Southend-on-Sea: Street Artist Pays Tribute To Carrie Fisher By Doing What He Does Best

Original Images via 'Your Southend' Facebook Page

I'm so glad I follow 'Your Southend' on Facebook... if not, I might have missed their post about this brilliant tribute to the late Carrie Fisher by a local street artist and I would definitely have kicked myself. 

Image via 'Your Southend' Facebook Page

This new piece of street art, from local artist John Bulley, is on the seafront and a 20-minute walking distance from where I live... I'll definitely go check it as soon as possible.

Image via 'Your Southend' Facebook Page

Anyway, I thought I would share this wonderful tribute (and masterpiece) with you guys.

Enjoy!

Loup Dargent

John Bulley - Image via 'Your Southend' Facebook Page

PS: Thanks (once again) to 'Your Southend' for the heads-up and John Bulley for his great work.

PPS: BTW, John Bulley has a website... Click here If you want to know more about this Southend based talented artist. Definitely worth a visit or two!

VR Cinema Is Here – And Audiences Are In The Drivers' Seat

In virtual reality cinema, the audience chooses what to look at and when. What does this mean for traditional narrative storytelling? Virtual reality cinema in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Sander Koning/ANP

By Adam Daniel, Western Sydney University

A new kind of cinema has come to the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood. Twelve comfy swivel chairs let the audience explore the entire 360 degrees visible through their headsets. This is proper virtual reality cinema, finally realised.

VR cinema has been a long-promised yet undelivered tease for cinephiles. The nascent boom in VR experimentation in the early 1990s was held back for decades by, among other issues, the technical limitations of creating media for this new form. In recent years, these have largely been overcome.

But what kind of cinema will emerge? Probably not traditional narrative productions: filmmakers must come up with new storytelling techniques to account for a technology that explodes the frame, placing the spectator inside the space of the film.

To explain briefly, VR cinema is filmed on a static camera that can record in 360 degrees. The unlimited perspectives of this camera allow a user wearing a headset to rotate and look at the complete 360 degrees, including along the vertical axis.

For a filmmaker, there are now new issues around such basic techniques as montage. Directors can no longer cut rapidly from image to image, compressing time and space. Audiences literally edit the film for themselves, by choosing what to look at and when.

Artists are already exploring these opportunities. Director Chris Milk’s 2015 work Clouds Over Sidra places the viewer inside the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, observing daily life. The film was made in conjunction with the United Nations to highlight the Syrian refugee crisis.

Chris Milk is the founder and CEO of virtual reality technology company, Within. Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Milk, in his March 2015 TED talk, describes how he was driven by a desire to put the viewer not just “inside the frame”, but “through the window.” This desire was driven by what he saw as VR’s capacity to accentuate human connection: VR as an “empathy machine”.

The placement of those watching inside the space of the film prompts many VR filmmakers to directly address the viewer, as either a character or a kind of objective camera in the world of the narrative.

The horror short Escape The Living Dead, for example, initially places the viewer as one of a small group of survivors fleeing a zombie invasion in the back of a jeep. It even goes so far as to transform you, the viewer, into one of the zombie horde after you are bitten during the escape.

An inner monologue (addressed to the viewers through their headset) acknowledges “I’m turning!” as your normal vision begins to blur and black out. When you come to, your perception is distorted and licked by flames, and, as you glance from side to side, you realise you are now one of them: a zombie. As such, you now mindlessly pursue the final survivor, your wife, even as she fires bullet after bullet directly at you.

Virtual reality cinema isn’t passive watching but an active experience. Charles Platiau/Retuers

This complete breakdown of the “fourth wall” has tremendous implications for conventional cinematic storytelling. As directors grapple with newly available technology, audiences can perhaps expect to see more films that create “experiences” rather than “narratives”.

One group of filmmakers, the Oculus Story Studio, has recommended that VR cinema should “let go” of trying to direct viewers’ gaze, to avoid storytelling that feels “forced, staged and artificial.”

Where many early VR projects were inclined to attempt to draw spectators’ attention to one particular part of the 360 degree world, more contemporary projects have embraced its unique facility for immersion and interactivity.

Australian artist Lynette Wallworth used this capacity to help the viewer understand the implications of nuclear testing in the West Australian desert for the indigenous Martu tribe in her beautifully executed work Collisions.

Perhaps the most powerful potential of this “empathy machine” is the possibility for cinematic projects that are able to respond to and react to the viewer’s choices.

This would require database-style narratives, where an alternative path taken by a viewer – for example, where to look and when – would have different outcomes designated by the filmmaker.

This kind of cinema becomes similar to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series, and has been experimented with in the past: 1967 Czech film Kinoautomat, for example, had a moderator who would allow the audience to make a choice between two narrative options at several points during the film. VR, however, could integrate this directly into the viewing experience based on where the viewer directs their attention.

Steven Spielberg is set to create a project solely for VR. Ian Langsdon/EPA

Experimentation in the field is continuing at a rapid pace, with Disney and Lucasfilm developing VR Star Wars projects. There has also been much speculation that Steven Spielberg, who previously signed on as an advisor with Virtual Reality Company, is making a project solely for VR.

New venues like Collingwood’s Virtual Reality cinema, which uses a custom Group VR system so the audience can see each other, as well as the film, are giving smaller filmmakers opportunities to develop and show VR work.

And the most important basic units of true VR – the immersive headsets, which need to be paired with separate hardware like a computer or phone – are becoming increasingly available to home audiences.

The commercial release of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets earlier this year, and the recent long-awaited release of the Playstation VR headset, will all undoubtedly encouraged further development in VR cinema, as will the Samsung GearVR and the upcoming Google Daydream.

Virtual reality will probably not replace conventional cinema. But it will create a whole new area of film that is less concerned about constructing a story in images. Instead, perhaps, it will be a realm where artists can immerse us inside imagined worlds in a whole new way.


About Today's Contributor:
Adam Daniel, Ph.d Candidate, Western Sydney University

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Rogue One: The Latest Star Wars Film Fuels Resistance And Protest

It’s all happening. © 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd.

By Oli Mould, Royal Holloway

This year, by most accounts, has been tumultuous. Notwithstanding the rise of far-right extremism, “Brexitrump” and the horrors of Aleppo, there have been strikes, anti-government protests and discord on the streets of many cities around the world.

The political legacies of the Arab Spring, Occupy and the 2011 UK riots are bearing fruit, and resistance to the perceived injustices of state power are intensifying. Indeed, subversive and activist groups, such as guerrilla skateboarders, an ever-growing number of anti-gentrification cells in London and the army of humanitarian volunteers in places like the Calais Jungle are proliferating. Is it any wonder then that rebellion, resistance and protest strike such a chord in contemporary popular culture?

The latest offering in the Star Wars franchise, Rogue One, gives us such a narrative. It is the first of (what will no doubt be many) “spin-off” films from the Star Wars universe. It tells the story – alluded to in the first Star Wars film in 1977 – of how a group of resistance fighters stole the plans to the Death Star from under the noses of the Galactic Empire.

AN JOr. © 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd.

Rogue One
Being once removed from the Star Wars saga, Rogue One had the freedom to dispense with the tired platitudes, cheesy star-wipe edits and homogeneous good versus evil, dark versus light tropes of the core films. With Godzilla and Monsters director Gareth Edwards at the helm, the film feels far grittier and somewhat more macabre. Edwards even had the licence to bring in, albeit briefly and somewhat unnecessarily, his trademark of a slimy, tenticular monster.

The story revolves around our hero Jyn Erso (ably played with a battle-hardened sobriety by Felicity Jones), who we see as a little girl in the prologue escaping capture from the Empire. As an older woman she is urged into joining the rebellion. She then leads a band of mercenaries on an against-all-odds heist mission to steal the plans to the Death Star and save the galaxy from the totalitarian Empire and their weapon of planetary destruction (leading some to label the film, somewhat unfairly, as “Ocean’s 11 in space”).

Edwards has skilfully produced a less cliched Star Wars film (and in the hilariously sarcastic droid K-2SO, produced the best non-human Star Wars character since Yoda), but kept the faithful happy with subtle references and the reintroduction of Darth Vader’s malevolence and fear-inducing power. One climatic scene in particular rolls back the years and rekindles some of the terror that gave Vader the accolade of the ultimate cinematic villain.

What the film does not compromise on are the spectacular visuals. Battle scenes set against tropical beaches give a World War II feel to it, and the CGI reincarnation of Peter Cushing’s Moff Tarkin is breathtaking. How the film links back into the first is done extremely skilfully, building to a quite chilling finale.

© 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd.

The faces of resistance
So Edwards has kept within the confines of the Star Wars canon, but created a narrative that complicates the clear distinction between good and evil, right and wrong. We see this particularly with the infighting among different factions of the Rebellion. After Erso’s father is taken away, she is raised by Saw Gerrera, an “extremist” who even the Rebellion have disowned. The broad spectrum of political thought that characterises subversion from and protest against contemporary state power is reflected here. Pseudo-spirituality, comical cynicism, personal grievances and lifelong idealistic struggle are all represented in the band of fighters Erso corrals to the cause.

The aesthetic alignment of the Empire (and its reincarnation of The First Order in The Force Awakens) with Nazism is proving to make the Star Wars films sadly far more prescient than they should be. The fact that Rogue One has been released now, at the end of 2016, and pits a political eclectic bunch of rebellious ideologues against a totalitarian and fascist regime, I’m sure is coincidental. But cinema, far more than any other medium, has the power to tap into, probe and catalyse tacit feelings within a society.

Rogue One stirs themes of resistance, empowerment and activism in the face of large-scale injustices, but also speaks to the political difficulties of enacting this. The amalgamation of diverse activist practice into a single political movement is fraught with difficulties: ideological differences between different groups, emotional and physical burnout, the lure of stardom and selling out, and many other pitfalls.

This is why, for me, cinema is an important resource in maintaining these practices. It can act as a shot-in-the-arm of hope and inspiration (much like Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival did, released as it was the week of Trump’s victory in the US election).

Rogue One plays on this directly with the repeated refrain that “rebellions are built on hope”. This is an important truth, one that will no doubt proliferate as the events of 2016 unfold in the coming years. Rogue One has tapped into that masterfully; and to do so in the confines of a hyper-commercialised Disney profit-fest, is an impressive feat indeed.


About Today's Contributor:
Oli Mould, Lecturer in Human Geography, Royal Holloway

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Wins 14 NAVGTR Awards

The National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers, a 501(c)(3) non-profit media organization, has announced winners for its 15th annual awards program honoring video game art, technology, and production. 

The biggest winner is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with 14 wins, falling just short of The Last of Us' record 15 wins from two years ago.  Rise of the Tomb Raider and Tales from the Borderlands were the second biggest winners with 4 wins each. 

Three games won three awards each: Star Wars Battlefront, Splatoon, and Life is Strange.  Four games won two awards each:  Super Mario Maker, Rocket League, Crypt of the Necrodancer, and Bloodborne. 

By developer, CD Projekt Red led with 14 awards.  Nintendo won six.  Telltale, Gearbox, and Crystal Dynamics won four awards each.  Other top developers were Electronic Arts, Dontnod Entertainment, Psyonix, From Software, and Brace Yourself Games. 

By publisher, CD Projekt led with 14 awards.  Square Enix and Nintendo won seven each.  Other top publishers were 2K, Telltale, Electronic Arts, Warner Bros, Sony Computer Entertainment, Psyonix, and Brace Yourself Games.

Fifty-six creative, technical, and genre award categories recognize achievement in animation, art direction, character design, controls, game design, game engineering, musical score, sound effects, writing, and more as seen at navgtr.org

This year's Honorary Award recipients are Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man, and Mark DeLoura, for developing programs for children to explore coding.

NAVGTR strongly supports the IGDA Developer Credit special interest group (SIG) at igda.org/devcredit to improve crediting practices.

NAVGTR AWARDS logo. (PRNewsFoto/NAVGTR CORP.)

The general voting body of reviewers, journalists, analysts, and writers includes contributors for such varied outlets as Austin American-Statesman, Break, Chicago Sun-Times, CNN, Futurenet, Gamespot, GamesRadar, Gaming Illustrated, Geek, IGN, Los Angeles Times, Machinima, MMO PRG, Moody's, NBC, New Gamer Nation,New York Times, Nintendo World Report, The Ottawa Citizen, PC Gamer, Polygon, Salon, San Jose Mercury-News, Terminal Gamer, USA Today, The Vancouver Sun, Wired News, and hundreds more.

SOURCE: National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers

Could A Truth Commission Have Saved The Star Wars Universe From Another Conflict?

If only Desmond Tutu were here… Lucasfilm

By James Sweeney, Lancaster University

A brutal regime is at last brought to its knees, its key leaders start fighting among themselves, and the old tyrant is killed without trial. Libya in 2011? No: the world of Star Wars at the close of Return of the Jedi.

The latest film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released last week (in case you hadn’t noticed). It is set in precisely the sort of conflicted environment that we see when contemporary totalitarian regimes collapse, be it the former Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya or Egypt.

How Star Wars' Famous Title Sequence Survived Imperial Assaults

‘A long time ago …’

By Iain Macdonald, Edinburgh Napier University

At the beginning of the Star Wars movies, that famous typographic walkway has always been essential to the experience. It both echoed the silent movie era and was filled with futuristic vision. How thrillingly disorientating to read “A long time ago …” while looking out at what was not yet possible.

The great cinematic graphic designer Saul Bass once said that he “saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it”. Star Wars is one of the great examples of what he was talking about. Not surprisingly, it reappeared in all subsequent instalments. Yet the fact that no one has managed to wreck it along the way was by no means a sure thing.

A Force Awakened: Why So Many Find Meaning In Star Wars

Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. 20th Century Fox

By Patti McCarthy, University of the Pacific

After witnessing the overwhelming popularity of Star Wars, director Francis Ford Coppola told George Lucas he should start his own religion.

Lucas laughed him off, but Coppola may have been onto something.

Indeed, the Star Wars saga taps into the very storytelling devices that have structured myths and religious tales for centuries. And with every new film, fans are able to reinforce their unique communities in a world that has grown, in many ways, increasingly isolated.

Star Wars: Made GREAT in Britain [Videos-Clips Included]

Disney, Lucasfilm and the GREAT Britain Campaign collaborate in support of British creativity, innovation and respect for copyright

This week, the UK Government's GREAT Britain campaign, Disney and Lucasfilm announced a unique collaboration that celebrates the British inspiration, creativity and innovation involved in the Star Wars saga ahead of the December 17th UK cinema release of the highly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

A series of videos featuring British icons such as Sir Richard Branson, Jamie Oliver and Jessica Ennis-Hill will profile the incredible British talent that has made Star Wars the global phenomenon it is today, celebrating almost 40 years of GREAT British filmmaking. Each video tells the story of the nation's contribution to Star Wars through pillars such as innovation (Sir Richard Branson), inspiration to future generations (Jessica Ennis-Hill) and the legacy behind the films (Jamie Oliver).

Star Wars: Escapist Fantasy Or Dream Of The Future?

© 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Right Reserved.

By Kevin Hunt, Nottingham Trent University

In certain corners of the internet a modern myth celebrates the idea that Ben Rich, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin “Skunk Works” – the legendary and highly secretive wing of Lockheed Martin concerned with aircraft development – concluded a 1993 presentation at UCLA with the blockbuster line: “We now have the technology to take E.T. home.”

How we engage with scientific and technological progress has long been influenced by science fiction. Science fiction provides a testing ground for future visions informed by areas as diverse as biological and mechanical engineering through to political, social and ethical concerns. Such visions often combine the optimistic with the pessimistic. They draw upon the genres of utopian and dystopian storytelling that date back to Plato’s vision of Atlantis.

How To Build A Real Lightsaber

David James/Lucasfilm

By Gianluca Sarri, Queen's University Belfast

As even casual Star Wars fans will know, lightsabers are probably the coolest weapon ever to make an appearance on the big screen. Lightsaber fights are so elegant that they are almost hypnotic and, even though not all of us might have a strong enough flow of Force running through our veins, a lightsaber in the right hand is by far the deadliest weapon to be found in the universe.

The idea behind a lightsaber is simple genius: a light-weight and immensely powerful tool that uses a blade of energy to not only slice up disciples of the Dark Side in a single blow but also act as an effective shield against laser blasts. So why don’t we have working lightsabers in real life? Surely physicists must be smart enough (and big enough Star Wars fans) to be able to produce one of these incredible objects.

The obvious way of building a lightsaber would be to use a laser, which can be seen as a particularly bright and directional burst of light. But even though laser technology is continuously striding towards more efficient and practical machines, we are still miles away from a working lightsaber. Let’s see why.

Secret, Immersive Cinema Is Likely To Change The Future Of Film

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back at Secret Cinema. © Mike Massaro

By Sarah Atkinson, King's College London 
and Helen W. Kennedy, University of Brighton

The soon-to-be-released Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens is tipped to be the box office success of 2015. Hardly surprising given that fans have been waiting ten years since the last installment.

A lot has changed in how films are produced and promoted in the intervening decade. Last summer, for example, there was a huge Secret Cinema Star Wars event. Their immersive The Empire Strikes Back experience sold a staggering 100,000 tickets, generating over £6 million at the box office.

Running over four months, the event brought to the fore a new form of immersive cinematic entertainment which exploded in the UK over the summer of 2015. In addition to Secret Cinema’s event, the largest season of Open Air Cinema concluded its 125 outdoor screening run. In fact, a dizzying number of organisations now turn cinema into events: in the UK these include Sneaky Experience, Floating Cinema, Sing-alonga, Rooftop Film Club and Nomad Cinema.

The Glamour Of Holography On The Silver And Small Screens

As the editor of Holography News, it's always fascinating to see the latest trends in holography streets behind the fantastical science fiction world's vision of what the technology should achieve. The interesting thing is that holographic images in films have changed from simple visions in cinema's earlier days to being clones of humanity in more recent productions, while in real life the humble hologram is, for the moment, still used for security and authentication. Although the real life technology has made huge strides, the development it has seen in cinema and television has become a whole different world which now resembles holography in name alone. 

Here's an abridged history of the key film and television programs that have seen holography develop from a moving image, to developing independent thought and life… 

Fictional Characters And Their Tattoos

All of our favourite celebs have long since jumped onto the tattoo bandwagon, and who can blame them? It’s daring, sexy, and an excuse to show off a little bit more skin. We do hear a lot about celebrity tattoos, and not all of it is good of course. Ink is one of those things that is met with mixed reactions, people love it or they hate it, it’s like painting yourself with marmite permanently, except not as weird. The point is tattoos are everywhere, and not just with our favourite movie stars when they’re off screen – a number of tattoos have made it on screen too, and in some cases they’re a very important part of the character and the movie itself.

Let’s start with someone simple.

That’s right! It’s Darth Maul, the much loved first villain from the Star Wars movies. I know what you’re thinking, you’ve seen the Phantom Menace a dozen times since you were a kid, you’re smart enough to know that Darth Maul here is some sort of weird alien creature and thus those are probably just camouflage markings or something unique to his species. Well – you’re wrong.

December 2015 Release For New 'Star Wars' Movie

December 2015 release for new 'Star Wars' film (via AFP)

The first of a hotly-anticipated new series of "Star Wars" movies will be released on December 18, 2015, the makers of the legendary sci-fi franchise said Thursday. The announcement lays to rest reports suggesting that the film, announced last year…

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Top 5 Best MMORPG Games For 2013

There's no denying that the MMORPG genre has been in a sort of renaissance as of late. Not only are many of the best older MMOs going free to play, there are also many new MMOs being released. Despite this, there are many games that manage to set themselves apart from the others.

Dramatic Changes In American Life [Infographic]

American life has changed dramatically in just 30 years. The U.S. population has grown by more than 80 million people. The male population has increased by more than 40 million, while the female population has grown by 38 million. Women still have a slight population edge over men with an additional five million members.

The average sales price for a home in 1983 was $89,000. In 2013, the average home sales price slightly more than $272,000. The average American's income has increased a great deal since 1983. The average person earned a salary of just $21,000 in 1983. In 2013, the average American earns a yearly salary of $49,000.

The political landscape has changed dramatically. In 1983, only 24 women held an elected position. The current number of elected women in office is 97. In 1983, Republican candidate Ronald Reagan won the election with just more than 50 percent of the vote. In contrast, Democratic President Obama was re-elected with 51 percent of the popular vote.

The Most Awesome Science Fiction Machines

Science fiction plays on the gray area between scientific possibility and impossibility, often describing technologies and machines that could exist in the future, or that only slightly bend our current rules about what’s possible.  Science fiction authors have also been responsible for imagining some of the coolest gadgets, and these are just plain fun.

Here are some of the most iconic machines and devices to come out of science fiction.

5 Most Hated Managers in the Movies

What makes these five movie managers such a hated bunch? The criteria includes: selfish intentions, manacle and manipulative behavior and a total lack of social morals and ethics. Even the magical escapism of the cinema is plagued with dreadful supervisors and horrid higher-ups that could use a soothing spa treatment and a life outside of work. Getting an eyeful and earful of the five most hated managers in the movies may just make going back to work on Monday seem not as bad after all.

6 Best Sci-Fi Movies Ever

Alien life forms, outer space, rockets and futuristic living tend to take place in sci-fi movies, and plenty of people consider themselves sci-fi fanatics. Because there is such a large desire for this genre, many filmmakers have created sci-fi movies, trying hard to one-up the last sci-fi movie that was made. If sci-fi movies interest you, then the following are six movies you need to see.

Settling The Age Old Argument: Star Trek Vs. Star Wars [Infographic]

Science fiction fans seem to be divided as to which franchise has the superior technology: Star Wars or Star Trek. When comparing the two technologies, one must judge technology according to what overall purpose it serves. This can allow for easier side by side comparisons of technology from these two different universes.

The first category of technology one considers should be weaponry. In Star Wars, the Empire had access to the Death Star, which was capable of destroying an entire planet. Fearsome as it was, it was unique. On the other hand, in Star Trek, no such beam weapon has such awesome power. However, the mundane weaponry of spacecraft seem more or less equal among both universes.

The next category of technology should be the mind. In Star Trek, human mind has advanced little, but similar species have been encountered who display remarkable psychic abilities. In Star Wars, any human can master the Force, which provides them psychic and magical powers.