Hollywood, Sex, and You & Me: What's Ruining Our Cities This Week

Hollywood, Sex, and You & Me: What's Ruining Our Cities This Week

Why Honolulu police can have illegal sex in the name of law enforcement, how one L.A. neighborhood has chosen to destroy America, and who might actually be responsible for destroying the planet (spoiler: it’s us). It’s a rather depressing What’s Ruining Our Cities!

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Inside the Special Effects That Made Gravity Look So Great

Gravity was a stunning piece of cinema, brought to life by some beautiful special effects. In this video show’n’tell, VFX company Framestore reveals how it achieved some of the most breathtaking scenes.

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Changes in Red Hook, violence in Kiev, and new ideas for Paris from mayoral candidates.

Changes in Red Hook, violence in Kiev, and new ideas for Paris from mayoral candidates. Plus Bogotá bans cars for a week, California might divide into six states, and the surprising history of Hollywood. These are all the Urban Reads you need.

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Why Hollywood Hacking Is So Hilariously Horrible

Why Hollywood Hacking Is So Hilariously Horrible

The hacking scenes in House of Cards are wildly unrealistic. They’re everything from infuriating to hilarious, but they are definitely not surprising. It turns out, though, that this long tradition of portraying hacking horribly, horribly wrong in TV and film is often intentional.

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The Ugly Behind-the-Scenes History of Video Game Movies

The Ugly Behind-the-Scenes History of Video Game Movies

Few Hollywood announcements are treated with such fierce-yet-wounded anticipation as video game adaptations. Full of incredible artistry, instantly-recognizable characters and an increasingly-mature approach to storytelling, you’d be forgiven for thinking gaming is a medium particularly well suited for making the jump to the silver screen. But history tells another story.

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How LED Streetlights Will Change Cinema (And Make Cities Look Awesome)

How LED Streetlights Will Change Cinema (And Make Cities Look Awesome)

The announcement last year that Los Angeles would be replacing its high-pressure sodium streetlights—known for their distinctive yellow hue—with new, blue-tinted LEDs might have a profound effect on at least one local industry. All of those LEDs, with their new urban color scheme, will dramatically change how the city appears on camera, thus giving Los Angeles a brand new look in the age of digital filmmaking. As Dave Kendricken writes for No Film School, "Hollywood will never look the same."

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2014 Oscar Nominees Chose Arri Over RED, But Don’t Read Into It

2014 Oscar Nominees Chose Arri Over RED, But Don't Read Into It

It’s always fun seeing how huge-budget Hollywood films were shot, and what equipment they use. SetLife magazine created a list of just what cameras and lenses were used on each film nominated for 2014 Best Picture and Best Cinematography nominees. It’s not without some surprises.

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100 Famous Movie Quotes as Charts

100 Famous Movie Quotes as ChartsNathan Yau has turned the American Film Institute’s 100 most memorable quotes from American cinema into chart form. Here they are, in all their wonderful geeky glory.

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From Dream to 3D Reality: The Fascinating Origins of Pixar

From Dream to 3D Reality: The Fascinating Origins of Pixar

Before a story about toys, before monsters went corporate, before anyone went searching for Nemo, and before twenty seven Academy Awards, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company whose clients included the government and the medical community. The story of Pixar isn’t exactly full of superheroes, adorable robots, or talking bugs. The tale of the most profitable and critically adored animation studio in the history of the world (yes, by sheer gross numbers, more so than Disney) is one filled with financial difficulties, fired Apple employees, digital printers, and an animated left hand. And it all started with a Mormon graduate student at the University of Utah.

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San Francisco’s tech companies are bringing it down, L.A.’

San Francisco’s tech companies are bringing it down, L.A.’s having trouble growing up, plus sexy cabbies, vertical cemeteries, Bloomberg’s next act, and much, much more in this week’s Urban Reads.

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