Here are some of the best tech moments in the year’s movies
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Version 0 of 1. “Like the Oscars, but with explosions.” That’s how Popular Mechanics introduces its second annual list of great technological achievements in 2015 movies. You’ve already seen the Oscars; here’s a sample from the magazine’s “incredibly special effects.” Best use of an iPhone: The indie hit “Tangerine,” about the lives of two transgender Los Angeles prostitutes, was shot completely on an iPhone 5s. Filmmaker Sean Baker, who put an anamorphic adapter lens on the camera to take advantage of L.A.’s “very specific light,” said he valued the smartphone’s size: “You are one step away from having a hidden camera.” Best stunt: The underwater scene in “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.” In one continuous six-minute take, Tom Cruise searches for a computer chip in an underground tank of water. Computer-generated effects enhanced some dangerous elements, but the central stunt — Cruise holding his breath for several minutes — was real. “We hired a world champion at holding his breath” to train him, stunt coordinator Wade Eastman said. “It’s all mental.” Most-specific sand: For “The Martian,” production designer Arthur Max got images from the Mars rover Curiosity, then consulted with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Johnson Space Center. They took samples of stone and sand from Jordan and mixed them with a variety of soils and gravels from Hungary to get something that looks like what’s really on Mars. They made 2,500 cubic tons of sand — a volume so great it took four weeks just to load onto the set. |