes, or people who lose the chargers to their GPS.
Sneakers Get Smelly in New Way, as Wi-Fi Sniffers
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/281384813/sneakers-get -smelly-in-new-way-as-wi+fi-sniffersDesigner Stefan Dukaczewski’s sneakers join the line of wearable Wi-Fi detectors next to the T-shirt and wristwatch, winning the title of strangest so far.
Steam Powered Electronic Newspaper Makes Us Ask If This is Really Necessary
Does the world really need another steam powered anything? And if it does, would an electronic newspaper be the most appropriate thing to be steam powered?
Jumplay: Double Dutch for the New Millennium
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/280398874/jumplay-double-dutch-for-the-new-millennium
We have all seen those gadgets that display the time or a message using a rapidly oscillating wand fixed with tiny LEDs. However, only designer Jacky Wu was clever enough to apply this technology to a jump rope.
Question of the Day: Hotel Porn Or Bring-It-Yourself Porn?
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/279723687/question-of -the-day-hotel-porn-or-bring+it+yourself-pornToday’s Gizmodo writers’ conversation inevitably turned, as it always does, toward pornography. Jesus brought up the very interesting observation that in this day and age, with iPods and portable media players and laptops and portable hard drives, what kind of person still orders hotel porn?
The 10 Worst HDTV Ripoffs Explained
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/279618012/the-10-worst-hdtv-ripoffs-explained
If you are planning on picking up an HDTV in the near future, HD Guru’s list of the 10 worst HDTV ripoffs for 2008 is required reading—pure and simple.
Portable medical scanners built to interface with cellphones
http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/282016442/
You know those elephant-sized medical scanners? Totally amazing machines, sure, but things like that aren’t apt to be shipped into obscure jungles throughout Africa.
Sony TG3E: world’s smallest 1080i camcorder unboxed, sized-up with 720p champ
http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/281990984/
Get a load of what just arrived at the doorstep of our European HQ — the world’s smallest 1080i camcorder, Sony’s TG3E.
Hitachi’s 1.5 UltraThin LCD HDTVs now available in US
http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/281727884/
You heard it right — Hitachi’s UltraThin 1.5 family that caused such a stir at CES is finally available for US consumers.
Robometer concept device promises to help you feel happy
http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/281571778/
Detecting emotional cues is hardly a new endeavor, but this so-called Robometer concept device takes a slightly different (but not entirely unique) approach to things, with it actually promising to help you feel happy by prompting you when you stray too far into tediousness.
Devotec’s portable Solar Charger is minuscule, pretty cheap
http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/281487075/
We know, it’s tiresome scouring the streets for an AC outlet when you’ve got oodles of sunshine surrounding you.
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/05/strike_a_sweet.php
Music and sculpture are rarely blended so beautifully, as with this boombox built into the body of a double bass by artist David Ellis.
$12,000 is too much to pay for a CD player shaped like a UFO
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/05/12000_is_too_mu.php
Look, I can kind of understand how some audiophiles justify spending a lot of money on fancy audio equipment, but don’t they realize that the CD is a dying format?
Cuckoo Bunker Wall Clock makes tacit anti-war statement
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/04/cuckoo_bunker_w.php
What better way to decorate your arty abode during wartime than hanging up this Cuckoo Bunker Wall Clock by Joseph Barakat for Diamantini Domeniconi?
40-Foot Big LED Screen TV Outdoors At A Show, Biggest Ever
Big Moving Pictures Inc. (BMP), a rolling television network, signed a unique agreement according to which the production of the largest mobile LED screen displays will be triggered.
Those megascreens will be under 40 feet wide by 22 feet high. And that is more than 40% larger than current screens. They are the first big screen LED tv displays to provide full HDTV resolution outdoors. So the hope is lost to play games on it.
The largest events in the United States and Canada will be provided with such big TV screens to enhance the audience experience at air shows or open-wheel auto races.
Basically, the brightest Light-Emitting-Diode (LED) technology combined with the biggest and most powerful screen solution is an evolution of the video display systems, already used in stadium rock concerts.
40 percent bigger and 200 percent brighter, big screens will be able to withstand rigors of tough environment, like airways, oceanfront pierce and be placed in the water to bare water flow and high winds.
The Big Moving Pictures developed a true HD display for ultra-bright and contrast viewing at an outdoor event, using the 720P high definition standard supported by such respectful broadcast networks as ABC, Fox, or ESPN, where better imaging for sports is essential.
MEGASCREENS weigh 66,000 pounds and are hydraulically operated and trailer-mounted for rapid deployment and maximum portability.
The time from arriving onsite to displaying video is estimated to be an hour, done by a single technician.
Image area sizing of 39.4′ wide x 22′ high in 16:9 aspect ratio will be used for 720P HDTV signals.
Digital laser-based microwave or fiber optic cabling systems will accomplish HD transmission to the screen.
Brightness range will be up to 10,000 NITS with 15 mm LED element pitch.
Spider Military Robots With Abilities Impossible For Human
BAE Systems came up with something really terrific and disgusting, but effective. If you are afraid of spiders, you’d better pray that war with multiple spider robots won’t start ever, because spider-like robots are going to constitute army anyway.
BAE Systems happened to received an investment of 38 million dollars from the US Army Research Laboratory to finance the Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology (MAST) campaign. A team of scientists and researchers is working on developing “multifunctional collection of miniature intelligence-gathering robots” to operate in places dangerous for human beings.
Robotic platforms have extended warfighter’s senses and operate with abilities impossible and even deadly for humans. MAST will develop fundamental science and tech for future robotic systems in sensing, processing, small-scale aeromechanics, ambulation, communications, systems architectures, navigation and control, integration and so on. The Alliance plans to do researches and turn them into practice for five years with an option to extend have additional five years.
In 2000 BAE had already made money in Britain and Saudi Arabia and bought up Lockheed Martin’s electronics and Info Systems in North America for 1.3 billion dollars. And now these companies do the MAST work in collaboration with top US universities. But transporting such technology throughout BAE would be enjoined. That is supposed to preserve valuable US military tech from overseas export.
That electronics may soon be used by the UK military, so the firewall will be bypassed anyway according to a planned treaty, but any other transport procedures are to be subject to US export controls. Many BAE products are sold outside the UK and US, so not much of the MAST technology will be used by the parent company.
That would be not very nice from their side to let my mind face such robomonster. And it’s really dangerous to create a superior substitution to a human. I’m afraid to imagine the next war, what if… between human and robot?