Chuck tv series review

It was during the U.K.’s first COVID lockdown, in May 2020, and London-based standup comedian Matthew Highton was watching TV with his wife, Katie. An episode of NCIS came on, and Highton quipped that the intro shots were so generic that they could have been pulled from some royalty-free stock footage website. An idea popped into his head. The next day, Highton fired up Adobe Premiere, logged into the stock footage website Storyblocks (“All the stock you need”), and began his scavenger hunt for footage. More than 10 hours later, he emerged, bleary-eyed, with a re-created version of the intro to sun-soaked, angsty early-2000s teen drama The O.C. for his online audience. Since then, Highton has painstakingly re-created the intros to other perennial turn-of-the-millennium favorites: Friends , Buffy the Vampire Slayer , and most recently, The Simpsons . The results are weirdly nostalgic, strangely recognizable, slightly unsettling, and oddly popular with the people who come … [Read more...] about Meet the zany internet artist who remakes ’90s TV show intros with stock footage

This year’s Academy Award season already includes plenty of firsts due to the pandemic-related circumstances surrounding the ceremony, but one film’s presence among the early Oscar contenders is particularly noteworthy: Welcome to Chechnya . Director David France’s documentary chronicles the antigay purges in the Russian republic of Chechnya and the efforts of activists working to rescue victims. While it’s no surprise the powerful film is a potential nominee in the Oscars’ Best Documentary Feature category, Welcome to Chechnya is also the first documentary to be on the shortlist of contenders in the Best Visual Effects category, thanks to the method it used to protect the identities of people featured in the film. In order to strike a balance between protecting Welcome to Chechnya ‘s interview subjects and preserving the emotional resonance of their experiences, France and visual effects supervisor Ryan Laney combined digital face-replacement, machine-learning software … [Read more...] about How the Welcome to Chechnya documentary found security in face-swapping VFX

Even with the Xbox Series X and PS5 out on the market, the last generation of consoles will still be relevant for a while. For one, next-gen consoles are still hard to find, especially for Sony fans. There are also many budget-conscious consumers who will hold onto their older Xboxes until there is more content available on the new platforms. If you still have an Xbox One and are looking to maximize the gaming experience, you can do so simply by upgrading your monitor. The Xbox One S and Xbox One X both support 4K and HDR content (the Xbox One S supports 4K media whereas the X supports 4K media and games). Both can also support 60 frames per second. That means if you are playing on an older monitor, a simple upgrade could boost your gaming experience without the need for a new console. Gaming monitors can also improve your overall experience thanks to the reduced input lag and boosted refresh rate compared to televisions. That can make a big difference if you’re a fan of … [Read more...] about The best gaming monitors for the Xbox One

The idea that one of the most influential women in the history of tech is best known for designing icons sounds, on the surface, a bit surprising. Sure, everyone enjoys a good bit of computer iconography, but… most influential? Like, for real? If you think this way, it’s understandable. Icons are such a ubiquitous part of today’s most popular devices — whether that’s personal computers or mobile devices — that it can be tough to imagine them working any other way. But it wasn’t always like this. This article is part of our continuing series, Women With Byte Women With Byte looks at the many contributions women have made to technology past and present, the hurdles they faced (and overcame), and the foundations for the future they’ve laid for the next generations. Icons give us a way of instantly understanding the tools we’re using. In the early days this frequently meant by way of a real-world analog. A trash can was where you got rid of things. A folder was where … [Read more...] about How Susan Kare gave Apple’s Mac its personality

Surely a smartwatch that costs just $36 will be terrible, right? With an average 4.5 stars out of 5 rating from nearly 35,000 different reviews, the $36 Willful Smart Watch is not only one of the highest-rated, but also one of the cheapest smartwatches you can buy through Amazon. It’s also one of many extremely similar models, from companies like Popglory, Letsfit, Vigorun, Judneer, Lifebee, and IdealRoyal. No, I’ve never heard of them either. Trending in Mobile: What is 5G? 5G Network Coverage Map This doesn’t suggest awfulness. The Willful, astonishingly, is also the number one best-selling smartwatch on Amazon U.K. (where it has another 17,000 reviews and a 4.5-star average), so surely it’s a hidden gem amongst the sea of similar-but-lesser models? I thought it best to find out, but my expectations remained subterranean. Shockingly, and perhaps disappointingly, it turned out to be far better than it has any right to be. However, please don’t take this as a … [Read more...] about I bought the cheapest smartwatch on Amazon — here’s how bad it is