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Brains’ Race
What neural networks can already do

Reading time 11 minutes

According to research conducted four years ago by MarketsandMarkets, by 2024, the size of the neural networks market was expected to grow to nearly $300 million. In early 2023, media outlets had already published news that Microsoft would invest $10 billion in a chatbot developer based on artificial intelligence – OpenAI. The number of various neural network services is steadily growing, and there is an increasing discussion in the media space about what professions they can replace. In this article we will tell about the most interesting applied abilities of artificial intelligence.

Translators

Neural networks have long been used in automatic translation services such as Google Translate, Yandex Translator and Microsoft Translator. However, the real breakthrough in this field was made by a small German company DeepL with its eponymous translator.

Neural networks can be built based on different architectures, each of which is better suited for a particular task. Finding the right combination of algorithms is the key to making the AI work more accurately. Most translators have been using recurrent neural networks until recently, but they have started to be replaced by a new machine learning model, Transformer, which Google is actively using.

DeepL does not disclose its translation technology, although early campaigns reported the use of convolutional neural networks, which are designed to recognize visual images rather than text. The official site also says it is using some of the mechanisms of the previously mentioned Transformer architecture. The developers’ own tests and comparisons made by ordinary users show that DeepL does translate much more accurately because it is able to capture context:

Сравнение взято с сайта gadgets-news.ru, жирным выделен неверный перевод, а курсивом – неточный. — The comparison is taken from gadgets-news.ru, with the incorrect translation in bold and the inaccurate translation in italics.

It is worth noting that the translator from Google has been significantly improved after the introduction of the Transformer architecture, but DeepL translates virtually error-free.

Among the neural network services, there are some that can translate and dub video, removing the speaker’s voice and leaving the original noises. For example, Neurodub AI can recognize speech in 70 languages:

The working window on the Neurodub site. The video was taken from the author's personal archive. The corrected error and the pop-up warning-line are circled in red. — The working window on the Neurodub site. The video was taken from the author’s personal archive. The corrected error and the pop-up warning-line are circled in red.

Sometimes the neural network makes mistakes, but they can be corrected manually. In the picture above you can see that the AI did not recognize the name of the university correctly and heard “neck” instead of “HSE”. After editing the text in the side menu, you need to click “Apply changes” and the video will be re-voiced correctly. Unfortunately, the service is paid (1 minute – 1 dollar), but you can try the first 15 minutes in test mode.

Photos, pictures, logos

In March 2023, the developers of Midjourney, a popular neural network for generating images, shut down free access due to abuse with deepfakes¹. Social media users spread pictures of arrested Donald Trump and Pope Francis in a fancy down jacket.

A fake photo of Pope Francis generated by Midjourney.

The fake about Donald Trump's arrest. The photo was circulated on social media. — The fake about Donald Trump’s arrest. The photo was circulated on social media.

In addition to Midjourney, there are many other services for generating images, such as Stable Diffusion, Craiyon, and Starryai. These neural networks create images based on keywords, so-called «prompts»². If they are not used correctly, the AI may misunderstand the user’s request and generate something hard to recognize.

Neural networks are also capable of creating logos. The principle of these services is much simpler than the previous ones: just enter the name of your brand, choose some colors and icons you like and you’re done. Here are a few examples generated by Brandmark.io and Looka:

The logos are generated based on the name of the author of the article, the theme "University" and a few pastel colors. — The logos are generated based on the name of the author of the article, the theme “University” and a few pastel colors.

And the neural networks at Colorize.cc and MyHeritage.com can improve the quality of a photo or even color an old black and white one:

Photo from the personal archive of the author of the article.

Write a text

ChatGPT is probably the most famous chatbot that can write even a diploma. It is based on the GPT-3.5 language model and is used to generate texts that look like their author is a human.

Writing texts with neural networks has its own peculiarities: they cannot simply repeat existing phrases. AI generates new texts based on statistical parameters and patterns found in the data sets on which it has been trained. As a result, texts generated by neural networks can be original, but contain errors and inaccuracies. By the way, this paragraph is almost entirely written with ChatGPT: I only had to correct some grammar and speech errors.

The mechanics of interaction with the chatbot is based on requests and responses. It is desirable to have different topics in different chats.

Some neural networks, such as Rytr, do not work like chatbots, but use a clear user-defined terms of reference. You need to select “tone of speech”, language, “content format” and enter keywords on the site. After specifying the settings, the artificial intelligence will generate a sample text, which it will offer to complete for yourself.

Artificial Intelligence detectors

Due to the emergence of services that can write the text for a person, there was also a need to check the work for anti-plagiarism. The problem is that using ordinary software it is impossible to determine, for example, if a student wrote an essay by himself or herself or if he or she used AI. Moreover, The New York Times pointed out that even writers and teachers cannot distinguish ChatGPT writing samples from student papers, so schools in New York banned the use of OpenAI’s AI.

The result of checking the text generated by ChatGPT on the Writer site.

For this purpose, special services have been developed that also work with neural networks. Some of them are AI Content Detector from Writer and AI Text Classifier from the already mentioned OpenAI. So far, however, AI detectors have low accuracy in determining neural networks work. AI Text Classifier, for example, successfully identified only 26% of AI texts. In addition, this detector will fail if the text is even slightly edited, written by children or not in English, and contains less than a thousand characters.

Despite minor advances in this area, services that mask the work of neural networks are already being developed in parallel. This is how Stealthwriter AI handled rewriting ChatGPT’s response to my question about whether he would be offended if the author did not mention him in the article (the text is given in unmodified form):

Since I am only an Al artificial intelligence modeled brain, there are no sentiments or affections inside me that can cause offense. To assist in any way possible and offer information is my purpose. The decision of mentioning my support in the article lies entirely with you. That said, recognizing and attributing sources or tools utilized in your work is a common practice for ensuring transparency and integrity.

Original text:

As an Al language model, I do not have feelings or emotions, so I cannot be offended. My purpose is to assist and provide information to the best of my abilities. Whether or not you mention my assistance in your article is entirely up to you. However, it’s always good practice to acknowledge and give credit to the sources or tools that you use in your work for transparency and integrity.

Which version is more like «made by human» is a subjective question.

Artificial Intelligence has indeed reached a new level: neural networks are now able to perform some tasks faster than humans, and sometimes even better. Nevertheless, they still make mistakes, and in some places, they are far from being successful at all. There is no need to be afraid of robots taking over the world. Probably.

Everything Everywhere All at Once
What made the film an Oscar favorite in 2023?

Reading time 10 minutes

Everything Everywhere All at Once – an American science fiction action comedy that will be released in the summer of 2022. The film is about a Chinese-American immigrant named Evelyn who discovers that she can connect with versions of herself from parallel worlds. With the help of this new ability, Evelyn must now prevent the destruction of the multiverse.

The Daniels directorial duo: Daniel Scheinert (right) and Daniel Kwan (left)

The film, directed by the “Daniels” duo, paid off several times at the box office, grossing over $130 million on a budget of about $20 million. The love of the audience and the positive reviews of film critics eventually contributed to the fact that “Everything Everywhere and at Once” was shortlisted as a nominee for the Academy Award. As a result, out of 11 nominations, the film won 7 at once and received the golden statuettes in the categories of “Best Film”, “Best Director”, “Best Actress”, “Best Supporting Actor”, “Best Supporting Actress”, “Best Original Screenplay” and “Best Editing”.

Let us find out together what made “Everything Everywhere and All at Once” a box office hit and an Oscar 2023 record holder.

1. Best actress: a celebration of inclusion

Shot from the film "Everything is everywhere and at once." Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wong — Shot from the film “Everything is everywhere and at once.” Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wong

Michelle Yeoh, who plays the title role in Anywhere, is a Malaysian actress of Chinese descent who has been active in both Asian and Western cinema. Michelle became world famous for the project Crazy Rich Asians, a film adaptation of the novel of the same name, in which the actress played the smart and charismatic mother of the protagonist. In the film “Everywhere and at once” Michelle showed the full range of her acting abilities, as the plot is set in parallel universes. From world to world she slipped into the most diverse roles – from a contract killer to a cook to a lesbian with sausages instead of fingers.

One version of Evelyn Wong in a parallel universe

Critics note that besides the factor of Michelle’s acting talent, her origin allowed her to win. After all, Michelle Yeoh became the first woman of Asian descent to be awarded the title of “Best Actress”. In response to the criticism they had been receiving, the Academy strategically chose to award a statuette to a member of a national minority in order to maintain the film award’s rating. However, it is difficult to name such a factor as an unambiguous reason for presenting the Michelle Yeoh award. After all, the actress could really surprise the audience with acting, showing the full range of her skills on the screen.

2. Best Supporting Actor: The triumphant return of Jonathan Ké Kwan

Jonathan Ke Kwan in "Everything Everywhere" 2022 (left) and in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" 1984 (right) — Jonathan Ke Kwan in “Everything Everywhere” 2022 (left) and in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” 1984 (right)

Jonathan Ké Kwan rose to prominence in the film industry as a child as Harrison Ford’s boy assistant in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984. However, like many successful child actors, his career declined with age. Jonathan continued to work in film production, but as an assistant action choreographer and assistant director. The last film in which he took part as an actor before filming in Everything Everywhere and At Once was The Second Attempt, a 2002 fantasy drama that failed at the box office.

After the release of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, film critics predicted a glorious future for the little charismatic boy, and some fans of the franchise called him their favorite character. That is why the return of Ké Kwan to the big screens after 20 years has become a long-awaited and joyful event for many viewers. For the first time after a long break, Jonathan not only played an interesting and diverse role but also immediately received an Oscar for it. Given that the actor’s awards culminated in a touching hug with Harrison Ford, this story seems like a good plot for a movie.

3. Best Supporting Actress: Jamie Lee Curtis as Tax Clerk

The image of Jamie Lee Curtis in the movie "Everything is everywhere and at once" — The image of Jamie Lee Curtis in the movie “Everything is everywhere and at once”

Awarding Jamie Lee Curtis at the Oscars came as a surprise with many film critics. In one category, actresses such as Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) competed with her, Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Hong Chau (“The Whale”) and Stephanie Xu, her colleague in the film “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, which played the role of the daughter of the main character.

After the ceremony, a flurry of criticism fell upon the film academy, as many predicted the victory of African-American actress Angela Bassett for the role of the Queen of Wakanda. In the film, she played a strong woman who, even after losing her son, could support her country and her people in difficult times.

The victory of Lee Curtis is justified by two factors at once. People overlooked Jamie Lee Curtis in previous award seasons. Jamie Lee Curtis began actively acting in films back in the 1970s, was a favorite of viewers and critics. But someone has not even nominated her for an Oscar. She could receive an award for “Everything Everywhere at Once” based on merit in the US cinema, as a tribute to her experience and talent, which had gone unnoticed for so long.

Second, the image of Jamie Lee Curtis in the film is really very different from the more familiar roles of the actress. We are talking about both the appearance and the scale of the role. At 64, the actress herself performed her own stunts in action scenes and, like Michelle Yeoh, skillfully changed images during the jumps between parallel universes during the film’s plot. However, it would be incorrect to deny the ambiguity of the film academy’s decision. Many viewers and critics have the impression that it gave the award to the actress “for long service”, which does not correspond to the principle of the award. After all, it is in such a case that there are special nominations in the film academy.

4. “Best Editing”: an undisputed technical victory

Shot from the film "Everything is everywhere and at once" — Кадр из фильма «Всё везде и сразу»

One of the main storylines of the film is the constant movement of characters between parallel universes. Each of these universes is special, with its own color and lighting solutions and scenery. The combination of these different universes and the creation of a coherent story from the most dissimilar expositions is the merit of skillful editing. The film is called “a triumph of surrealism and abstraction”: graphic inserts and sharp jumps create the illusion of immersion in a near-comic story, and the constantly changing visual range does not let you get bored behind static scenes. Editing enhances the impact of the story on the audience, as the effects inside the film no longer work at the expense of camera work or playwrights. Intra-frame movement, breaking the boundaries of the screen – all this made the installation of “Everything Everywhere and At Once” bright and memorable.

All the above together allowed the film to pick up the last three nominations – “Best Film”, “Best Director” and “Best Original Screenplay”. “Everything Everywhere and At Once” became an example of a commercially successful picture that conquered the film academy. An absolute win for a film of this nature clearly broadens the horizon of opportunity for future Oscar-winning filmmakers. And also, it clearly points to the shift towards new bold cinema that is happening in the film academy and in the world of cinema.

Dee Dee Blanchard and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy
How a mental disorder destroyed the life of an entire family

Reading time 6 minutes

In June 2015, 48-year-old Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard was found dead in her bed. A day later, police found her daughter: the girl had been hiding in the apartment of her boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, who had killed Dee Dee and stabbed her seventeen times. After a year-long investigation, the court sentenced Gypsy Rose Blanchard to ten years in prison and her boyfriend to life in prison.

For twenty-four years, Claudine physically and emotionally oppressed her daughter, forcing her to pretend she was sick. Although the woman was never accurately diagnosed during her lifetime, forensic psychologists believe Blanchard suffered from a condition known as Munchausen syndrome (MSP). Munchausen syndrome is a psychological disorder in which the caregiver, in most cases the mother, intentionally induces symptoms of various illnesses in the child in order to meet the child’s psychological needs.

Munchausen syndrome is a rare but severe form of child maltreatment that often goes undiagnosed. To identify the condition, clinicians must thoroughly investigate the client’s background in case there is a discrepancy between the parents’ statements and previous medical reports. One of the most important ways to confirm suspected MSP is to separate the caregiver and child to see how the patient’s health changes. Diagnosing MSP is extremely difficult because sufferers often appear to be mentally healthy, while their children may show symptoms of real illnesses, making it difficult for doctors to distinguish between true physiological disorders and those caused by a parent.

Dee Dee Blanchard is a prime example of a person with Munchausen syndrome by proxy. She used basic medical knowledge from her work as a nurse’s aide to confirm Gypsy’s long list of illnesses. Blanchard was able to convince doctors that her daughter was paralyzed from the waist down, even though the girl could walk independently and did not need a wheelchair. Depending on which doctor she spoke to, Dee Dee changed her family story. To one cardiologist, for example, she pretended that many members of her family had died of heart attacks. As a result, doctors and nurses became unwitting accomplices in a fraudulent scheme, prescribing unnecessary surgeries and medications for the girl.

Gypsy Blanchard in a wheelchair. Photo from Disneyland

Munchausen syndrome most often develops in people who were neglected or abused by their parents in childhood, says Mark D. Feldman, MD and an honorary member of the American Psychiatric Association. After studying the Blanchard family’s case in depth, Dr. Feldman concluded that the cause of Dee Dee’s mental disorder was her strained relationship with her own mother, who had humiliated her daughter all her life. As a result, Claudine satisfied her need for attention by creating conditions in which Gypsy could not even physically get along without her.

Mugshots of Gypsy Blanchard and her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn

Like other people with MSP, Dee Dee satisfied her psychological needs not only at the expense of her child, but also at the expense of those around her. She gained public recognition for devoting all her time to caring for her “sick” daughter. People donated money to help the family: in 2009, the girl received the “Child of the Year” award and $5,000 for her resilience from the Olya Foundation, a nonprofit dietitian community and advocacy group.

So it went for more than twenty years until 2015, when Gypsy plotted murder to get rid of her mother’s overprotectiveness and run off with her boyfriend. “The control was total, just as sometimes control over a kidnapped victim is total. Your daughter was indeed a hostage, and I think we can understand the crime that happened afterwards from the perspective of a hostage trying to escape,” Dr. Mark Feldman said.

Symbiosis or parasitism
Are collaborations of fashion houses with artists - art or marketing?

Reading time 6 minutes

In the winter of 2023, Louis Vuitton presented one of the largest collaborations with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. The fashion house presented not only clothes and accessories, but also art spaces in its boutiques, performances and installations based on the artist’s works, both in the real world and in the digital environment. This connection evoked both admiration for the thoughtfulness of the collection and its presentation, and condemnation.

Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton collaboration

Now Yayoi Kusama is 93 years old. She lives in a psychiatric hospital due to mental disorders. As a result, the collaboration, which includes a large body of work, has raised concerns about the artist’s health. Critics have accused Louis Vuitton of exploiting Yayoi’s work and misrepresenting her image. “The brand team has dedicated a separate paragraph on the website to the artist’s creative journey, but there is not a single mention of the specifics of Kusama’s mental health,” says Polina Vasilyeva, who was responsible for collaborating with artists at SimpleWine, Bosco di Ciliegi, House of Cultures. The artistic value of the objects that resulted from the collaboration is also questionable. There is a certain philosophy behind Yayoi Kusama’s patterns and installations. All of her works are autobiographical. The most famous pea pattern, its endless repetition in objects, helped Kusama cope with hallucinations and anxiety. However, Louis Vuitton focused less on depicting the artist’s creative journey and her struggle with mental disorders, and more on recognizable visual images.

Installation at the Louis Vuitton boutique in the Champs Elysees, France

There are some who support this collaboration and Louis Vuitton’s approach. The fashion house has gone to great lengths to promote the collection. The facades of boutiques around the world were covered with Yayoi’s signature patterns. Their stores became veritable installations. And they even put the figure of the artist herself in the foreground. With Louis Vuitton-level marketing, you can reach a large audience and increase people’s interest in Yayoi’s work and art. “With my last project [with Louis Vuitton], I received a lot of response from people all over the world. With this project, I also want to share my artistic philosophy and thoughts with everyone,” says Yayoi Kusama herself in an interview for Tatler Asia. This confirms the effectiveness and success of the collaboration.

This kind of collaboration with brands is very popular among artists. Not only do they spread a personal philosophy through their work, but the artists also increase their visibility. Fashion houses try to create a buzz in the media, attract influencers and present new collections as artworks. PR is very important for artists. It helps find new clients, connect with galleries and find new fans for your work. It also allows creatives to realize ideas that would not be possible without financial support and a platform for the brand. “For me, it’s an opportunity to bring complex ideas to life in ephemeral materials that are part of my practice. For example, sculptural elements of soap and gold leaf, wax and acrylic stone, brass and grease. Such projects allow me to reach a larger scale and develop a new performance technique. I see them as a resource for experimentation and creative growth,” says artist Anya Mokhova, who has already collaborated with Shiseido and Studio Playtronica.

Collaboration bag Dior and Recycle Group

The question of whether or not such collaborations between brands and artists can be called art is not easily resolved. If the creator remains true to his principles and considers his work as art, it is difficult to deny the existence of an artistic value in his work. “Artists have always collaborated with brands, from Salvador Dali, who invented the lollipop shape, to other well-known artists, who are no worse and no better. It’s everyone’s personal choice. There are no contradictions in our concept, in our vision of our creativity and the objects we make,” explains the creative association Recycle Group.

Once upon a time in Japan, there was a Sada Abe
About the geisha who killed her lover and became a celebrity

Reading time 7 minutes

In 1905, the seventh child was born into the family of Shigeyoshi and Katsu Abe – a girl named Sada. As the youngest daughter, Sada was surrounded by attention and care from her parents, who indulged her every whim. The girl learned to play the shamisen¹ in order to be like her idols – charming geishas.

The main commandment of a geisha is to endlessly please a man without losing dignity.

However, when Sada was 15 years old, she was raped at a friend’s house. It turned her whole life upside down. Sada turned into an uncontrollable teenager: she did not obey her parents, skipped school, she had many sexual relationships. As punishment, the girl was sent to the Yokohama geisha school in 1922. At that time, many Japanese families did this to cleanse themselves of shame and try to guide their daughters on the right path.

Images from the film "Empire of the Senses", based on the biography of Sada Abe — Images from the film “Empire of the Senses”, based on the biography of Sada Abe

At the geisha school, girls are taught from early childhood, so 15-year-old Sada could no longer become a real geisha. Instead, she worked as a matigeisha, that is, a pseudo-geisha who provided sexual services. She was engaged in this activity for five years until she fell ill with syphilis. Then Sada became a licensed prostitute.

Sada Abe made several attempts to escape from the brothel where she was

Until 1934, the girl worked in several brothels until she was arrested for lack of a license. Sada lost her when she stole money from a client. In prison, she met a friend of the brothel owner, Kinnosuke Kasahara, who helped to free her. Kinnosuke took a liking to Sada, and they became lovers. Sada lived in a house bought by Kasahara and lived on the money he gave her. However, the man did not want to leave his family and marry Abe. Soon the lovers parted. Sada recalled:

“He didn’t love me and treated me like an animal. He was one of those scum who, after parting, begged me to return.”

After breaking up with Kasahara, Sada moved to Nagoya, where she met Professor Goro Omiya. A romance began between them, and on the advice of her lover, Sada got a job as a waitress at the Yoshida-ya restaurant in order to gain experience and open her own business in the future. The Yoshida-ya restaurant was owned by Kichizo Ishida. Passion broke out between the worker and the boss. The lovers spent whole days together.

“It is even difficult to explain what was so attractive in Isis. But it was absolutely impossible to say anything bad about him, about how he looked, what kind of lover he was, how he expressed his feelings. I have never met such a sexy man before,” Sada said.

However, like Kasahara, Ishide did not want to part with his wife and children. Sade had to part with her beloved, and she fell into a deep depression. At this time, Abe attended one performance in which a geisha threatened her lover with a knife. Sada remembered this episode and performed this trick at the next meeting with Ishida. Kitizo liked it. During the next dates, Sada even strangled Kitizo, as it turned him on.

On May 18, 1936, Sada strangled Kitizo and lay next to his corpse for several hours. She then cut off his genitals, wrapped them in newspaper, and fled.

“I couldn’t take his body or head with me. I wanted to take a piece of his body that aroused the most vivid memories,” Sada will later tell the police.

The windows of the hotel where the murder took place

On May 19, 1936, Sada was arrested by the police, and on November 20 of the same year, the court sentenced her to 6 years in prison. In November 1940, she was released early due to a general amnesty. Sada changed her name, and nothing is known about her further fate. Based on police interrogations and inquiries, they wrote a book that became a bestseller. The story of Sada Abe became a popular subject for books, plays, and films over the following decades and even to this day. In 1946, women in Japan gained the right to vote. The new climate in the country turned Sada into a victim of male exploitation. The fury of the woman and her cruelty were regarded as an attempt to resist the harsh totalitarian regime.

The Money Explosion Theory
The most expensive scenes and special effects in movie history

Reading time 8 minutes

Digital doppelgangers, photogrammetry, real-time rendering using game engines – it seems like just an incomprehensible set of words from the IT-sphere. In fact, these terms are the latest technologies that the film industry is trying to implement or is already actively using. With the advent of computer graphics, the scale and showiness of a scene in a movie, and with it its price is determined only by the imagination of the director. For what episodes of world cinema creators had to pay a lot of money – we tell in this article.

The most expensive

For more than 20 years, the seventeen-minute fight scene of the main character in the movie “The Matrix: Reloaded” has held the title of the most expensive episode in cinema. All the heroes were dressed in special costumes created just for this scene. Drones and video cameras were used to shoot, and many different visual effects were added in post-production, which made the battle where Neo stops the bullets really incredible. For example, the rotation of the camera around the stairs while the characters are in the antigravity environment makes it feel like they’re flying. It’s worth noting that a three-lane, three-mile-long highway was built for the chase scene. The seventeen minutes of film cost 40 million dollars and took 27 days to film. The main share of the check was the special effects. Producers doubted that such an investment would pay off and Keanu Reeves even turned down $38 million from ticket sales. Fears, however, were not borne out: on a budget of $ 150 million box office receipts the film was more than $ 742 million.

The frame from the film «The Matrix: Reloaded». The scene on the stairs is shot as if the actors «soar» during the battle.

How much does it cost to blow something up?

Sometimes directors don’t want to use computer graphics for one reason or another. For example, in the film by Christopher Nolan «Tenet», it would be more expensive to use special effects than to blow up a real plane:

I planned to do it using miniatures and set-piece builds and a combination of visual effects and all the rest. We started to run the numbers… It became apparent that it would actually be more efficient to buy a real plane of the real size, and perform this sequence for real in camera, rather than build miniatures or go the CG route. It’s a strange thing to talk about – a kind of impulse buying, I suppose.

The frame from the film «Tenet». The real plane of the brand «Boeing» was used in the scene.

Of course, you can’t blow up a plane twice. The episode was shot in one take. The crew was cheering and shouting “Hooray!” when the director said: «Stop, shot». The cost of a Boeing 747 (that’s what blew up in the movie) is about $ 385 million, which does not fit into the budget picture – $250 million. Director himself does not specify a purchase price, saying only that it was «impulsive».

Before the movie «Tenet» Nolan also set off explosions. His pyrotechnic debut can be considered a scene in «The Dark Knight», when the Joker leaves the hospital and blows it up. For the shooting of this episode producers specially purchased the building of the old candy factory and converted it into a hospital, where the huge explosion was made. It cost $700 thousand, but during the shooting of the scene there was a problem with the pyrotechnic charges and the chain reaction of the explosion stopped. Then the scene was saved by improvisation by Heath Ledger, who adjusted to the situation without stepping out of character. In this case, computer graphics would be a safer investment, but it was probably because of the episode from The Dark Knight that we saw the larger experiment in Tenet.

The frame from the movie «The Dark Knight». Joker performed by Heath Ledger several times presses on the remote control, but the explosion does not happen immediately. The actor has successfully improvised, so the scene was not reshot.

The bombing scene of the central span of the Brooklyn Bridge in the movie «I am Legend» cost $5 million. There, on the contrary, was no computer graphics. The episode is based on the evacuating the main character’s family from the contaminated zone. To do this, it was necessary to attract real military equipment: the Ministry of Defense and soldiers of the National Guard helped the filming. About a thousand extras and about 250 crew members took part in the scene.

Thousands of dollars for every word

However, the cost of a stage is not always determined by the number of special effects or the use of special techniques. Sometimes the main cost of the episode is the participation of a famous actor in the frame. For 15 minutes in the blockbuster «Spider-Man: Homecoming» Robert Downey Junior was paid $10 million. Of course, the actors received larger sums for filming, but they received such money not by the contract, but by the percentage of box office fees. For example, in the film «Mission: Impossible 2» Tom Cruise had no fixed salary at all. The picture brought him $147 million.

The shortest and at the same time the most expensive scene is attributed to Julia Roberts in the film «Valentine’s Day». For six minutes on the screen she earned $3 million. Her fans counted: during this time the actress said 251 words. If you divide them by the amount earned, it turns out that for each word the actress earned almost $12,000.

The real virtual crime
How piracy affects original content

Reading time 5 minutes

According to a 2019 survey by the Slovak company ESET, 91% of Russians use pirated content and software. The high cost of online products is the main problem that, according to 75% of respondents, causes people to illegally watch movies, play computer games and purchase software. Piracy affects the distribution of original products, but is it always on the negative side? It turns out that no.

The ambiguity of the effect of piracy

Piracy, of course, can lead to lower sales and losses for copyright holders who invest money and time in creating and promoting a product. On the other hand, it can help to distribute content or software in regions where there is no official distribution or support for a certain language. However, a study by the European Commission did not find any statistical connection between piracy and falling sales. This does not mean that it does not exist, but a direct correlation has not been proven. Rather, it depends on the type of content.

Piracy does help to increase sales of obscure films and television series. People have an opportunity to “try out” a media product before they buy it and, for instance, if they don’t like the plot of the movie, they don’t have to pay. But for blockbusters the situation is reversed: popular films are sure to lose some box office receipts due to piracy. Sometimes film companies even cancelled screenings in some regions to prevent the “theft” of content. And in 2016, Century Fox refused to participate in the famous Comic-Con festival because of concerns about piracy.

Cast of the X-Men franchise in 2015 at Comic-Con. In 2016, Fox representatives had no comment on their refusal to show their upcoming films in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con.

In the sphere of video games piracy has a positive effect on sales. Illegal consumption leads to the growth of legal consumption. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the industry successfully converts “pirates” into paying users. One of the successful tactics that contribute to this process is to offer additional levels or bonuses in the game on a paid basis.

In music and literature, piracy plays almost no role, except that it can increase concert sales for performers through the distribution of content. Moreover, for books, audio compositions, and video games, prices are at a level that corresponds to the willingness of “illegal users” to pay for content. This suggests that lowering the price level will not reduce piracy in these areas.

Why piracy must be fought

Nevertheless, piracy is not just a way of distributing content or software. It is an illegal activity that is forbidden for a number of reasons. Piracy is not only a theft of intellectual property from companies or the individual developer, but it also has a significant negative effect on the economy and innovation. Piracy costs the economy tens of billions of dollars each year. In 2017 alone, the value of all unlicensed copies of computer software installed worldwide was estimated at $46 billion. Also, piracy reduces demand in the labor market. Thus, according to 2016 data, 27 thousand jobs were not created in Poland.

In addition, piracy affects not only sales, but also innovation. Unable to profit from their creative works, copyright owners may find it difficult to finance new projects. This often causes inventions and developments to be frozen. Creators have to invest extra money to fight piracy and spend time and resources to block illegal ways to acquire content or software.

The Evolution of Video Game Music
History, mechanics and philosophy of music for video games

Reading time 13 minutes

Soundtracks have become such an interesting newspaper topic that even the composers are awarded an Oscar for their products. Of these, video game tunes get less attention, although they mainly do contribute to the game’s immersiveness¹.

Background

Pong - the first successful game with sound, 1972 — Pong – the first successful game with sound, 1972

In the 1950s, programmer Jeff Hill created digital music recorded on the CSIRAC computer². Released in 1972, Pong was the first arcade game with sound t a commercial success. In 1979, the first-ever digital audio disc was presented. This phenomenon was noted “chiptune” since the soundtrack was created by an audio chip, usually inside a game console. The first such devices had the very limited sound processors. It was most commonly made with 8-bit music. This 8-bit processor created the melody in real time. In the early 1980s, the IBM personal computer appeared, and a couple of years later, sound cards and synthesizer modules came out. Each module has its own function: some generate sound, others act as a sequencer, others are various sound effects that played and created music in several channels.

In the 1950s, programmer Jeff Hill created digital music recorded on the CSIRAC computer³. Released in 1972, Pong was the first arcade game with sound turned into a commercial success. In 1979, the first-ever digital audio disc was presented. This phenomenon was noted as “chiptune”, since the soundtrack was created via an audio chip, usually inside a game console. The first such devices had very limited sound processors. It was most commonly made with 8-bit⁴ music. This 8-bit processor created the melody in real time. In the early 1980s, the IBM personal computer appeared, and a couple of years later, sound cards⁵ and synthesizer modules[/A synthesizer module is an electronic instrument divided into separate components (modules, blocks)] came out. Each module has its own function: some generate sound, others act as a sequencer⁶, others are various sound effects that play and create music on several channels.

In 1999, when the first music cartridge⁷ for the Game Boy was released, an updated genre of 8-bit music appeared – post-chiptune. It sounded less monotonous and simple, but technically differed little from the first experiments with digital music. Today, 8-bit is a separate genre that exists at the center of the subculture. Thanks to some bands, such as Crystal Castles, this music got a second chance in the 2000s. The creators of such tracks use special programs – trackers. They imitate the sound of chips from old set-top boxes. And 8-bit styled music can be made using modern synthesizers and sequencers.

The monotonous sound did not clash with the simple pixelated graphics of the first Dendy and SEGA games. The monotonous melody was quickly remembered and made the game recognizable. For example, the theme from the Guinness World Records best-selling game, Super Mario, became a symbol of the first console games⁸ of the 1980s. The same thing happened with the Tetris melody, which evokes nostalgia for those born in the 1990s. It is noteworthy that the Russian folk song “Peddlers” was used as the basis for the soundtrack for Tetris, but it became known abroad only in the context of the game as “music from Tetris”.

When discs appeared, the CD partially displaced audio chips, as it allowed tracks to be recorded and transmitted in advance. Sound designers had control over the process, as they could evaluate the finished compositions before they were combined with the game. The track was played directly from the disc, so the limited amount of memory on the set-top box itself is not a problem. Initially, the creators could use well-known songs. By the time, the stricter the licensing became, the stronger the power of composers in the game industry got.

Details

During game development[⁹, it was difficult to turn music into an accompaniment to the player during a chase, gunfight, or secret mission. The sound design also includes background sounds that accompany the action, the audio interface (e.g. in the main menu or when in danger), and character voices.

Music has a particularly important role in evoking emotion for game players. Hence, it must be more adaptable than the soundtracks. The theme of the game should not only set the mood, it must match exactly with the pace of the gameplay¹⁰. You can go through the same episode at different speeds, so writing a finished album from finished tracks will not work. And then the musical units accompanied by games are smaller, which means they better adapt to each player.

The hero of the game Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart in the club

Most games are unlikely to have time for slow and harmonious scenes and soundtrack transitions. The transitions from one rhythm to another must be done in a couple of seconds, depending on the user. For balanced transitions between episodes of the game, there is a horizontal and vertical convergence. The first occurs quite abruptly, for example, changing the research theme of the battle. The second involves modifying one main theme by speeding it up or slowing it down, increasing or decreasing the volume, and adding instruments. This is more often used not for abrupt movement between locations or tasks, but, for example, as a hint on the way. So, as you approach the nightclub in the game Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the sound of dance beats will increase, new parties are added.

Composer Gustavo Santaolalla in The Last of Us II cameo

Since the game requires dynamic adaptation, the amount of material that the composer needs to write also increases. If this is about 50-70 minutes in the film industry, that is, half of the total running time¹¹, then the duration of the passage of the game varies more, and the amount of sound accompaniment changes along with it. Hence, for The Last of Us II, composer Gustavo Santaolalla wrote about three hours of tracks.

Process

Music for a film or game is more frequently perceived as an accompaniment or an additional design element. Consequently, it seems paradoxical that work on soundtracks begins even before filming, at the stage of the script, or after the creation of a storyboard by game designers.

Once the composers have become familiar with the concept and the intended atmosphere of the game, they choose the direction in which they will develop the sound design. If this is vertical mixing, then you need to set triggers by two properties: at what parameter does the music change and how it changes. It can be affected by location, weather, time of day, level of fatigue or health of the character. Individual musical phrases in vertical mixing, on the other hand, are highly simplified, lack structure, and are sometimes too chaotic. However, this mixing variant, which is most similar to the ambient music genre, is well suited for travel, occasionally interrupted by short fights or tasks. With horizontal mixing, the composer and editors already work with whole compositions, which are divided into several scenes and alternate with each other. As a rule, their triggers are associated with an emotion or a central event in a game sequence. This is a less harmonious way of mixing, since the transitions between musical phrases can be sharp, and the melodies themselves are too long.

Sometimes the game’s sound design also uses stingers – stand-alone compositions that can appear in the middle of vertical mixing. They emphasize important player actions and evoke emotions quickly. Often, they come with replicas of the heroes with commentary on what’s going on.

Nowadays, it is not necessary to specify the time of the next knock of the wheel or the bell of the blade, or the place where the character will hear whispers or birdsong. To do this, there is procedural generation – an artificial intelligence system developed to generate a unique soundtrack for each game from a database of samples¹² created by the composers.

Sounds are selected depending on the scene, location and pace of the game, as well as the state of the character. For example, Rise of the Tomb Raider used Intelligent Music Systems’ dynamic percussion¹³ system for sound design. And in the game No Man’s Sky, for which the band 65 Days of Static wrote a track for 50 minutes, this composition is used as a dataset for artificial intelligence, which selects pieces from there to create a unique track.

Forms

In addition to background accompaniment, music can become part of the gameplay. For example, in Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, the character can play the instrument to advance to the next level. Buttons with notes on the screen have become a direct element of the game mechanics. In Genshin Impact, which became popular last year, players also have the opportunity to play the Lyre of the Winds by pressing the note symbols. Here, a musical instrument is not needed to complete missions, but serves as an addition to the main gameplay. Sometimes you can not play the music with the character’s hands, but just listen to it. For example, in the arcade¹⁴ game Gris, where the heroine begins to sing at the player’s click, accompanied by an ambient melody.

5 Foodie Films to Binge on This Weekend
A selection of films which inspire your inner chef

Reading time 5 minutes

Going beyond life-skills, cooking could be perceived as a source of pleasure and well-being. However, it can be complicated to master such a craft. We’ve put together a selection of movies for those who are still Googling how to cook pasta, but are desperate to develop their culinary skills.

1. Julie and Julia: Cooking Happiness by Recipe (2009)

Frame from the film "Julie and Julia: Cooking Happiness by Recipe" — Frame from the film “Julie and Julia: Cooking Happiness by Recipe”

The film revolves around an aspiring writer, Julie Powell, who works as a call center operator, and Julia Child, author of the cult book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. At the same time, the viewer can watch how the career of Mrs. Child herself begins in the 1940s and 1950s. It becomes obvious that the stories of the two women are similar not only in their love of cooking, but also in their attitude to difficulties and even to their own marriage.

2. Spices and Passions (2014)

Frame from the film "Spices and Passions" — Frame from the film “Spices and Passions”

A family of Indian immigrants, who live on wheels, decides to open a small oriental restaurant in the French province. However, the building where the restaurant is planned to be located is directly opposite the Weeping Willow restaurant, a Michelin-starred restaurant that regularly hosts the President of France himself for dinner. A cold but exciting war breaks out between the owners of the two restaurants. For guests, food and, to some extent, even for love.

3. Toast (2010)

Frame from the film "Toast" — Frame from the film “Toast”

4. Chief Adam Jones (2015)

Frame from the film "Chief Adam Jones" — Frame from the film “Chief Adam Jones”

A few years ago, Adams Jones worked as a chef in a first-rate restaurant in Paris, but drug abuse forced him to resign. Now he works in a small bar in the U.S., where his main duty is to pull oysters out of the sink. Tired of the meaninglessness of life, Adam decides to return to Europe and conquer the culinary world of London. From there he gets his 3 Michelin stars all at once.

5. Chocolat (2000)

Frame from the film "Chocolat" — Frame from the film “Chocolat”

This is an adaptation of the novel by British writer Joanne Haris. A young woman named Vianne Rocher arrives in a provincial French town. The appearance of new people in the city already excites the inhabitants, and when Vianne opens his own chocolate shop, they are completely lost in guessing what kind of strange guest has come to their city. Together with his daughter Anouk, the pastry chef is trying to establish a life in a new place, and at the same time introduce the locals to the exquisite taste of chocolate.

Holes in Invisibility Cloak
How metadata destroys your anonymity

Reading time 7 minutes

The previous article about information security focuses on how to be invisible on the Internet. In addition to the technical instruction, we also told about the errors of the «human factor». However, «torified» traffic, while preventing any IP-address leaks, does not save from other paths to lose data or giving yourself away. About one of the least obvious – read in this article.

Some significant points from the previous article

When a computer connects to Tor, a user’s actions on the Internet are (almost) impersonal. It becomes impossible to track the person’s location, IP-address and other data. However, there are a number of ways to find out where you are and what you are doing: the use of bank cards or phone compromise any information about purchases, movements, calls. Suppose you do not make errors of «human factor» and have successfully installed Whonix according to our instructions. The next step for secure communication or activity on the Internet will be to clean up metadata.

For what reason it is used and why metadata is dangerous

Metadata is an information about a file on your device inside the object itself. To make it easier to understand, let’s take a picture on your phone for an example. The picture has both data (information about where and what color the pixel is) and metadata (it helps to identify a device with which the photo was taken, geolocation at the time of shooting, the size of the image). Metadata improve the quality of information, as it can help to structure the data and set its context. It is used in different areas for analytics, increases the speed of systems and optimizes communication between computer software and files, establishes software licensing restrictions.

Metadata of the author of the article. With its help you can find out the location, model of the phone and even the height above sea level. Site suIP.biz was used to view the metadata.

Despite all the advantages, metadata is dangerous when you seek to anonymize your activities. The fact is that they provide much more personal information about the user than the IP-address. For example, you can find out where a person spends most time (home and place of work), geolocation, devices’ operating system, date of video shooting or creation of a text document, authorship. In Digital Security research «II Files’ metadata: Invisible information, revealing your identity», experts note that mail services, even Protonmail, which is considered the most secure, do not delete metadata at all. Messengers erase all metadata from photos, but files (including images sent as files), video and text documents remain intact. Therefore, anonymizing traffic with Tor makes no sense if you do not delete metadata from published or sent materials, as you become easy to track.

Digital Security research found that mail, messengers, sources for photo and video, and cloud storage leave metadata in most uploaded files.

Security tools

You probably don’t need such a serious anonymization yourself in regular life, so this utility is related to Whonix (Linux’s distributive from the previous part). However, I cannot advise nothing to clean metadata ordinary users too. For laypersons online resources will be suitable, for example, imgonline. But this method has two obvious drawbacks. Firstly, information will be transferred to a specific site, and secondly, the number of file formats which metadata can be deleted is much smaller.

For Linux there is a special software to clean metadata: «MAT – Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit». There are two versions: MAT and MAT2. The last one is more convenient and easier to use. To download the software, you need to enter the command in the Whonix terminal:

$ sudo aptitude install mat2

To view all available commands, type:

$ mat2

Then the list of actions will appear:

Terminal window in Whonix. The screenshot shows all possible operations in MAT2.

To use any command, you must first write the tool name – mat2. The most interesting of the proposed commands is called «–inplace» which removes all metadata. Unfortunately, to address a specific object, you need to specify its directory, so to make this action easier, you should place the files in the system, for example, on the desktop. Write a request in the terminal line:

$ mat2 –inplace /home/user/Desktop/имя файла

We tested the operation of this method by cleaning the metadata from the picture from the gallery, comparing the size of the file before and after: 3.3 MB and 2.3 MB respectively. Almost a third of the information is «data».

Of course, photo does not take up much space on the hard drive, and if you take a larger file, the share of metadata will be insignificant. However, the most popular files distributed by people are images, video, audio and text documents. Together with them, a significant amount of information, however hidden from the average user, but confidential, is transmitted.