Severance season 2 came to an end in gut-punching and mystery-laced fashion on Apple TV+.

Apple is changing its Siri leader, according to a new report from Bloomberg and it has Mike Rockwell, the person behind Vision Pro, taking over the virtual assistant.

How a new kind of safe flash gun for interactive light, linked to the camera, was invented for The Penguin. An excerpt from issue #29 of befores & afters magazine.Many of the blood hits in The Penguin are, of course, inflicted via gunshots. Recent heightening of set safety in relation to firearms has meant that prop guns with chargesand therefore muzzle flashesare now less used. But in the series, guns were a key storypoint, and many scenes would be filmed in dark environments. The concern from visual effects supervisor Johnny Han was that there would be little or no interactive light generated on set since there would not be the usual muzzle flashes acquired.In my experience, breaks down Han, it often ends up a lot more expensive in post to add in interactive light, because artists have to get in there and start painting in light around actor faces and clothing. Its very delicate, fine artist work. Frankly, a lot of movies dont put that interactive light in and it really doesnt look good, in my opinion.The dilemma of interactive on-set lighting for gunshots forced Han to think differently about the issue. It was the third day of shooting. I brought my photography strobe from home. I got a sound sensor, which is used for sports photography, where it will be triggered by the sound of a ball hitting a baseball bat. We had a prop gun that still went Pop, pop, pop. So I figured, lets try the strobe and the sound sensor. We did it for a scene, and it worked! Everyone was like, This is so cool. It was very visceral, not just for us, but for the actor to see that light and for all parties involved. It just made such a tactile, visceral experience.Still, there were some initial challenges, notes Han. When a flash was utilizedand this is also a concern with real muzzle flashesit can sometimes only hit onto half the frame because of the action of the camera shutter. Youll see this on paparazzi footage where you see bands of light, outlines Han. This was just not a good look. You had to do multiple takes and get lucky. Also, the lights were always off camera, which didnt always make sense, depending on where the gun was located.Original plate with flash gun.Final shot by ReDefine.Ultimately, the promise of some real (and useful) interactive lighting was there, and led to developing what became known as the Phase Synced Flash-Gun System. We worked with props on this, says Han. We created our own identical models of the guns. I went through dozens of different light bulbs until I found the brightest thing that, if you charged with extra oomph from a capacitor, you could really get a bright camera strobe flash. What we ended up doing was developing our own guns with our own custom electronics to create as bright a photography flash at the tip of the gun as possible.The flash guns worked by wirelessly communicating to a base device dubbed the phaser, which was also in sync with the camera and timecode syncd. We could phase tune the flash until it would cover the frame fully with no banding, and consistently so, describes Han. So it became, then, a great collaboration between camera and lighting. Camera had to get on board to sync their cameras. And lighting helped colorize the light to the desired look with gels.ReDefine handled gunshot hits, adding in the actual fiery muzzle flash cloud, tweaking the color, and adding in other elements like smoke, sparks and shells.You can get issue #29 of the magazine in PRINT or DIGITAL.The post It was very visceral for the actor to see that light appeared first on befores & afters.

behind the scenes of Azerbaijan Atabeys, where Patik Production brings history to life through stunning VFX! This breakdown reveals how digital army expansion techniques were used to craft epic battle scenes, blending realism with cinematic storytelling.From crowd simulations to large-scale environmental enhancements, the team recreated the past with meticulous post-production magic. Witness the power of VFX in transforming historical narratives into visually immersive experiences!The post Azerbaijan Atabeys VFX Breakdown by Patik Production appeared first on Vfxexpress.

General managers around the National Hockey League are putting some of their old roster and team management tactics on ice. Thats because NHL front offices, through a partnership with software company SAP, are now using the SAP-NHL Front Office App, bringing reams of data and information into a single all-encompassing platform.Given that so much of the sports world is driven by numbersgoals, shots, saves, salaries, and moreall the data and information can be difficult to wrangle. For those working in the front office in the NHL, it could mean staring at eight computer screens, and carrying around a big binder to make sure its all on-hand, as Don Waddell, GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets, tells Fast Company.But the new Front Office app brings it all onto a single dashboard. Waddell says that it was immensely helpful during the recently passed NHL trade deadline, as he was able to look at or access roster information, look at contracts for every player in the league, and even get a quick gauge on which players had no-trade clauses.While SAP has been working with the NHL since 2017, offering on-the-fly insights on the bench and generating in-game insights, the front office staffthe people running the team or organizationhave had to cobble together data and information from different sources. The NHL has had that data, and the whole idea behind the Front Office app was to make it easier than ever to access for general managers and others.Its been in the hands of the clubs since December, says Steve McArdle, chief operating officer at the NHL. Weve heard very positive feedback on the design and functionality. Its not just an app for the sake of an appits taking the best of all worlds, and changing the way information is delivered.One-stop shopGiven that each and every NHL team relies on data to inform decisions about roster moves, contract negotiations, and more, the league wanted to make sure it was doing its best to make decision-making as efficient as possible. So by leaning into the existing relationship the NHL had with SAP, and then building an app for iPads, which were already being used in various faculties by the clubs, creating the app was a natural next step.Its designers see it evolving and becoming even more useful in the future. The first iteration, we were focused on pulling the data together to answer core questions that GMs might have, says Dan Fleetwood, VP of global sponsorships at SAP. We wanted to get information to their fingertips. Fleetwood also says that the magic of the app is its simplicity. Its a consumer-grade application, he says, meaning that NHL GMsmany of whom were hockey players themselves, lacking tech-heavy backgroundscan pick it up and use it with ease.The beauty of it is that its a one-stop shop, says Waddell. SAP has been around for a long time, he adds, and though weve always had smart hockey people, its great to add some smart technology, too.

Discount retailers have been hit hard in 2025, with major chains like Big Lots and Dollar General shuttering stores. However, one discount retailer seems to be bucking that trend. Teen and tween discount retail chain Five Below has announced that it will be opening 150 new stores this year, adding to the companys already sizable footprint. Heres what you need to know about the openings.Five Below to open 150 new stores in 2025On Wednesday, Five Below, Inc. reported its Q4 and fiscal 2024 financial results as well as issued its outlook for its Q1 and fiscal 2025. For its Q4 2024, the company saw net sales increase 4% year over year to $1.39 billion. It also had an adjusted EPS of $3.48. Those results beat Wall Street estimates by 1% and 3.3%, respectively, notes StockStory. As for its full fiscal 2024, Five Below said its net sales increased 8.9% to $3.88 billion.The Wall Street beats and earnings growth caused Five Below stock to jump as much as 12% in after-hours tradinga sign of investor relief after the company, like many discount retailers, has had to struggle with inflation-weary consumers pulling back on discretionary spending in recent years.But Five Below also announced something else alongside its earning results. The company confirmed it will be opening 150 new locations in fiscal 2025. Currently, the company says it ended fiscal 2024 with 1,771 locations. That means that Five Below expects to expand its total store count by about 8.5% this financial year.Five Below has not said where the 150 new locations will be, but the company currently has stores in 44 states, and its average store size is around 9,000 square feet.However, there are a few things to note about the companys planned 150 new stores. While new locations are a vote of confidence by a retailer that its business is moving in the right direction, this isnt the first time Five Below said it would be opening new stores during fiscal 2025.When Five Below reported its Q2 2024 earnings back in August 2024, the company announced that it planned to open 150 to 180 stores in 2025. It seems the company has now settled on the lower end of that original figure. The anticipated 150 new stores in fiscal 2025 are also below the 227 net new stores the company opened in fiscal 2024 and the 204 net new stores it opened in fiscal 2023.Trump tariff troublesBut while investors seem to have reacted positively to Five Belows most recent financial results, the company did note that it faces some headwinds.Five Below is a discount retailer that mainly sells items that appeal to teens and tweens. Many of the companys products sell for under $5 apiece, with many items costing as low as $1, $2, or $3. Five Below imports many of these low-cost goods from overseas, and, as noted by MarketWatch, the company revealed yesterday that around 60% of its goods came from China.That could be a problem for Five Below as President Trump has so far focused on the heaviest tariff increases in his tariff war on China. In other words, Five Below could soon be paying more for the majority of the goods it imports. Like most companies, it would then likely pass the cost of those tariffs onto consumers, who are already dealing with rising costs due to inflationary pressures. Indeed, as MarketWatch notes, Five Below has also confirmed that it will be raising the prices on some items that currently cost below $5.Whether tariff-induced price rises at Five Below turn off shoppers remains to be seen.Five Below stock soars, but its still down for the yearAfter yesterdays earnings results, the stock price of Five Below (Nasdaq: FIVE) surged. FIVE stock jumped over 12% in after-hours trading. As of the time of this writing, FIVE stock is up around 11% in premarket trading to just over $84 per share. Before Five Below announced its earnings after the closing bell yesterday, FIVE stock closed at $75.59.Yet despite its stock price jump in the past day, FIVE shares have still had a rough 2025. As of yesterdays close, FIVE shares were down nearly 28% since the beginning of the year. And over the past 12 months, FIVE shares had fallen more than 63%.

They went back to the film series' roots.

Consider me converted.