Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
How Hollywood can bring dead actors back to the screen
Advancements in hyper-realistic computer generation have allowed massive movie conglomerates to seamlessly map the recognizable digital faces of long-deceased…
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Why early TV cameras filmed painted dolls
Before the advent of perfectly standard digital calibration boards, incredibly desperate broadcasting technicians urgently needed a reliable visual reference.…
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The painstaking hand-painted frames behind Snow White
The deeply staggering production behind Snow White completely revolutionized global theatrical entertainment. Incredibly exhausted studios employed hundreds…
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The voice behind thousands of movie trailers
For completely several decades, the globally iconic phrase starting with In a World was fiercely dominated absolutely by Don LaFontaine. His incredibly…
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Original concept for high-definition television broadcasting was rigorously tested during the nineteen thirties.
Long before modern flat screens, early broadcasting pioneers successfully transmitted surprisingly crisp, multi-hundred-line electronic signals. Though vastly…
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The inaudible sound that makes horror feel worse
Infrasound consists of rumbling acoustic waves that fall just below the threshold of human hearing. Filmmakers strategically weave these inaudible frequencies…
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Why animators kept mirrors on their desks
Before motion capture technology existed, conveying authentic emotion in drawn characters required intense self-scrutiny. Legendary animators kept mirrors at…
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Popeye's spinach strength came from a decimal error
The creators of Popeye specifically chose canned spinach to be the source of his legendary super strength based on a wildly inaccurate German scientific study…
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The James Bond theme began as a song about sneezing
Before becoming the slick, brassy international anthem for the world's most incredibly famous secret agent, the exact same memorable melody was composed for…
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Why old silent-film chases look unnaturally fast
When watching extremely old black-and-white comedy reels, the wildly chaotic, fast-paced running of the actors is often incorrectly assumed to be a pure…
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How Coca-Cola helped define Santa's modern look
Before the intense rise of highly aggressive corporate advertising in the 1930s, the beloved holiday figure was frequently illustrated as an incredibly tall,…
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The labor politics behind the Oscars
The most glamorous night in Hollywood history was originally designed strictly as a corporate suppression tactic. In the 1920s, ruthless studio executives…
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Why TV test bars came with a 1,000-hertz tone
The colorful, screeching test bars that appear when a television channel goes totally offline are actually highly complex calibrators. The intense neon SMPTE…
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Why blockbusters film under fake titles
When multi-million dollar film productions scout locations in crowded cities, they never use their real titles. Massive science fiction and superhero…
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The film that takes 35 days to finish
Far surpassing sprawling fantasy epics, a bizarre Swedish experimental film titled Logistics holds the absolute record for cinematic length. The exhausting…
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Doctor Who invented regeneration to replace its star
When the original lead actor of Doctor Who suffered severe health problems, the writers faced the impossible task of replacing him. They brilliantly invented…
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How empty stadiums got digital crowds
When global events forced sports leagues to play inside completely empty arenas, broadcasters utilized advanced augmented reality systems to digitally insert…
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Political talk show that outlived its creators
While countless hit dramas eventually fade into obscurity, the longest-running television show in history is an incredibly dry American political interview…
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Hitchcock built an entire apartment courtyard indoors
For his masterpiece 'Rear Window', Alfred Hitchcock constructed an impossibly massive, fully operational apartment courtyard directly inside a soundstage. The…
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The day the BBC announced there was no news
On a remarkably quiet day in 1930, the BBC news announcer simply turned on the microphone and stated 'There is no news' before playing piano music for fifteen…
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A comic empire began as a late night sketch
The massive global franchise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was entirely born from absolute creative boredom. It was originally sketched out during a…
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Reality TV has storytellers hiding behind the scenes
Despite completely lacking formal dialogue scripts, major reality television franchises employ a massive staff of specialized story producers. These unseen…
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Three dimensional cinema is a century old
Long before modern computer-generated blockbusters revolutionized the theater experience, the visual gimmick was heavily pioneered during the silent era. The…
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The first feature-length animated film came from Argentina
While Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is widely credited as the first feature-length animated movie, it was technically beaten to the punch by…
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