The Hidden Edge of Battery-Powered Stage Lights in the Pop-Up Event Industry
The pop-up event industry thrives on adaptability. From exclusive brand activations to guerrilla-style concerts, the hallmark of success lies in agility. In this competitive landscape, battery-powered stage lights have emerged as a strategic asset, offering more than operational convenience.
This analysis uncovers how these lights provide businesses and performers with a competitive edge through efficiency, sustainability, and enhanced audience engagement.
Efficiency in Setup and Execution
Time is money in event production. Battery-powered lighting minimizes logistical delays by eliminating the need for power distribution and cable management. This efficiency directly translates into reduced labor costs and faster turnaround.
Sustainability as a Value Proposition
Brands are under pressure to align with environmental goals. Battery-powered lights support sustainability narratives by lowering carbon footprints and reducing dependence on non-renewable energy during events.
Expanding Creative Possibilities
Free from the constraints of wired setups, these lights empower designers to experiment with unconventional layouts—highlighting architectural features, creating immersive experiences, and adapting quickly to client demands.
Broad Market Applications
Entertainment sector: Live performers, DJs, and mobile productions.
Retail activations: Fashion and lifestyle brands hosting ephemeral experiences.
Corporate marketing: Product launches and interactive installations.
Technology Integration and Data Value
Advanced lighting solutions offer wireless control, DMX networking, and app-based programming. Beyond aesthetics, they provide data on battery cycles and energy use—valuable for planning future events.
Resilience in Outdoor Markets
With weatherproof designs, these systems unlock outdoor opportunities, from music festivals to cultural street fairs.
Financial Impact for Event Organizers
While initial investment may appear higher, the savings on infrastructure (cables, power, labor) and long-term reuse deliver measurable ROI. Businesses view them as assets rather than consumables.
Conclusion:
Battery-powered stage lights are not a passing trend but a critical innovation in the evolution of pop-up events. Their value extends beyond performance—they align with sustainability, reduce operational costs, and expand creative potential. For stakeholders in the pop-up economy, adopting these tools represents not just a technical upgrade but a strategic advantage, and you can find a wide range of professional lighting options at a trusted pro audio video shop. Choosing the right equipment today ensures smoother events tomorrow, giving organizers the freedom to focus on creativity rather than logistics. In the fast-paced world of pop-up experiences, staying ahead with smart, flexible gear is no longer optional—it’s essential.
A case study on technologies for behavioral monitoring and profiling using motion sensors and wireless networking infrastructure inside offi
A case study on technologies for behavioral monitoring and profiling using motion sensors and wireless networking infrastructure inside offices and other facilities"
Wolfie Christl, Cracked Labs, November 2024
This case study is part of the ongoing project “Surveillance and Digital Control at Work” (2023-2024) led by Cracked Labs, which aims to explore how companies use personal data on workers in Europe, together with AlgorithmWatch, Jeremias Prassl (Oxford), UNI Europa and GPA, funded by the Austrian Arbeiterkammer.
Case study “Tracking Indoor Location, Movement and Desk Occupancy in the Workplace” (PDF, 25 pages)
Summary
As offices, buildings and other corporate facilities become networked environments, there is a growing desire among employers to exploit data gathered from their existing digital infrastructure or additional sensors for various purposes. Whether intentionally or as a byproduct, this includes personal data about employees, their movements and behaviors.
Technology vendors are promoting solutions that repurpose an organization’s wireless networking infrastructure as a means to monitor and analyze the indoor movements of employees and others within buildings. While GPS technology is too imprecise to track indoor location, Wi-Fi access points that provide internet connectivity for laptops, smartphones, tables and other networked devices can be used to track the location of these devices. Bluetooth, another wireless technology, can also be used to monitor indoor location. This can involve Wi-Fi access points that track Bluetooth-enabled devices, so-called “beacons” that are installed throughout buildings and Bluetooth-enabled badges carried by employees. In addition, employers can utilize badging systems, security cameras and video conferencing technology installed in meeting rooms for behavioral monitoring, or even environmental sensors that record room temperature, humidity and light intensity. Several technology vendors provide systems that use motion sensors installed under desks or in the ceilings of rooms to track room and desk attendance.
This case study explores software systems and technologies that utilize personal data on employees to monitor room and desk occupancy and track employees’ location and movements inside offices and other corporate facilities. It focuses on the potential implications for employees in Europe. To illustrate wider practices, it investigates systems for occupancy monitoring and indoor location tracking offered by Cisco, Juniper, Spacewell, Locatee and other technology vendors, based on an analysis of technical documentation and other publicly available sources. It briefly addresses how workers resisted the installation of motion sensors by their employers. This summary presents an overview of the findings of this case study….
The drones are light, cheap, easy to transport and have proved to be highly effective as a weapon of war.
Article
Paul Cureton
Innovative design choices can have a massive impact in the theatre of war, so it is important to understand the principles behind their development. Recent use of low-cost cardboard drones by Ukraine, supplied by Australia, to attack targets in Russia is a good example of how this can work.
Australia has been supplying Ukraine with 100 of the drones per month from March this year as part of an aid package deal worth an estimated £15.7 million, following an agreement struck in July 2021, according to the Australian Army Defence Innovation Hub.
Emerging technologies tend to override current technologies, and in turn, this generates competitive counter-technologies. This circular relationship driven by innovation is often critical in warfare as it can provide key technological advances.
Drone technology was originally developed for military use. It was then seen to offer opportunities in the civilian sphere for logistics, delivery and disaster relief. This then in turn has offered new innovations that can translate to military applications.
Conflicts in the future will be particularly shaped by drones, which will have implications for international relations, security and defence.
The Australian firm Sypaq, an engineering and solutions company founded in 1992, created the Corvo Precision Payload Delivery System (PPDS) for use in military, law enforcement, border security and emergency services, as well as food security, asset inspection and search and rescue.
Ukrainian forces reportedly used the PDDS cardboard drones in an attack on an airfield in Kursk Oblast in western Russia on August 27. The attack damaged a Mig-29 and four Su-30 fighter jets, two Pantsir anti-aircraft missile launchers, gun systems, and an S-300 air surface-to-air missile defence system.
Design principles
The design principles behind the success of the drones revolve around several factors including the production cost, airframe material, weight, payload, range, deployment and ease of use. Other considerations include the reliability of the operating software and the ability to fly the drone in various weather conditions. Seven Network news report on SYPAQ’s cardboad drones.
Generally, small drones offer high-resolution imagery for reconnaissance in a rapidly changing theatre of war. The Corvo drone has a high-resolution camera that provides images covering a large area, transmitting footage back to its user in real time.
The importance of real-time mapping is critical in modern agile armed forces’ command and control as this can direct ground forces, heavy weapons and artillery.
In some cases, the design of small drones is concentrated on adapting the payloads to carry different types of munitions, as seen in the attack in Kursk.
The cardboard drones can carry 5kg of weight, have a wingspan of two metres and a range of 120km at a reported cost of US$3,500 (£2,750). Waxed cardboard is an ideal material as it offers weather resistance, flat-pack transportation (measuring 510mm by 760mm) and, importantly, a lightweight airframe, which enables a longer flight range and a high cruise speed of 60km/h.
Fixed-wing drones also offer longer ranges than rotor-based drones as the wings generate the lift and the airframe has less drag, so they are more energy efficient. They can also fly at higher altitudes. The drones can be launched from a simple catapult or by hand and so can be rapidly deployed.
Low-tech material, hi-tech thinking
Radar involves the transmission of electromagnetic waves, and these are reflected off any object back to a receiving antenna. Cardboard is generally harder to detect by radar – but its components, such as the battery, can be detected.
But the Corvo drone is likely to have a small signature. Radar-absorbing materials are needed to have full stealth properties. These polymers have various absorbing qualities to avoid radar detection.
Another design principle is the swarming capability of the drone. Swarms of drones can overpower air defence systems through sheer volume and or can be used as decoys in counterintelligence operations.
Swarms are highly reliant on the development of artificial intelligence, which is still an embryonic research area. But a recent drone race at ETH University in Zurich, in which AI-piloted drone beat drones controlled by world-champion drone racers, highlighted this potential.
All of these design principles and innovations have and are continuing to transform warfare and theatre operations. It is likely that small drones at low cost are likely to have further mission success in the future.
Simplify Your Home or Office with Full Wiring Service
Introduction
In our technologically driven world, the importance of efficient and reliable electrical wiring cannot be overstated. Whether you are building a new home, renovating an existing space, or upgrading your office, ensuring your electrical system is properly installed and well-maintained is crucial. That's where full wiring service comes into play. In this article, we will explore the benefits and key aspects of a comprehensive wiring service, helping you make informed decisions when it comes to the electrical infrastructure of your property.
What is Full Wiring Service?
Full house wiring service involves a comprehensive approach to electrical installation, maintenance, and repairs. It encompasses all the electrical systems within a building, from power distribution and lighting to data and communication networks. Professional electricians with expertise in wiring analyze your property's electrical needs, design a tailored wiring plan, and execute the installation in compliance with safety standards and local building codes.
Benefits of Full house Wiring Service
Enhanced Safety: Faulty wiring is a leading cause of electrical accidents and fires. By opting for full wiring service, you significantly reduce the risk of electrical hazards, ensuring the safety of your property, loved ones, employees, and valuable assets.
Improved Energy Efficiency: Upgrading your electrical wiring can lead to greater energy efficiency, resulting in reduced utility bills. Modern wiring systems use advanced materials and technologies that minimize energy loss, maximizing the effectiveness of your electrical infrastructure.
Customized Solutions: Full wiring service provides you with the opportunity to customize your electrical system according to your specific needs. Whether it's installing additional outlets, incorporating smart home features, or integrating audiovisual equipment, professional electricians can design a wiring plan that meets your requirements precisely.
Future-Proofing: Investing in a full wiring service ensures that your electrical infrastructure is equipped to handle future technological advancements. With the rapid pace of innovation, having a wiring system that can support emerging technologies such as electric vehicles, renewable energy solutions, and home automation is essential.
Key Aspects of Full Wiring Service
Initial Assessment: Experienced electricians conduct a thorough assessment of your property to evaluate the existing wiring, identify potential issues, and understand your specific requirements. This step helps in designing an effective wiring plan.
Wiring Design and Installation: Based on the assessment, electricians create a comprehensive wiring design that includes the layout, load distribution, and placement of outlets, switches, and other electrical components. Once the design is approved, they proceed with the installation, ensuring proper insulation, grounding, and adherence to safety protocols.
Upgrading and Retrofitting: If you have an older property, full wiring service can involve upgrading and retrofitting the electrical system to meet current safety and efficiency standards. This may include replacing outdated wiring, upgrading circuit breakers, and installing surge protection devices.
Integration of Smart Technologies: As smart home technologies gain popularity, full wiring service can integrate these features seamlessly into your electrical system. From smart lighting and thermostats to security systems and voice-controlled devices, professional electricians can incorporate these technologies into your wiring plan, making your property more efficient and convenient.
Conclusion
Investing in a full wiring service is a wise decision that not only ensures the safety and efficiency of your electrical system but also provides a solid foundation for future technological advancements. By working with experienced electricians, you can customize your wiring plan to meet your unique needs, enjoy increased energy efficiency, and make your property smarter and more convenient. Remember, electrical work should always be performed by licensed professionals to ensure compliance with safety regulations. So, take the first step towards a streamlined and reliable electrical infrastructure by opting for a full wiring service today.
Can Relativistic Effects Be Found In The Solar System?
My theory stated (the solar planets are made of one light beam moves with 300000 km/s)- and – If there's another velocity equal (Zero)–the relative motion between these 2 velocities will cause to create relativistic effects- the data proves these relativistic effects are found
In details–the relativistic effects be created based on a relative velocity = 99% of light velocity (297000 km/s) – and –Lorentz transformation for this velocity produce the rate (7.1).
If There Are Relativistic Effects In The Solar System We Expect This Rate To Be Used – but in fact the solar system uses it with more complex process – as following
((7.1/100) + 1) =1.071
In fact – the rate (1.0725) controls (40% of all distances in the solar system) and (80% of all planets axial tilts) in addition many other data – no clear explanation for the heavy using of this one rate except as a result for Lorentz transformation
778.6 million km = Jupiter Orbital Distance (where 1557.2 = 2 x 778.6)
720.7 million km = Jupiter Mercury Distance
670 million km = Jupiter Venus Distance
629 million km = Jupiter Earth Distance
1433.5 million km = Saturn Orbital Distance
1325.3 million km = Saturn Venus Distance
1284 million km = Saturn Earth Distance
1205.6 million km = Saturn Mars Distance
2872.5 million km = Uranus Orbital Distance
2644 million km = Uranus Mars Distance
4900 million km = Jupiter Orbital Circumference (with 4864 the error 1%)
4495 million km = Neptune Orbital Distance
116 million km = (2 x 57.9 million km Mercury Orbital Distance)
108.2 million km = Venus Orbital Distance
100.4 million km = (2x 50.4 million km Mercury Venus Distance)
Notice / How can we know that this rate (1.0725) is produced by relativistic effects?
There are 2 reasons
(1) The rate 7.1 is produced by Lorentz transformation for (V= 99% of light velocity)
(2) The effect is continuous through the solar system distances and data
In fact - the rate (1.0725) shows a mystery in the data and the relativistic effects is a suitable solution for its using - it's one more fact can be added to the previous facts which will make the picture more clear – shortly– if we have a relative velocity = (99% of light velocity) the natural results should be relativistic effects on data
Notice
Around 50% of all distances in the solar system be equal one another– these distances be inserted in appendix no.(1)- this fact can help the explanation of the rate (1.0725) for another (40%) of all distances in the solar system- that tells- these distances were equal one another also but some (force) affected on them and for that they be rated with (1.0725) – I wish I make the idea is clear – because - the data clearly shows the solar system distances can't be created independent distances from one another – on the contrary – All distances be created based on one design and as one network- means- the solar system distances be similar to the chess board distances – no one can be independent- and for that – when one force affect on them that caused a huge number of these distances to be suffered of this force effect (Lorentz contraction) – the data proves the idea clearly
Thanks a lot - nice regards
Speed Of Light Has An Effect On Matter Creation Process
An internal report shows how the face-scanning system could trigger a “Uighur alarm” if it detects someone resembling a member of the Uighur minority group, sparking concerns that the software could further fuel China’s brutal government crackdown.
Full article:
By Drew Harwell and Eva Dou
Dec. 8, 2020 at 7:30 a.m. PST
The Chinese tech giant Huawei has tested facial recognition software that could send automated “Uighur alarms” to government authorities when its camera systems identify members of the oppressed minority group, according to an internal document that provides further details about China’s artificial-intelligence surveillance regime.
A document signed by Huawei representatives — discovered by the research organization IPVM and shared exclusively with The Washington Post — shows that the telecommunications firm worked in 2018 with the facial recognition start-up Megvii to test an artificial-intelligence camera system that could scan faces in a crowd and estimate each person’s age, sex and ethnicity.
If the system detected the face of a member of the mostly Muslim minority group, the test report said, it could trigger a “Uighur alarm” — potentially flagging them for police in China, where members of the group have been detained en masse as part of a brutal government crackdown. The document, which was found on Huawei’s website, was removed shortly after The Post and IPVM asked the companies for comment.
Such technology has in recent years gained an expanding role among police departments in China, human rights activists say. But the document sheds new light on how Huawei, the world’s biggest maker of telecommunications equipment, has also contributed to its development, providing the servers, cameras, cloud-computing infrastructure and other tools undergirding the systems’ technological might.
John Honovich, the founder of IPVM, a Pennsylvania-based company that reviews and investigates video-surveillance equipment, said the document showed how “terrifying” and “totally normalized” such discriminatory technology has become.
“This is not one isolated company. This is systematic,” Honovich said. “A lot of thought went into making sure this ‘Uighur alarm’ works.”
Huawei and Megvii have announced three surveillance systems using both companies’ technology in the past couple years. The Post could not immediately confirm if the system with the “Uighur alarm” tested in 2018 was one of the three currently for sale.
Both companies have acknowledged the document is real. Shortly after this story published Tuesday morning, Huawei spokesman Glenn Schloss said the report “is simply a test and it has not seen real-world application. Huawei only supplies general-purpose products for this kind of testing. We do not provide custom algorithms or applications.”
Also after publication, a Megvii spokesman said the company’s systems are not designed to target or label ethnic groups.
Chinese officials have said such systems reflect the country’s technological advancement, and that their expanded use can help government responders and keep people safe. But to international rights advocates, they are a sign of China’s dream of social control — a way to identify unfavorable members of society and squash public dissent. China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
First she survived a Uighur internment camp. Then she made it out of China.
Artificial-intelligence researchers and human rights advocates said they worry the technology’s development and normalization could lead to its spread around the world, as government authorities elsewhere push for a fast and automated way to detect members of ethnic groups they’ve deemed undesirable or a danger to their political control.
Maya Wang, a China senior researcher at the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, said the country has increasingly used AI-assisted surveillance to monitor the general public and oppress minorities, protesters and others deemed threats to the state.
“China’s surveillance ambition goes way, way, way beyond minority persecution,” Wang said, but “the persecution of minorities is obviously not exclusive to China. … And these systems would lend themselves quite well to countries that want to criminalize minorities.”
Trained on immense numbers of facial photos, the systems can begin to detect certain patterns that might differentiate, for instance, the faces of Uighur minorities from those of the Han majority in China. In one 2018 paper, “Facial feature discovery for ethnicity recognition,” AI researchers in China designed algorithms that could distinguish between the “facial landmarks” of Uighur, Korean and Tibetan faces.
But the software has sparked major ethical debates among AI researchers who say it could assist in discrimination, profiling or punishment. They argue also that the system is bound to return inaccurate results, because its performance would vary widely based on lighting, image quality and other factors — and because the diversity of people’s ethnicities and backgrounds is not so cleanly broken down into simple groupings.
Such ethnicity-detection software is not available in the United States. But algorithms that can analyze a person’s facial features or eye movements are increasingly popular in job-interview software and anti-cheating monitoring systems.
Clare Garvie, a senior associate at Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology who has studied facial recognition software, said the “Uighur alarm” software represents a dangerous step toward automating ethnic discrimination at a devastating scale.
“There are certain tools that quite simply have no positive application and plenty of negative applications, and an ethnic-classification tool is one of those,” Garvie said. “Name a human rights norm, and this is probably violative of that.”
Huawei and Megvii are two of China’s most prominent tech trailblazers, and officials have cast them as leaders of a national drive to reach the cutting edge of AI development. But the multibillion-dollar companies have also faced blowback from U.S. authorities, who argue they represent a security threat to the United States or have contributed to China’s brutal regime of ethnic oppression.
Eight Chinese companies, including Megvii, were hit with sanctions by the U.S. Commerce Department last year for their involvement in “human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance” against Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups.
The U.S. government has also issued sanctions against Huawei, banning the export of U.S. technology to the company and lobbying other countries to exclude its systems from their telecommunications networks.
Huawei, a hardware behemoth with equipment and services used in more than 170 countries, has surpassed Apple to become the world’s second-biggest maker of smartphones and is pushing to lead an international rollout of new 5G mobile networks that could reshape the Internet.
And Megvii, the Beijing-based developer of the Face Plus Plus system and one of the world’s most highly valued facial recognition start-ups, said in a public-offering prospectus last year that its “city [Internet of Things] solutions,” which include camera systems, sensors and software that government agencies can use to monitor the public, covered 112 cities across China as of last June.
The “Uighur alarm” document obtained by the researchers, called an “interoperability test report,” offers technical information on how authorities can align the Huawei-Megvii systems with other software tools for seamless public surveillance.
The system tested how a mix of Megvii’s facial recognition software and Huawei’s cameras, servers, networking equipment, cloud-computing platform and other hardware and software worked on dozens of “basic functions,” including its support of “recognition based on age, sex, ethnicity and angle of facial images,” the report states. It passed those tests, as well as another in which it was tested for its ability to support offline “Uighur alarms.”
The test report also said the system was able to take real-time snapshots of pedestrians, analyze video files and replay the 10 seconds of footage before and after any Uighur face is detected.
The document did not provide information on where or how often the system is used. But similar systems are used by police departments across China, according to official documents reviewed last year by the New York Times, which found one city system that had scanned for Uighur faces half a million times in a single month.
Jonathan Frankle, a deep-learning researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, said such systems are clearly becoming a priority among developers willing to capitalize on the technical ability to classify people by ethnicity or race. The flood of facial-image data from public crowds, he added, could be used to further develop the systems’ precision and processing power.
“People don't go to the trouble of building expensive systems like this for nothing,” Frankle said. “These aren't people burning money for fun. If they did this, they did it for a very specific reason in mind. And that reason is very clear.”
It’s less certain whether ethnicity-detecting software could ever take off outside the borders of a surveillance state. In the United States and other Western-style democracies, the systems could run up against long-established laws limiting government searches and mandating equal protection under the law.
Police and federal authorities in the United States have shown increasing interest in facial recognition software as an investigative tool, but the systems have sparked a fierce public backlash over their potential bias and inaccuracies, and some cities and police forces have opted to ban the technology outright.
Such technologies could, however, find a market among international regimes somewhere in the balance between Chinese and American influence. In Uganda, Huawei facial recognition cameras have already been used by police and government officials to surveil protesters and political opponents.
“If you’re willing to model your government and run your country in that way,” Frankle said, “why wouldn’t you use the best technology available to exert control over your citizens?”
Discrimination against Uighurs has long been prevalent in the majority-Han Chinese population. In the Xinjiang region of northwestern China, authorities have cited sporadic acts of terrorism as justification for a harsh crackdown starting in 2015 that has drawn condemnation from the United States and other Western nations. Scholars estimate more than 1 million Uighurs have been detained in reeducation camps, with some claims of torture.
U.S. national security adviser Robert O’Brien called the repressive treatment of minority groups in Xinjiang “something close to” genocide, in an online event hosted by the Aspen Institute in October.
Under international pressure, Xinjiang authorities announced last December that all reeducation “students” had graduated, though some Uighurs have since reported that they were forced to agree to work in factories or risk a return to detention. Xinjiang authorities say all residents work of their own free will.
The U.S. government has banned the import of certain products from China on the basis that they could have been made by forced labor in Xinjiang.
One of the Huawei-Megvii systems offered for sale after the “Uighur alarm” test, in June 2019, is advertised as saving local governments digital storage space by saving images in a single place.
Two other systems, said to use Megvii’s surveillance software and Huawei’s Atlas AI computing platform, were announced for sale in September. Both were described as “localization” of the products using Huawei chips and listed for sale “only by invitation.” Marketing materials for one of those systems say it was used by authorities in China’s southern Guizhou province to catch a criminal.
Some things people outside of China can do to help:
Folks in the US: contact your house representative and your state senators. Demand that they support the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 (H.R. 649), and that they take further action against the genocide in Xinjiang. You can even link this article or copy and paste paragraphs (with citation) in your email if writing is intimidating for you.
Folks from most countries can write to your ambassador in China.
Avoid buying from companies that use Uighur slave labor.
Read the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s analysis of slave labor and re-education camps in Xinjiang.
Being the author of a book and the showrunner of its TV adaptation definitely has its perks — you get to be the one to decide what to add or expand, what to shorten or lose altogether. For Neil Gaiman, adapting Good Omens, the book he co-wrote with the late Terry Pratchett, this meant a veritable playground, where he got to add characters and scenes discussed with Pratchett that weren’t in the original novel.
EPISODE 1
By the time Gaiman and director Douglas Mackinnon had finished cutting together Episode 1, it was about 75 minutes long, “which meant that we needed to lose 20 minutes,” Gaiman said. “And that 20 minutes was really hard to lose, because it was 20 minutes of beautiful material.”
Among those cut minutes was an extended scene of Crowley disabling the London mobile phone system, as he later reports to the demons in the graveyard during his evil deeds-of-the-day rundown.
“We built a huge set in South Africa for the BT Tower,” production manager Michael Ralph said. Crowley enters the lobby and tells the security guard he’s been sent from Rataway Pest Control to do a preliminary inspection. He’s taken up to the top floor, which is infested with hundreds of rats — rats summoned to do the demon’s bidding. (The rats were animated.) Crowley walks over to the computer room and tips tea from a thermos into the network controller, which makes the lights flicker and go out. Mission accomplished!
The scene then included people on the city streets experiencing the interruption in their mobile service at the worst possible moments (when they need to close a deal, arrange a pickup, or stave off a breakup), and Crowley walks away smiling. “We shot the whole thing, including helicopter arrivals to the BT Tower,” Ralph said. “There was a massive amount of work involved there,” cinematographer Gavin Finney agreed.
“What we wound up doing as our solution to bringing Episode 1 into focus was throwing out anything that was not directly part of the story,” Gaiman said. “We wound up with something that’s incredibly fast-moving and feels very full, but also runs just a hair over 50 minutes.”
EPISODE 3
The most elaborate sequence — a 30-minute cold open — is not based on anything from the book per se. “It’s an exploration of the characters that [are] in the book in its heart,” Mackinnon said, “but it needed to be externalized. It needed to be shown.”
The trick was that it was rather expensive to cover about 6,000 years of history, with different looks and locations, and the production had to get creative to keep it viable. The spot in South Africa used for Noah’s ark in Mesopotamia in 3004 B.C. is the same location used for the crucifixion in Golgotha in 33 A.D. — just from a different angle. The crucifixes, Ralph noted, were the hardest part; he had to make them oversized so they would have an impact on camera, and he used a river of red cloth on the ground to suggest an abstract river of blood. Ancient Rome in 41 A.D. was built in the same studio later used to double for a dungeon during the French Revolution in 1793.
A location scout for the camp for the kids’ playground gave the production the idea of where to stage Arthurian Britain in 537 A.D. — a valley in Surrey where a castle turret was visible. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t that be fantastic in the mist?’” Ralph said. “We didn’t need to build anything. We only needed to add the fog.”
“A ridiculous amount of fog,” Finney agreed. “We were just riffing on ideas from Excalibur and Monty Python there.”
The next period of history, Shakespearean London in 1601, brought a bit of luck — Good Omens got to be the first fictional production to shoot inside the Globe Theatre. The catch was that they could only shoot for five hours, which wasn’t enough time to manage a shoot with 500 extras in period costume. The solution? Turn a full Globe Theatre into an empty one, and make Shakespeare's play a flop. (“It’s funnier,” Gaiman said.)
Revolutionary France brought its own set of difficulties. Ralph researched how to make a working guillotine, and had the perfect spot to set it up – at the University of Cape Town, which was filled with architecture reminiscent of 1793 France. “I was going to build a platform and have hot water washing the blood down and steam coming up,” the production designer said. “But we ran out of time to do it before the university opened.” They came up with the solution to hear the guillotine outside a dungeon cell (built in the studio) instead.
Somewhere within this sequence — perhaps after Shakespearean England but before Revolutionary France — was supposed to be one more time capsule: Aziraphale opening his bookshop for the first time. Gabriel shows up to tell Aziraphale that he’s been promoted and can go back to Heaven, but Aziraphale doesn’t want to go. Crowley turns up with chocolate and flowers to congratulate Aziraphale, and overhears the conversation, so he instead turns around and sets up something where Aziraphale needs to intervene, to prove to Gabriel that Aziraphale’s appearance on earth is vital. “It was really funny,” Gaiman said. But his justification for taking it out was that it didn’t push the story forward as much as the other moments did.
I’ve been reading a close friend’s study material (because I will throw myself desperately at anything which is not my study material--ehm--moving on) and since I’ve already ranted about this to everyone I know in person I now have to get it out of my system and resort to shouting into the void of the internet. Anyway, everyone interested in like, interaction with other humans in general and with young neurodivirgent people in particular, should check out Bo Hejlskov Elvén, who works with low arousal strategies for conflict management. Unfourtunately, I can’t find a lot of free material in English. Here’s a 50 minute lecture on youtube, though, which is very good.
Self control and challenging behaviour
!!! Trigger warning: Between 38:30 and 41:30 he talks about the dangers of restraints and the unacceptably high risk of fatalities. It’s very upsetting and especially so in the light of police brutality and recent events. !!!
First off, he starts the lecture by saying this:
We’re going to talk about autism--I’m not going to say people with autism or autistic people, I’m going to say people. Is that okay? Yeah? Because to me it doesn’t matter so much if it’s dementia, or just being angry, or autism--it’s the same behaviour and we need to manage it in the same way.
Which to me is just fundamental if you ever want to do something good for people and not just patologizie them.
Some highlights and thoughts under the cut.
Conflicts
I actually think a lot of challening behaviour and maybe even conflicts is just about problem solving. Has any of you ever been in a conflict? How many has been in a conflict?
[Audience laughs and agrees]
When you think back on that, isn’t like this--that you actually just did your best, didn’t you? It was the other guy who was an idiot.
[Audience laughs]
Often it’s just like that. I have a problem, and I solve it. My solution might become a problem for somebody else, right? And he needs to fix that. And then that solution might become my problem.
[...]
Because often what we consider problematic behaviour, might actually be a good solution. And he might consider our behaviour a little problematic as well.
If I could have gotten this into the heads of some people I used to know, then... Sigh. Anyway, this whole approach to understanding human interaction is based on the idea that people do the best they can in any given situation. And if you understand that, you can actually help them do better instead of making the situation even harder for them.
Self control
Some of us have a lower line [for when we lose self-control] -- we call it affect regulation. Some of us have a worse affect regulation. That means that when we get into difficult situations, we cannot just say, oh, it will work out. We will actually say; this will not work out. In a little while, I will hit my head on the floor, I may even poop my pants--I don’t want to do that; I need to have strategies. And then we do some quite amazing things.
Example: A little while ago, I asked you to stand like this [he does a funny dance]--you did that very nicely, thank you. Then I asked you to take off all your clothes--and then you thought: I might not be able to control that situation. Am I right? I don’t think I can figure out what will happen if I take off all my clothes; I might lose control. I don’t want to lose control.
And then you did something. You acted.
And what you actually did was amazing. What you actually did was that you refused, and then you laughed me right up in the face.
What do you think about behaviour like this? Is that okay?
Of course it is.
He brings up the strategies refusal, lying, violence, running away, threats, self harm, and name calling. He highlights how all of these strategies are actually perfectly rational and almost always solve exactly the problem that people are dealing with.
Affect contagion
Have you ever talked to someone who was depressed? Did you get a little funny feeling? Have you ever been sitting opposite from someone yawing? That’s contagious as well, isn’t it? It’s contagious, and using something we call mirror neurons or mirror neuron systems. [...] This is something everybody in the whole world can do. People with autism can do it, people without autism can do it. Everybody can do it, and we can do it from the day that we are born, actually.
Affect contagion is the whole idea behind the low arousal approach--the higher your affect gets; the closer you are to losing self-control; the more likely you are to resort to behaviours that might cause problems for others, which might even be the cause of the situation to begin with. Thus to solve any tense situation, bringing the affect level up is never a good strategy.
I get angry; you get angry; I get angry; you get angry; and on until someone gets seriously hurt.
When they did the same study [looking at brain activation when thinking about oneself vs Queen Elizabeth] with people with Asperger’s syndrome, [...], actually these people were using the Queen Elizabeth part of the brain when they were thinking about themselves as well. And that means it’s a little bit difficult to figure out--am I me, or am I you? So I need to think about it, to make it work.
That’s difficult for me to understand, I admit that. But I’m seeing it on my grandchildren, when they are below two-years of age; they can’t do it either. I can’t say me, or you, to a one and a half year old--I have to say grandpa. Don’t I? Because otherwise they won’t understand. And people with dementia; it’s the same thing. I can’t say me and you, I have to use names. And a lot of people we normally call autistic, they have this problem. A lot of young people, when they’re really stressed, they have the same problem. Have you ever seen two people fighting, and when you asked them what happened, they don’t know who started? Because they mix things up.
And with that, of course low arousal approaches become especially important. Controlling your affect when someone else is angry is damn difficult for everyone.
I keep thinking about this when it comes to online communication. In a face-to-face interaction, as stressful situation is contained in time very effectively. Online; on social media with its lack of any kind of temporal context, it just isn’t. It’s so easy to read a tweet that was posted a month ago and get affected by the anger from the past in your present. And then you are more likely to deal with it by venting, and suddenly there is no after. Online, we live in constant outrage. Constant high affect.
Mmm, okay first hit on google regarding affect contagion and social media is this:
The findings suggest that emotional contagion can occur in an online social network, even without face-to-face interaction between two people. "We show that simply failing to 'overhear' a friend’s emotional expression via Facebook is enough to buffer one from its effects," the authors wrote.
I mean, I don’t know what I’m talking about here. And I don’t want to imply that I think social media is bad, because in general I really don’t, I just want to understand what it does to me so that I can deal with it constructively.
Also--I find this funny:
Interestingly, the findings also challenge the idea that seeing the positive posts of others may have a negative impact on people by making them compare themselves against their friends. Instead, the researchers found that seeing positive posts in their feed prompted people to make more positive posts themselves.
Of course seeing that my friends are happy makes me happy.
And finally--
Restraints (TW police brutality)
Even when they restrain children, people think that they’re doing the best--and I think it’s just plain stupid. I’m sorry. Because it’s very, very dangerous. We have more than 150 documented restraint related deaths among children in the last 25 years--850 among adults. 80% of those had autism. 80%--why?
There was a policeman, he said: Uhh, but we do not decide how much force we need to use, it’s the person who does it. I said: How?
We continue until he gives in.
And autism is one of those things where we’re very very bad at giving in, isn’t it?
[screams into a pillow]
If you ever need another argument for why having an institution with a monopoly on violence is a fucking terrible idea--there you go. Everything the police are specially allowed to do (and thus implicitly encouraged to do) that sets them apart from other insitutions is what makes them terrible at their jobs.
