The Uncanny Sound Illusion That Creates Suspense in Christopher Nolan's Movies. Ever notice how Christopher Nolan’s movies (Interstellar, Inception, The Prestige) feel like an anxiety attack? Well, maybe that’s overstating things a bit. But the director does have a knack for creating an unnerving degree of tension. Turns out he’s using a little bit of musical magic to do it.

As Cassini’s tour of Saturn comes to a close, NASA’s getting a bit nostalgic. Yesterday, the space agency released a photo of Saturn’s North pole the doomed.

The magic is actually a science- based audio illusion called a Shepard tone. Named after psychologist Roger Shepard, a pioneer in our understanding of spatial relation, the effect sounds like an infinitely ascending or descending scale. The tones are constantly moving upwards or downwards, but they never seem to reach a pinnacle or nadir. This is accomplished by stacking scales on top of each other—typically one treble scale, one midrange, and one bass—with an octave in between, then playing them in a continuous loop. A Shepard tone is sometimes referred to as the barber pole of sound.

• Ever notice how Christopher Nolan’s movies (Interstellar, Inception, The Prestige) feel like an anxiety attack? Well, maybe that’s overstating things a bit. But.
• The classic US stereotype of attempted Iranian ideological indoctrination via chants of “Death to America” and such has been old hat for quite some time. As noted.

You can even see the similarity, when you hear it and look at the spectrum view of a Shepard tone. Don’t listen to this too long, or you might lose your mind: Anyways, Christopher Nolan just loves this. With longtime collaborator Hans Zimmer, the acclaimed director has used a Shepard tone in almost every one of his films in the last decade. He even writes his scripts to match the effect.

In a recent interview, Nolan explained how he used Shepard tones in his newest film, Dunkirk: The screenplay had been written according to musical principals. There’s an audio illusion, if you will, in music called a “Shepard tone” and with my composer David Julyan on “The Prestige” we explored that and based a lot of the score around that. And it’s an illusion where there’s a continuing ascension of tone.

We have told you not to stare at the Sun today. We have told you to use safety glasses. We have tried so very hard, and we are so very tired.

It’s a corkscrew effect. It’s always going up and up and up but it never goes outside of its range. And I wrote the script according to that principle. I interwove the three timelines in such a way that there’s a continual feeling of intensity.

Increasing intensity. So I wanted to build the music on similar mathematical principals. Knowing this, you gain a deeper understanding of films like Interstellar, Inception, and The Prestige. Cult Sci Fi Cartoons Stan Lee Presents: Mosaic there. It also explains why these films seem somehow inconclusive.

A Shepard’s tone creates a conflict that can’t be resolved, just like Nolan’s plots.[Digg, Business Insider].

Cassini Stared Into Saturn's Polar Abyss, and It's Creepy As Hell. As Cassini’s tour of Saturn comes to a close, NASA’s getting a bit nostalgic. Yesterday, the space agency released a photo of Saturn’s North pole the doomed spacecraft took on April 2. Grand Finale. It’s almost poetic to have a photo of Cassini staring into the void before it perishes within it. According to NASA, Cassini snapped the picture when it was hovering 1.

Saturn. The planet’s North pole is notorious for the 1,2. Cassini has photographed many times. The hexagonal jet stream surrounding that monster cyclone creates a unique visual that’s absolutely haunting at any vantage point.

Here’s that Cassini image in full: For context, here’s that hexagonal storm in color filters: Cassini has only three orbits left in its 2. On its final dive on September 1. Saturn’s atmosphere with its antenna pointing toward Earth, transmitting everything it can until the atmosphere overpowers it. So long and thanks for all the pics, Cassini.[NASA].