DF@PopularMechanics _ April 2019 23This Little Charger
Is the Future
Amidst the typical excess at the annual
Consumer Electronics Show—a roll-up
OLED TV, an Alexa-enabled toilet—one
company touted a new product likely
to become a tech essential. The Anker
PowerPort Atom PD 1 is the size of that
underpowered USB plug that comes with
your phone, but puts out enough power
(30 watts) to charge a laptop. How? Instead
of typical silicon components, the Atom
uses a material called gallium nitride, which
can operate at hotter temperatures. Being
able to pack only one of these to charge
your headphones, laptop, phone, and cam-
era is the convenience promised by moving
everything to USB-C connectivity.The Best TVs
Have a New Name
Buying a TV isn’t any less terrible today
than it was a decade ago. It’s a mess of
hyped initialisms (HDR, QLED, OLED,
AMOLED) and negligible performance
increases. But at CES, Samsung showed
an example of a display (MicroLED)
that has the potential to be the modern
benchmark for image quality. MicroLED
images look so good for the same reasons
that OLED (organic light-emitting diode)
does: Since each microscopic diode can
be turned off completely, you get dark,
convincing blacks that make the whole
scene look gorgeous. And because those
diodes emit their own light when powered
up, the displays can be incredibly thin.
Unlike OLED, though, MicroLED is less
susceptible to burn-in and has a longer
life span. The coolest part: Modules
of MicroLED displays can snap together
like floor tiles to fit any wall or create
any height and width ratio.A / THE STRUCTURE
The fake giant is
made of 30-by-30-
centimeter-square
trussing and moldable
foam, joined by hinges
and swivels so it can
move its head and
shoulders. Six riggers
control it using bungee
cords, which move
more naturally than
cables. The team
also tried pneumatic
cylinders, but they
proved too robotic.
B / SAFETY FIRST
For stunts at 22 feet,
two cranes supported
an overhead line that
held Dimitrov, and he
had a line to a rigger on
the ground. If he were
to fall, he would just
dangle. The team also
built a second, shorter
version of the giant’s
head and shoulders, so
Harbour could safely
film some scenes over
a mat.
E / BUILD,
DESTROY, REBUILD
The giant was not
always in the same
position, and there
were only two days to
shoot, so the riggers
extensively planned the
setup and breakdown.
They started with the
fake giant in the most
complicated configura-
tion and deconstructed
it as he fell. “There’s
like a million shots in
this, so while they were
doing other shots, we’d
build another giant,”
Coetzer says. “We had
it planned so it would
happen like the chang-
ing of tires on a Formula
One car.”F / AND A TRUCK TIRE
Later in the shoot, the
visual-effects team
planned to put Har-
bour on a blue box that
they would render into
a dragon. “I saw the
visual-effects supervi-
sor and was like, Come
on! You can’t do this
after the big giant fight.
Yo u ’re go n na have h i m
sit on a box?” says Coe-
tzer. Before the dragon
shoot the following day,
Coetzer’s team disman-
tled the giant and put a
truss on top of a swivel
on top of a truck tire. It
was simple and cheap—
“but it just works.”C / THE STUNT DOUBLE
The requirements for
the stunt double were
intense: He needed both
gymnastics and fighting
skills and had to physi-
cally match Harbour’s
size (six feet three
inches). He also had
to be able to perform
in pounds of makeup
and prosthetics. They
ended up using Dimi-
trov, who has worked
on films including Star
Wars and Spartacus.D / A GIANT
PHOTOGRAPH
To ensure that the inter-
active truss would match
the dimensions of the
rendered giant in the
final scene, the visual-
effects team made a
full-size, 24-foot-high
photo. The riggers
planned the apparatus
in Google SketchUp
Pro, then built it in front
of the photo to ensure
distances matched.E