Luc Besson on ‘Valerian’ and his return to bold, inventive sci-fi

With Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Luc Besson is once again delivering an elaborate sci-fi epic, his first since The Fifth Element. (Lucy, his last film, with Scarlett Johansson, was decidedly more small-scale.) Based on the French comic series Valerian and Laureline — which also served as a major inspiration for Star Wars — the film centers on a duo of space and time-traveling agents who are tasked with solving a galactic mystery.

Valerian, which opens in theaters July 21, stars Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Rihanna (as a shapeshifting alien, no less) and Clive Owen. The film is also the biggest independent-film production ever, with a budget of $180 million. It’s filled with the sumptuous visuals we’ve come to expect from Besson — the only difference now is that filmmaking technology has finally caught up with his imagination.

How did working on this film compare to The Fifth Element? We’ve been waiting for a while to see you handling a big sci-fi world again.

I’m back! Honestly, The Fifth Element was a nightmare to do, because, at the time, special effects were old-fashioned, it was before we went digital. Every time I wanted to use a green screen, it took like six hours. It was really painful. This one … because we prepped a lot, it was easier. Longer, but easier. The Fifth Element has 188 shots with special effects; Valerian has 2,734. It was less painful, but technology has made it easier for a director. You just have to specifically be very precise about what you want, and you need to have a good time to do it.

I was also very lucky because I worked with WETA, who did Avatar, and ILM, who did Star Wars. So I’ve already got the best two companies in the world. Usually, you have one or the other. But for the first time, they accepted working together. The film was actually too big to handle by themselves. And it was just a pure pleasure to work with those guys because they were trying to be the best, each of them. I was on the postproduction for the last year, and I was amazed every day by the level of what they had.

There’s a third company who worked on [Valerian] called Rodeo; they did all the spaceships and Alpha station. They were also very good.

Now that you can do so much more with digital effects, when do you go practical instead? The practical costumes in The Fifth Element still look very realistic today.

I’m going to give you an example: You have something to build, so you open your toolbox and take what is most appropriate to do it. If it’s a hammer, or a screwdriver or a saw, it’s the same. So if I have a shot to do, my first question with my team is to say, “What is the best way of doing this?” It’s not automatically CGI or props. And for me, that’s the best approach.

Nicola Dove

The Doghan Daguis [above], which are like the Three Stooges in the film, in fact, are all CG. But I have real actors playing them all the time, so there’s lots of rehearsal with them so we can get the rhythm of the lines. But the third time we shoot, we built three Doghan Daguis figures and have them as a model. They’re like 5 feet tall, they have the hair and the eyes, they’re perfect.

They can’t move, but every time we finished a shot, we pushed the actors away and put the three models in, and suddenly you have exactly the right light on them. You see exactly how the skin is reacting, you see the reflections on the eyes. We were filming a lot of that, even if it wasn’t animated, so the people from WETA know exactly how the light will react on them later. So, in reality, we have actors, CGI and props in the same shot.

Do you find the fact that you can do practically anything now digitally to be limiting?

You know, give a Ferrari to someone, and one guy will be scared of driving it. And one guy will be thrilled and excited to drive it. And I’m the thrilled and excited one.

You’ve also talked about how watching Avatar made you think this film was possible. Could you talk a little more about that?

It wasn’t the film by itself — I’m a huge fan of the film and the storytelling, but that’s one thing. What inspired me a lot is the experience of [director James Cameron] going through it. The technology wasn’t ready, so he worked with people, he invented the technology to make it possible. Jim invited me on the set, so I went for a day to watch how he was working. He makes it very easy. Suddenly, you realize, “OK, in fact, a human can do it!”

I’m not trying to compare myself to him at all. But, suddenly, before I came on the set of Avatar, I thought it was impossible to make the film. And when I saw him working, I thought, “OK, if I take my time and I prep a lot, we can do it too.”

Was there anything about the technology Cameron used to make Avatar that influenced you?

What’s very important is he worked with this team at WETA when they did Avatar. I used most of the same team, because I went to New Zealand to work with them. So the knowledge they had from Avatar, plus the new evolution [in technology] that they’ve had for the last four years… the tools they’ve given me are amazing, and they would never have this quality if Jim didn’t do Avatar.

What specific tools or technologies did you use in the film?

It’s the knowledge that they [the visual-effects teams] have. Suddenly you have people in gray with suits and a camera, and you’re recording that, and it’s no more complicated than if you were on a set with normal actors. They make it totally easy to use. And that’s the big change. When I was with my actors using blue screens, it was easy. I just had to direct my actors and do my framing, and I wasn’t even thinking about the rest, because it was handled by them.

The same thing with ILM — they did the entire big market scene. I dealt with the location, set and actors, and I didn’t have to think about the technology and how they’re going do it. The souvenir I have from Fifth Element is exactly the opposite. When a shot was a special effect, the entire set was locked like a church. Even me, I needed a pass to get in. They didn’t make it easy for the director, they were taking the set from me.

STX Pictures

How did you approach making the complex desert-market sequence in the film? Just the ingenuity of how you visualized normal people walking around the desert, while also interacting with another dimension, seemed astounding.

When we started the scene, I had a meeting with all the technicians, around 200 people, and tried to explain the big market. And at the end, they all smiled and I could tell nobody understood what I was saying. So I said to myself, “OK, I have a problem here, they’re not going to know what they’re doing.” Storyboards and my explanation were not enough because we had to portray the desert vision, the market vision, the point of view of an alien and the point of view of a human.

So I took all the students from my director and writing school in Paris — there’s 120 students, almost like a big massive class — and we shot all the 600 shots from the storyboard one by one. The entire thing. The students were playing the actors, they were doing the props, costumes and everything. I edited that 18-minute scene together, added some temp music, and then I had the full scene to show the team. And once they saw it, they said “OK, we understand!”

It’s so funny to watch the scene now — we have the final version, as well as the one made by the students, and it’s hilarious. It’s exactly the same length and the same shots, except one is creaky and the other is good. It was the only way for everyone to understand what we were doing.

Will we be able to see the entire student clip on the DVD later?

Probably a little bit, but not the entire 18 minutes.

What is your biggest lesson from this film?

I think the biggest lesson is, when I started seven years ago, I said “Let’s try to do it.” Now, I made it. And I’m kind of surprised myself. It’s exactly the same feeling as wanting to take a boat around the world without stopping. And then now, a couple days before the opening, I see the coast. I made the tour! And I’m just happy for that.

Do you know what you’re doing next?

I’ll probably do something smaller without special effects. (Laughs)

YouTube kills the video editing tools you never used

Unless you’re a YouTube power user, you may not have known that the site had the Video Editor and Photo slideshow tools to create finished video projects. Now that you’ve learned that, I’m afraid to say that those tools are about to get the axe. If you’re currently cutting a project, you have until September 20th to finish and publish it, Google notes on its YouTube support pages.

As for why the tools are going away, it’s likely that not many folks were using it. Web video editing is hella slow compared to native applications, because you have to upload your video and download the final copy. That said, it was a good option for Chromebook users or folks with underpowered laptops or tablets.

However, Google points out that “there are many free and paid third-party editing tools available if you’re looking for new editing software.” In other words, the app was useful to as a way to get folks on board YouTube when it came along in 2010, but with more apps out there, it’s no longer worth the resources.

If you’re willing to pay and have a decent PC or Mac, other standalone apps include Adobe Premiere CC, Apple’s Final Cut Pro X for Mac only and Avid’s professionally-oriented Media Composer. Avid also has a free app called Media Composer First, Apple has iMovie for Mac and Clips for iOS, while Microsoft has Movie Maker for Windows. If you just want a web editor, there are options like Magisto and WeVideo that work on most browsers, including the Chrome browser on Chromebook.

Video Editor and Photo slideshow are heading to Google app heaven along with Spaces, Windows and Mac Chrome apps and Google Reader (RIP). However, at least Google is keeping its Enhancements app that can filter, blur and trim videos, to keep the social media crowd happy.

Via: 9 to 5 Gogle

Source: YouTube

The best smartphones and mobile gear for students

Some of us here at Engadget can remember a time when cellphones on college campuses were strictly “for emergencies” (read: calls home to Mom and Dad). By now, of course, things have changed: Our handsets come with us everywhere, and most of us don’t have to worry about pissing off our parents by exceeding our minutes allotment. We imagine many of today’s college freshmen already have phones, but for those of you who’ve earned an upgrade, we crammed five into our back-to-school guide, including some budget options. Not in the market yet for a new phone? You might still want an external battery pack, a fast microSDXC card or, heaven forbid, a “selfie case,” which is definitely a thing.

Source: Engadget’s 2017 Back to School Guide

Renders show the Galaxy Note 8 is all about that Infinity Display

We’re getting another look at the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 thanks to some mockup renders created by a case maker based on leaked details. BGR got ahold of them and said they’re probably our best look at the new model yet.

From these images, we see that the phone has an Infinity Display with almost no bezel and a slew of sensors above, including a front-facing camera, iris scanner, LED and a light sensor. The design is a little boxier than the Galaxy S8. On the back, the Note 8 has its new dual-camera system, an LED flash/heart rate monitor and a fingerprint sensor, which while still being awkwardly close to the camera, appears to be separated from the other components by a lip.

These images add to what we already knew about the Note 8. It will come with 6GB of RAM, have a 6.3-inch Infinity Display and pack a 3,300 mAh battery. The Galaxy Note 8 is expected to launch in September and will be officially announced at Samsung’s Unpacked event on August 23rd.

Source: BGR

Snapchat’s features could soon be harder to copy

Snap Inc. has quietly acquired a team that specializes in protection against reverse engineering. Prior to joining SnapChat, the Strong.Codes team built software which prevented dismantling a product to learn how to copy or rebuild it. This process obviously isn’t news to Snap, which has previously acknowledged the risk of other social media sites mimicking Snapchat’s features. Risks that were realized when Instagram and Facebook unveiled their “story” features in quick succession.

Of course, companies can develop their own features without trawling Snapchat’s code. And the company deals with far more brazen imitation than added features on Facebook or Instagram. South Korea’s Snow, for example, is basically a carbon copy of Snapchat.

During his first earnings conference call in May, Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel said: “If you want to be a creative company, you have got to be comfortable with and enjoy the fact that people copy your products if you make great stuff.” Imitation may be a form of flattery, but the acquisition of the Strong.Codes team suggests Snapchat isn’t going to make it easy for its rivals to do that.

Via: Bloomberg

Delta aims to replace boarding passes with fingerprints

Delta is expanding its biometric check-in feature that allows some customers to use their fingerprints instead of a boarding pass. The service was first launched at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in May and let Delta SkyMiles members enter the Delta Sky Club with their fingerprints rather than a physical ID. Now, those members can use their fingerprints to board their plane.

The airline is partnering with Clear for this service and SkyMiles members just have to enroll with Clear in order to take advantage of the feature at DCA. “It’s a win-win program. Biometric verification has a higher level of accuracy than paper boarding passes and gives agents more time to assist customers with seat changes and other skilled tasks instead of having to scan individual tickets – and customers have less to keep track of as they travel through the airport,” said Delta COO Gil West in a statement.

Earlier this year, Delta began testing a facial recognition system for checking luggage at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. And it’s not the only group looking to use biometrics for airport identification. The US is looking at a widespread facial recognition-based security plan and Australia is working on equipping all of its international airports with facial, iris and fingerprint recognition to remove the need for passport checks.

Delta says the next step for its DCA fingerprint rollout is to allow passengers to use their prints for baggage check. “Once we complete testing, customers throughout our domestic network could start seeing this capability in a matter of months – not years. Delta really is delivering the future now,” said West.

Source: Delta

ARKit Roundup: Turn-by-Turn Directions, Precise Room Measurements, and Pac-Man

Since the announcement of Apple’s new augmented reality developer platform at WWDC in June, developers have been sharing interesting new AR experiences on iOS devices, including practical applications like measuring tape apps and basic character model demos.

Today, we’ve rounded up the newest examples of how ARKit could work in real-world scenarios, starting off with a maps addition that could bolster directions in Apple Maps. As with all ARKit demos, today’s examples are not confirmed to be the final launch products for augmented reality apps coming down the line, but they are intriguing glimpses into what users can expect when the AR features debut on iOS 11 this fall.

Images via @AndrewProjDent
Shared by iOS developer Andrew Hart on Twitter, the first example of the AR-enhanced maps software overlays destinations on points of interest when looked at through the camera of your iPhone or iPad, giving an estimation of how far you are from each location.

Burrowing deeper into getting directions to a specific location, Hart used ARKit and Apple developer framework Core Location — which lets developers integrate the geographic location and orientation of a device directly into their software — to create augmented reality turn-by-turn directions.

Acquisitions of mapping companies and patent filings dating back to 2009 have long suggested that Apple is interested in adding AR features into Apple Maps, but the technology prior to ARKit has likely not been promising enough for such an implementation.

ARKit + CoreLocation, part 2 pic.twitter.com/AyQiFyzlj3

— Andrew Hart (@AndrewProjDent) July 21, 2017

Continuing on the measuring AR app trend, a new tool was shared on the Made With ARKit Twitter account recently, allowing users to perform precise square foot measurements of an entire room. The last few measuring apps detailed in our ARKit roundup in June centered upon AR-enabled measuring tapes that could only provide distance estimates in a straight line.

For those interested in gaming AR apps, developer Kobi Snir shared a real-life version of Pac-Man that uses ARKit to place users directly within the game’s maze, filled with dots and ghosts. The players take on the role of Pac-Man, and move around the maze to eat every dot while avoiding the ghosts. Another recent gaming-related ARKit example showcased what Minecraft would look like in the real world.

Games have been a core part of ARKit from the day it was announced, with Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi touting Pokémon Go as one of the first apps that will receive ARKit-related enhancements this fall. “The Pokémon is so real, he’s right there on the ground,” Federighi said at WWDC. “As the ball bounces, it actually bounces right there in the real environment. It’s AR like you’ve never seen it before.”

Of course, these are just a handful of recent examples of ARKit that developers have shared. Others include a graffiti doodling app, a shopping app (similar to IKEA’s planned ARKit app), and an inter-dimensional portal. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said AR makes him so excited that he just wants to “yell out and scream,” telling Bloomberg Businessweek last month that, “When people begin to see what’s possible, it’s going to get them very excited—like we are, like we’ve been.”

Tag: ARKit
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Apple Has Spent Record $2.2 Million Lobbying Trump Administration Over Past Three Months

Apple spent an all-time high $2.2 million lobbying Donald Trump’s federal government between April 1 and June 30, 2017, according to a disclosure form filed by the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Image: Drew Angerer—Getty Images
That amount is by far the most Apple has ever spent on lobbying in a single quarter, eclipsing the previous record of nearly $1.4 million spent during Trump’s first three months as President of the United States. Apple has now spent nearly $3.6 million on lobbying during the first six months of his term.

The extra $800,000 that Apple spent between April 1 and June 30 of this year, compared to January 1 to March 31, is its largest ever quarter-over-quarter increase in lobbying expenses. Apple had never increased its lobbying spending by more than $330,000 from one quarter to the next before now.

Apple’s surge in spending is perhaps no surprise, as the company has disagreed with Trump on a number of fundamental issues, ranging from his temporary immigration ban to withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.

“There are clearly areas where we’re not nearly on the same page,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO, in a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. Nonetheless, Cook has showed a willingness to work with Trump so far.

By comparison, Apple spent $1.12 million lobbying between April 1 and June 30 of 2016, the final year of Barack Obama’s administration, meaning it has nearly doubled its spending in just one year. Apple spent around $730,000 during the first six months of Obama’s presidency, according to 2009 disclosure forms.

Apple continued to lobby the government about issues related to corporate tax reform, climate change, diversity in the workplace, green technology, patent reform, privacy, education, accessibility, music licensing, and regulation of mobile medical applications, according to the latest disclosure form.

Apple has gradually increased its lobbying spending over the past decade. In 2007, the final year of George W. Bush’s administration, the company spent $1.3 million, compared to nearly $4.7 million in 2016. Apple is well on pace to smash that record this year after spending $3.6 million in the first six months alone.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: Donald Trump, lobbying
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Apple Appoints Deirdre O’Brien to New ‘Vice President of People’ Role

Apple today announced that it is promoting Deirdre O’Brien to a new head HR role, “vice president of People.” O’Brien, who previously served as vice president of Worldwide Sales and Operations, has been at Apple for nearly 30 years.

According to the news release, O’Brien will lead all HR functions, like talent development, recruiting, benefits, compensation, and business support, plus she’ll oversee Apple University, where employees are trained. She will be reporting directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

“As long as I’ve been at Apple, Deirdre has been the glue that bonds our operations, sales, marketing and finance teams to deliver products to our customers,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Deirdre deeply understands Apple’s unique culture and that people join Apple to do the best work of their lives. She is a superb leader and I’m thrilled she will be bringing her experience and talent to this critical role.”

O’Brien first joined Apple in 1988 and has had a “key role” in each Apple hardware product launch over the past 20 years. She will start her new position as vice president of People in the fall.

“I love Apple and, like so many of my colleagues, I’m honored to have made it my life’s work,” said Deirdre. “I’m excited to begin this new chapter, supporting 120,000 incredibly talented people around the world who are motivated to do amazing things every day. It is a privilege to work among such a diverse and talented team, and to help them thrive here at Apple.”

Apple has recently taken to announcing high profile hires and promotions on its news site, most recently sharing the hiring of Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, two former Sony Pictures executives who will lead Apple’s original programming efforts, and the promotion of Isabel Ge Mahe to Managing Director of Greater China.
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The New Moto E4 is a budget-friendly Nougat machine (review)

The Android spectrum seems to be shrinking more and more with each passing year. Gone are the days between true top-tier flagship (us old-timers used to say “hero”) phones and the budget-friendly devices made for the masses.

Motorola— I mean, now Lenovo, is a shining example of this increasing parity in the smartphone market. From the turbocharged Z series (Z2 Play, Moto Z Force Droid, and Moto Z, and moving down to the G line (G5 and G5 Plus), you really don’t lose nearly as much in terms of real-world quality & performance as you would have just a handful of years ago.

Perhaps an even better example and one that exists right in this smartphone family tree is the Moto E series. In only its 4th year of existence, we are at the, appropriately named, Moto E4.  While the “E” was dubbed the budget version of a Motorola smartphone aimed at first-time owners (and rightfully so when this series was launched), this phone as quickly evolved into a true daily workhorse of a phone; especially when you consider the money you’ll part with for the experience. But I’m getting ahead of myself, like usual.

Overall, my opinion is that this phone really makes hay in both the fit/feel/dimensions department, general performance, and camera capabilities. Let’s focus there.

Body & In-Hand

A wee bit of bloatware.

If you’ve handled or read about Moto phones in the past, there are no real surprises here. The Moto E4 sports Android 7.1 Nougat with just a minimal skin on top, typical of most Moto phones. This version of the E also provide the live-view notifications on the screen itself (when prodded with a bump) vs a simple flashing LED light, and some gesture-base app actions (launching the camera and other standard Moto tricks). My review unit came as a Verizon phone, and while there were a few cases of bloatware, they weren’t terrible to live with.

Fingerprint sensor, home button, and swipe navigation, all rolled up into one.

Some new features coming to this generation of the device includes fingerprint sensor presented low and center. This also acts as the phone’s home button, and also acts as a swipe navigator we’ve seen in other devices (long tap to lock the phone, swipe left to go back, and swipe right to view recent apps in lieu of a dedicated button).
In my time with the phone, the sensor worked pretty darn well. An LG G6 is my personal daily driver, which works flawlessly; the E4 had only a few misreads, nothing to complain about at all if you’re used to fingerprint readers.

The E4 body has really grown up since its inception, and now hold a 5″ diagonal screen (vs. a 4.3″ display on the original), with a resolution of 1280 x 720. The new E4 is also much thinner; the original measured in at almost a full half-inch (0.48″)…the current model comes in at .37″. But the difference is even more noticeable in the hand… the new version feels like a premium smartphone; very svelte and thin, with bezel sizes that belie its pedigree.

Below I photographed the current E4 vs. the original version to show the differences in look & feel; feel free to gander at how this phone has grown up:

Performance & Camera

While you would have been hard-pressed to find an Original Moto E user who’d call their device “fast” (the original sported a Snapdragon 200 chip), today’s E4 is a very capable daily driver for almost everyone. While not the bleeding-edge 835 chip of the top-tier models, the Qualcomm 425/427 (depending on carrier) chipset works for almost all normal usage. Obviously if hard-core gaming is your thing, you may want to look elsewhere; but if that’s you then you’re probably not reading this review to begin with.
Onboard memory is 16 GB standard (expandable to 128 GB), and 2 GB RAM.

On the camera side, the specs have improved, but unfortunately, not to the level one would hope for. This E4 shooter is an 8-megapixel affair, compared to the 5 MP on the original E. While shots taken in good lighting came out pretty nice, lower light photos were smeared and/or grainy, losing their color along the way.

Value & Conclusion

While the Moto E4 is not meant to be in the ring with the flagship phones in the market, there is something to be said for a device that lets you do all your things, do them pretty well, and leave you some money in your wallet.

Yes, it’s not a Galaxy S8 with the latest 835 chip in it, nor does the camera have neat tricks like optical zoom. But consider this: For everything you get in the E4, you pay only $130. That’s not a typo; that’s the full retail price direct from motorola.com. if you buy from Amazon, you can get a sponsored device (with Amazon “Special Offers” showing on the lock screen a-la Kindle devices) for $99.99.

Overall I really like the new Moto E4. It’s not a specification beast like some phones, but at the end of the day, you generally won’t feel left wanting. And you’ll still have almost enough to pay next month’s rent, to boot!