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Already in Game of Thrones withdrawal? HBO’s new Game Revealed series explores its set design in a short series of episodes. TIME also had a fascinating long read behind the scenes that was published earlier this year:

The battle for Westeros may be won or lost on the back of a lime green mechanical bull.

That’s what it looks like on a January Monday in Belfast, as Game of Thrones films its seventh season here. Certainly no one believes the dragons that have thrilled viewers of HBO’s hit series exist in any real sense. And yet it’s still somewhat surprising to see the British actor Emilia Clarke, who plays exiled queen Daenerys, straddling the “buck” on a soundstage at Titanic Studios, a film complex named after this city’s other famously massive export.

The machine under Clarke looks like a big pommel horse and moves in sync with a computer animation of what will become a dragon. Clarke doesn’t talk much between takes. Over and over, a wind gun blasts her with just enough force to make me worry about the integrity of her ash blond wig. (Its particular color is the result of 2½ months’ worth of testing and seven prototypes, according to the show’s hair designer.) Over and over, Clarke stares down at a masking-tape mark on the floor the instant episode director Alan Taylor shouts, “Now!” Nearby, several visual-effects supervisors watch on monitors.

Pat Hines used MS Paint, of all programs, to illustrate his book Camp Redblood, using its limitations to create a distinctive style. More via Bored Panda:

Turns out, sometimes our resistance to learn something new and master a new skill can lead to something pretty amazing. Pat Hines, who couldn’t be bothered to learn Photoshop and illustrated his ebook using good old Microsoft Paint, is the proof. “I suck at Photoshop and other programs, and have worked exclusively in Microsoft Paint for over ten years… I honed my craft working long overnights at a hospital reception desk…,” the guy writes. That’s why when it came to choosing the program to create illustrations for his novel Camp Redblood And The Essential Revenge, he looked no further and just went for something he was already good at.

If you still have doubts about Hines using some other program, he suggests you to either download the pictures, and zoom in for a closer look, or go to his Deviantart page where he documents how he makes similar art in step-by-step pics.

The guy says that his self-published e-book is about a summer camp set in the 1980’s. Of course, it’s not just any ordinary camp – it’s surrounded by ghosts and monsters and “filled with goofy campers and counselors, where the teenagers are always trying to get drunk or laid…”.

Even the Behind the Scenes on Stephen King’s It is scary. Much hyped, this upcoming horror film is about 7 friends confronting a demon they had met before 30 years ago in their childhood. Early reviews have been good. Via Entertainment Weekly:

Director Andy Muschietti had a daunting task: take something as beloved as Stephen King’s It, which already has an iconic feature-length adaptation, and craft a modern cinematic retelling that, if successful, will bring about a Part 2. While reviews of his It film still haven’t dropped, we have the first sign that Muschietti and Warner Bros. have a hit on their hands.

Journalists who saw an early screening of It are writing their early, spoiler-free reactions on social media — and they are overwhelmingly positive.

“I think it’s one of the finest Stephen King adaptations ever made,” EW’s Anthony Breznican wrote. “Beyond killer clowns, It also delves into the grief & anger kids feel when they realize those who should love & protect them do the opposite. These are themes in King’s stories that filmmakers often ignore. But the best adaptations figure out they’re the most vital part.”

Fandango’s Erik Davis described it as “creepy, bloody, super funny, adorably romantic and hands down among my favorite movies of the year.” Phil Nobile Jr. of Birth.Movies.Death called it “a very handsome, polished execution of a story you know inside out,” while Collider’s Haleigh Foutch answered the question on every fan’s mind: yes, it’s “scary as sh–.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ulqi1VX3dU

Hungry Jacks tries to save people from hipster food instagrammable hell with its new, hilarious Keeping it Real campaign. Via Mumbrella:

Hungry Jack’s has launched a brand campaign ‘Keeping it Real’ in a 60 second television commercial inspired by Australian drama films.

Created by Clemenger BBDO Sydney, the ad opens with a man receiving his hipster burger as a burger phone rings with a mysterious voice telling him to “look at the plate in front of you, are you seriously going to eat that? You’re not like them are you Patrick”.

Backed by dramatic music, Patrick runs out of the cafe crashing into things as he is told to “run like the wind” by the mysterious voice on the burger phone. Patrick falls into a barber shop, gets hit by a car, choked by a dream catcher, catches on fire, falls out of a building, jumps out of a window and falls of a truck until he ends up at Hungry Jack’s. The voice over says “congratulations Patrick, you made it”. Patrick limps into the fast food retailer and asks for a Whopper with bacon.

Scott Baird, Hungry Jack’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement: “We’re not about pretension. We’re about real food, made real good.” The campaign is set to run across television, out-of-home, promo and in-store.

Helmed by Ava DuVernay, this film adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved Newbery Prize winning book A Wrinkle in Time looks gorgeous. And it’s something different from Disney’s otherwise sequel-heavy future. Via The Atlantic:

The colorful, dreamlike imagery of Ava DuVernay’s upcoming adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time was the highlight of this year’s D23 conference, a semi-annual celebration of Disney that included a look at the studio’s upcoming film slate. The Wrinkle trailer was a visual feast, light on plot and heavy on shots of Oprah Winfrey’s outrageously splendid wig, Chris Pine trapped in a surreal orange prison, and some sort of suburban nightmare-verse populated by children bouncing balls in eerie unison.

DuVernay has not made a narrative film since her acclaimed 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. biopic Selma. A Wrinkle in Time, due for release in March 2018, seems like an exciting and worthy follow-up, and is the first movie with a $100 million budget to be directed by a woman of color. But it was also a rare standout in a Disney lineup littered with remakes and sequels, a roster that leans heavily on its “existing intellectual property” (Star Wars, Marvel Comics, and Disney animated classics). Amid all those titles, A Wrinkle in Time looks like an original, even though it’s based on a well-known book. But Disney’s sequel-heavy approach, depressing as it might sound, is the most successful in Hollywood right now.

Volvo’s amazing new films about the resilience of the human mind form part of its campaign “Human Made Stories”, including this great short. Via Adweek:

Volvo journeys to the bottom of the sea and explores the remarkably resilient recesses of the human mind in these evocative, intense and ultimately uplifting brand films from London agency Valenstein & Fatt.

Keeping the cars themselves mostly in the background, directors Edward Lovelace and James Hall (aka, D.A.R.Y.L.) tie the automaker’s quest for innovation to personal achievement and the qualities of the human spirit that can help us beat daunting odds and overcome adversity.

Produced as part of Volvo’s ongoing “Human Made Stories” partnership with U.K. TV service Sky Atlantic, each film clocks in at over five minutes and packs plenty of emotional power, punctuated by poetic imagery and memorable moments. Telling true stories, they transcend the content model to deliver food for thought and some pretty impressive feels.

That’s particularly true for “Music of the Mind,” which focuses on a gifted English violinist named Rosie who suffers a catastrophic brain injury that silences her performing career. Many years later, she rejoins her orchestra thanks to technology that reads brainwaves and translates thoughts into melodic phrases for others to play.

How a Recording Studio Mishap Shaped 80s Music: The story of the effect that defined music from that era: the gated reverb. Via Vox:

There are a handful of clearly recognizable sounds in music that are always pinned to a genre and decade. The surf guitar pioneered by Dick Dale, the wall of sound of Phil Spector, the bass slap of Larry Graham, the boom bap of the golden age of hip hop. These classic sounds are revered, and some of them miraculously transcended the decade in which they were first developed.

But there’s one sound that will always be timestamped to the 1980s and people just love to hate it. It’s called gated reverb.

Over the past few years, a general nostalgia for the ’80s has infiltrated music, film, and television. In pop music, producers have enthusiastically applied gated reverb to drums to create that punchy percussive sound — used by every artist from Phil Collins to Prince — to pay homage to their favorite artists of the 1980s.

I unapologetically love gated reverb, and so for my second episode of Vox Pop’s Earworm I spoke with two Berklee College of Music professors, Susan Rogers and Prince Charles Alexander, to figure out just how that sound came to be, what makes it so damn punchy, and why it’s back.

Tinder x the Most Right Swiped Jobs is a colourful animated ad by Copenhagen motion studio ccccccc featuring the 35 most right swiped occupations. Via nine:

Dating app giant Tinder has released a list of the most right-swiped jobs around the world for both men and women. And, the results might surprise you. In Australia, the job for men receiving the most right swipes — when a female user is interested — was a flight attendant, according to the results. While, the most popular job for women was a swimming coach.

Some of the top-rated jobs for men were hardly surprising, such as a personal trainer, model or lawyer. But others were less expected, such as nurse, painter and student. Likewise, women’s most popular jobs ranged from childcare worker to makeup artist and dental assistant. On both lists airline professions were popular, with jobs like cabin crew, flight attendant and pilot making the cut off.

[…]

Australia’s most top right-swiped jobs

For Women

1. Swimming Coach

2. Student

3. Cabin Crew Member

4. Law Clerk

5. Social Media Manager

6. Hair Stylist

7. Childcare Worker

8. Rowing Coach

9. Dental Assistant

10. Model

11. Law Student

12. Waitress

13. Behavioural Therapist

14. Makeup Artist

15. Actress.

For Men

1. Flight Attendant

2. Marketing Coordinator

3. Waiter

4. Painter

5. Nurse

6. Teacher

7. Personal Trainer

8. Student

9. Model

10. Artist

11. Firefighter

12. Bartender

13. Lawyer

14. Doctor

15. Pilot

Petul is a short and creative film about animal cruelty and human suffering, told from the point of view of a jerboa rodent. Via Screen Anarchy:

It doesn’t happen all that often, but every once in a while a truly original short comes along; the type that reaffirms your faith in the power of film as a visual medium. Charles Cheval’s Petul is just that: a bolt from the blue that will shake cinephiles to their very core.

Clocking in at roughly fifteen minutes, Petul is told from a jerboa’s POV and has spectators experience the “extraordinary journey of a mighty rodent, in the horrible world of a human family”. With no dialogue or voiceover, this singular grown-up fable with echoes of magical realism excels at visual storytelling and capitalizes on distorted sounds to further immerse audiences into the sensory world of its rodent protagonist.

As nail-bitingly suspenseful as it is emotionally impactful, Petul stands as a strong indictment of animal cruelty and human suffering alike. A slyly embedded religious motif and knockout soundtrack enrich a viewing experience that is impossible to look away from.

Petul will likely be making the festival circuits this year and the next. If you have the chance, check it out.

Fly by Night: a short film about contemporary art, pigeons, and the man that turned a ton of those humble birds into stars. Via Short of the Week:

A film about reconnecting urban culture to the natural world, Fly By Night, follows artist Duke Riley as he attempts to fly thousands of pigeons wearing tiny LED lights off of a decommissioned Navy boat. Much more than an artist profile, it documents the journey of one man’s shared experience with an often overlooked New York resident – the pigeon. Over the course of several months, Olivia Loomis Merrion captures the peculiarity of pigeon auctions, training birds, and the high intensity up to showtime. Fly By Night will suck you into the contemporary artist sphere without making you feel like an outsider, but rather a participant in an urban environment that will feel as precious to you as it does its residents.