http://www.capndesign.com/ I consume a lot of media and I thought I'd throw some love your way. en-us capn@capndesign.com Copyright 2012 2011-02-19T22:54:55-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2011/02/using_eye_tracking_for_films.php David Bordwell invited Tim Smith to his blog to discuss how people watch movies. This is not an anthropological study, but one of empirical psychology. They used an eye tracking device as people watched There Will Be Blood. In a previous post (which I suggest you read first), Bordwell discussed how director Paul Thomas Anderson is able to influence eye movement in a long shot using only staging. In one scene from TWBB, Bordwell discusses how Anderson focuses attention away from a map. Many directors would have cut in to a close-up of the map, showing us the details of the layout, but that isn’t important for what Anderson is interested in. The actual geography of Plainview’s territorial imperative isn’t explored much in the movie, which is more centrally about physical effort and commercial stratagems. This is backed up nicely by the eye tracking data provided by Smith. The map receives a few brief fixations at the beginning of the scene but the viewers quickly realise that it is devoid of information and spend the remainder of the scene looking at faces. The only time the map is fixated is when one of the characters gestures towards it. There’s a lot more of this and it’s terribly fascinating. I also learned a lot about how our eyes work. I had assumed some of these concepts based on my extremely limited knowledge of the brain, but it’s useful to hear them explained. The most striking feature of the gaze behaviour when it is animated in this way is the very fast pace at which we shift our eyes around the screen. On average, each fixation is about 300 milliseconds in duration. (A millisecond is a thousandth of a second.) Amazingly, that means that each fixation of the fovea lasts only about 1/3 of a second. These fixations are separated by even briefer saccadic eye movements, taking between 15 and 30 milliseconds! Looking at these patterns, our gaze may appear unusually busy and erratic, but we’re moving our eyes like this every moment of our waking lives. We are not aware of the frenetic pace of our attention because we are effectively blind every time we saccade between locations. This process is known as saccadic suppression. Our visual system automatically stitches together the information encoded during each fixation to effortlessly create the perception of a constant, stable scene. It’s pretty amazing that we intentionally go blind to avoid overloading our brains with information. Finally, I found the way in which the experiment was run to be interesting. We presented the film on a 21 inch CRT monitor at a distance of 90cm and a resolution of 720×328, 25fps. Eye movements were recorded using an Eyelink 1000 eyetracker and a chinrest to keep the viewer’s head still. I wonder if the results would have been significantly different, even if it’s likely to be technically impossible, had the subjects been in a crowded movie theater, at home with their family, or on a first date. I’d also love to see this data split out by demographics or geographics. I’m sure I and a teenage girl in Germany watched There Will Be Blood in much different ways. 3763@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2011-02-19T22:54:55-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2009/12/im_with_team_outside.php 3443@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2009-12-03T11:52:09-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2009/12/wizard_smoke.php You should watch it in HD (via @AdaptivePath). 3442@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2009-12-03T01:46:50-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2009/11/try_sleeping_with_a_broken_heart.php To quote my wife after I sent her the link to this song, "it sounds kind of 80s / i mean like 80s power ballads / which i LUUUURVE". Yes, you are right, wife. This song is awesome. [thanks chris] 3438@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2009-11-23T17:14:40-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2009/11/becks_video_for_heaven_can_wait.php Sung with Charlotte Gainsbourg, the video is absurdist and delightful. [via waxy] 3436@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2009-11-20T14:34:11-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2009/11/lorenzo_von_matterhorn.php Wow, How I Met Your Mother is popular. An hour after tonight's episode, this phrase was the top search. If you're curious, the LvM is a pickup technique in which you litter the internet with dozens of pages about a unique, fake name and subtly encourage a girl to Google your name, where she finds stories about your brilliance and wealth. You can figure out the rest. I feel like this was a challenge amongst the writers to see how quickly they could hit the top of Google Trends. It also reminds me that the show's audience skews young. It doesn't have the broad appeal of Friends, but that's part of what makes this the Friends of the aughts. 3430@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2009-11-16T23:56:48-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2009/09/lady_gaga_you_are_awesome.php via mtv Seriously. Please keep being awesome. 3399@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2009-09-14T22:43:26-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2009/06/the_bad_tour.php In April 1988, I went to my first, honest-to-goodness rock show. Yes, I'd seen some other live music, but never anything like this. For my birthday, my Uncle Steve took me to see Michael Jackson perform on his Bad tour at Rosemont Horizon (now Allstate Arena) in Chicago. I remember my dad dropping me off with him during dinner at a restaurant that let you throw peanuts on the floor. I also remember being phenomenally excited. We were sitting in our seats, waiting patiently for the show to start. The crowd was already chanting and I was getting giddy. If you've been to Rosemont, you know it can get incredibly loud. It wasn't as loud as Chicago Stadium, but it was loud. So when Michael took the stage and every single person screamed at the top of their lungs, it was deafening. Being just barely 8 years old, unable to hear anything and having a huge LED display flashing 'BAD' at me over and over, I immediately started to cry. My uncle noticed relatively quickly and tried to smooth it over as Michael started to moonwalk. Seeing I was completely freaked, he took me outside and got me a 7-Up. The hallway was completely desolate as the world was inside watching Michael and I managed to calm down. We went back in. The rest of the show was mostly a blur, but I distinctly remember him being in a human-sized, backlit tent doing 30-second costume changes. I'm also positive that the show was life-altering. The photo above is from the string of Rosemont shows and the video is from the a stop in Japan 3373@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2009-06-26T11:27:11-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2009/06/fan-made_8-bit_video_of_kanyes_robocop.php Robocop is my favorite song off the latest album and this video with all-original artwork, created by myk31, makes me happy. There are Double Dragon, Mega-Man and Punch Out! references, to name a few. I encourage you to watch it big, in HD. I also encourage you to check out the artist's site. He's got plenty of cool illustrations. (via Buzzfeed) 3371@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2009-06-18T23:02:45-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2009/03/is_24_good_this_season.php I've been watching this show for its entire run and I've finally started to lose interest this year. I've stayed dedicated despite the last two mediocre seasons, but it's been a MacGuffin-filled mess this year and I'm getting bored. My breaking point occurred when Juma, the First Boss, stormed the White House by SWIMMING BELOW IT. Really 24? Really? Despite my apathy, it seems everyone else thinks the show has returned to its former glory, which I don't understand, but their excitement gives me hope. Can any of you convince me that I'm wrong? What, other than inertia, is keeping you glued to your screens each week? 3334@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2009-03-26T23:39:16-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2009/01/riding_the_shark.php 3311@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2009-01-31T00:52:22-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2008/03/please_movie_industry_dont_do_it.php 3190@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2008-03-13T17:19:37-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2007/12/dining_with_bear_grylls.php I'm a big fan of Man vs. Wild, the Discovery show about a survival expert thrown into situations that require, well, survival. While that's the gist of the show, my two favorite subplots (and potential drinking games) are Bear telling war stories ("I knew a man who lived on beetle fur for 12 years in this rain forest) and Bear eating gross creatures then describing what they taste like. My secret desire was fulfilled when a clips show entitled "Bear Eats" came on last night. I was squeeling with joy. While I recommend you try to watch the show (here's a schedule and here's a DIY video montage), I've decided to compile some of Bear's cooking and eating tips I gleaned from this episode. First, here's some info on the flavor explosion Bear experiences. On long horned beetles: "It's like a big prawn that's been sitting around for weeks that's all shell and rotting guts." On termites: "They taste like...a little bit zingy..not very nice citrus." "But termites pack a surprising 560 calories in every handful." On raw wild snails: "It's like a giant, cold, bogie." Bear is also an expert in nutritional info and cooking. On boiled sheep eyes - "Icelanders eat almost every part of the sheep...even the eyeballs. Sheep eyeballs are extremely nutritious. They're high in protein and rich in vitamins A and D. Usually they're the first thing to rot, but in this cold weather, these are still good." He boiled the eyeball in a hot geothermal pool. They're okay to eat raw, but he's just trying to get rid of the bacteria. "It's like chewing gristle full of cold gloop." MMmmmmmm. On roasted turtle - "I've always cracked the belly, gutted it, scraped all the meat out and ate like that. But in the Everglades the Seminoles used to cook it straight in its shell, sort of like a pressure cooker. Just put it [on the fire], leave it for an hour." "Cooking time will depend on the size of the turtle. One way to tell it's ready is when the shell is brittle and cracks." He hammers it with the his knife to expose the flesh. There's less than a half a gram of fat and no carbs or sugar. "Mmm, this is one of those times you can say it really does taste like chicken." That's just the half of it, but I'll make you watch the show to see the rest. I love Bear. 3152@http://www.capndesign.com/ Food 2007-12-22T10:24:26-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2007/08/some_tunes_for_the_end_of_summer.php 3082@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2007-08-17T22:38:52-05:00 http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2007/08/dont_put_down_that_mag.php 3077@http://www.capndesign.com/ Music\TV\Film\Media 2007-08-14T23:28:10-05:00