Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
The fake director who built a terrible filmography
Directors who disowned a film because of studio interference could use the pseudonym Alan Smithee under Directors Guild rules. The fake director accumulated…
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The plot device that doesn't really matter
A MacGuffin is an object, secret, or goal that characters pursue and that drives the plot, even though its exact nature may matter little to the audience. The…
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Cinematic masterpiece shot for two hundred dollars
The documentary Tarnation was made for $218, using free editing software on a basic Apple computer to assemble 20 years of home videos and answering-machine…
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Problematic comic trope of fridged characters
Writer Gail Simone coined “Women in Refrigerators” after a Green Lantern story left the hero’s murdered girlfriend in a refrigerator. The term describes…
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The pitch that rises forever but never gets higher
A Shepard tone creates the illusion of a pitch that keeps rising without ever getting higher. It layers overlapping tones an octave apart, shifting their…
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Why TV runs at 29.97 frames per second
Engineers chose the fractional rate to keep color television signals from interfering with audio.
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The hidden signals that ruined copied tapes
Macrovision added hidden signals to rental tapes that confused a VCR's automatic gain control, leaving copies made on a connected VCR badly distorted.
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The terrifying sound that dominates movie trailers
A braam is a booming synthetic brass hit used to build sudden tension; in theaters, its impact can rumble through the seats and make danger feel close.
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The ancient ratio hiding in movie compositions
Some directors use the golden ratio as a compositional guide, but no formula can guarantee a balanced-looking frame.
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When computers colored classic black-and-white films
In the 1980s, media companies used early computers to add color to classic black-and-white films. Many directors saw the results as a violation of the…
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The only Oscar to win an Oscar
Composer Oscar Hammerstein is the only person named Oscar to win an Academy Award statuette.
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The fake movie trailers that became real films
Audience enthusiasm helped turn joke trailers such as Machete and Thanksgiving into feature films.
Discover moreWalt Disney was the original voice of Mickey Mouse
When Mickey Mouse debuted in the late 1920s, the studio couldn’t afford professional voice actors, so Disney voiced him himself. He supplied Mickey’s…
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Spielberg removed E.T.'s guns, then regretted the edit
For the 2002 rerelease, agents pursuing the children had their guns digitally replaced with walkie-talkies. Spielberg later said concern about showing…
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The Terminator's metallic sound started with a frying pan
Composer Brad Fiedel struck a cast-iron pan with a hammer to create a metallic sound for the score. Recording and using that impact gave the futuristic…
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The Oscars had to invent their own suspense
Early ceremonies did not use today's sealed-envelope reveal; winners could be known in advance. The sealed system began in 1941, turning the announcement into…
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Disney patented headset-free 3D holograms
One patent describes interactive 3D images viewers could see without wearing headsets; a patent doesn't mean the technology is actually used in the parks.
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Oscar stands on five original branches of filmmaking
The Academy’s statuette depicts a knight holding a sword on a film reel. Its five spokes represent the original branches: actors, directors, producers,…
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The 14-year-old who imagined electronic television
Philo Farnsworth described conceiving line-by-line image scanning as a teenager, inspired by parallel rows in a field. In 1927, at 21, he demonstrated an…
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The movie that cost over $447 million to make
The reported production budget exceeded $447 million, and after marketing, the film needed more than $1 billion in box-office revenue just to break even.
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Streaming can turn down the loudness-war winner
Heavy compression lets a master recording pack more sound near its peak level. But Spotify's loudness normalization reduces a very loud master to its playback…
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An Oscar comes with a resale condition, not just a thank-you speech
The Academy requires recipients covered by its agreement to offer the statuette back for $1 before selling it. The restriction also extends to heirs and…
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The TV show with almost a thousand celebrity voices
Over several decades, nearly a thousand celebrities—from physicists to pop stars—have voiced themselves on The Simpsons, which holds the Guinness World Record…
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Spectacular failure of high-budget interactive television experiments this year
Major studios have abandoned large investments in choose-your-own-adventure TV after audiences rejected the format. Viewers wanted to watch the story unfold,…
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