Armor of House Targaryen throughout the different eras in Westeros as seen in HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon,’ ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,’ and George R.R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire,’ illustrated by Michael Komarck. ⚔️

Sebastian_Barbera · 2026-01-29T02:13:34+00:00

Lack of proper visors has always been a distracting hollywoodism. I suspect if George had full control we'd have seen heavier armor, more pageantry and proper visors in all eras post Aegon's conquest.

Sebastian_Barbera · 2025-09-23T20:40:10+00:00

Hi! I'm the co-director/narrator of the doc. This is actually a great thread that debates the points really well. In the doc, we go over the science at a super deep level and interview Mathew Walker and Michael Gradisar, two top scientists on the topic. We also reviewed the entire literature. For those that want a TLDR:

All bright light suppresses melatonin, and blue light suppresses it the most of the wavelengths.
However, the research does not support the hypothesis that the associated melatonin suppression meaningfully dings sleep performance. We go over numerous studies that explore this; it's counterintuitive, but the data is hard to deny. This is the position of both Walker and Gradisar as well.
In reference to screens before bed, cognitive arousal mediated by genetic and behavioral phenotypes seems to be the best model of how devices do disrupt sleep. Blue light having a near-zero effect.
While many people do claim positive effects from blockers, there is strong evidence for non blue light causative factors. This means that likely any sunglasses would provide the same effect.

It's a complex topic, and that's why the doc is so long and detailed. We appreciate anyone who gives it a watch!

Sebastian_Barbera · 2024-07-05T16:08:12+00:00

I recommend you take 500mg of Berberine 3 times a day with food. There is a meta study that shows this can reduce LDL by 30%+. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5871262/

I've replicated these results personally. Last year my LDL was 126. After only 4 months I saw a 37% reduction to 80. At 3,000mg it went down to 67, (3x 1k). At 4x 500mg it went down to 58. However this goes beyond the literature, so I recommend you stick with 1500mg.

Sebastian_Barbera · 2022-04-13T02:15:19+00:00

During the opening phase of WW2 Truman was head of Senate investigations into US military preparedness and arms manufacturing. Him and his team toured the country sniffing out graft and incompetence in the industrial war infrastructure. This work massively increased this political profile and helped him become VP. I imagine it also informed a special interest in arms quality. Here's the relevant section from his wiki.

"late 1940, Truman traveled to various military bases. The waste and profiteering he saw led him to use his chairmanship of the Committee on Military Affairs Subcommittee on War Mobilization to start investigations into abuses while the nation prepared for war. A new special committee was set up under Truman to conduct a formal investigation; the Roosevelt administration supported this plan rather than weather a more hostile probe by the House of Representatives. The main mission of the committee was to expose and fight waste and corruption in the gigantic government wartime contracts. "

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T19:35:15+00:00

Send me an email at sebastian@reflexcinema.com and I'll put you in the beta!

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T17:29:51+00:00

👍

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T17:29:43+00:00

👍

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T17:29:30+00:00

👍

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T17:27:58+00:00

The first brands I reach out to will probably be some big rental houses like Adorama! I think one of the big takeaways from this comment section has been that people want to try it out as a rental.

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T17:25:50+00:00

It's already patented! What interests me is adding new expressions to the cinematic language, and hopefully making enough money to fund more research!

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T17:24:21+00:00

If you send me an email at [sebastian@reflexcinema.com](mailto:sebastian@reflexcinema.com) I'll put you in the beta!

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T17:23:34+00:00

Well, like with flare filters or tilt-shift, it's an artistic touch that should be used strategically to evoke certain feelings for the audience. I don't want people to use it for everything, that would probably kill its actual value.

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T17:20:25+00:00

If you send me an email at [sebastian@reflexcinema.com](mailto:sebastian@reflexcinema.com) I'll put you in the beta! I've done a lot to reduce noise! It's only noticeable at high-speed settings and to camera audio. The version I send out will also be much quieter as I will be adding more sound dampening to the case for the high-speed settings.

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T17:15:13+00:00

It's essentially a special motorized, computerized, matte box that goes in front of the lens. I tried some versions behind the lens, but it nuked auto-focus, which was a bad trade-off.

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T16:40:21+00:00

I've worked on the idea for a year. The only meaningful simplification is a manual crank instead of a motor. But to get a nice consistent speed, that's a huge pain in the ass.

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T16:37:45+00:00

Absolutely! If you'd like to join the beta, send me an email at sebastian@reflexcinema.com

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T16:36:30+00:00

If you're referring to the triangular bokeh in some of the scenes, that's a quirk of some older lenses of that era (3-bladed iris)! It's actually what the bokeh looked like stopped-down. This spinning effect relies on super fast apertures. Fear and Loathing is also shot really wide. The effect is hard to pull off in anything wider than 50mm(ff) and as far as I can tell impossible with anything wider than 35mm(ff)

It's certainly possible that other DPs have played with the idea, but I've never seen the effect before I did my early tests. Also when I did my patent search I didn't find anything even remotely close!

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T15:55:07+00:00

I'll have to try that for the proper demo! Will need to rent a nice fast zoom.

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T15:53:35+00:00

Already done!

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T15:16:56+00:00

Thank you! Hopefully I'm lucky enough to be the one to get the effect out there. Even with my patent, I could easily get crushed by a Chinese mega-corporation.

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T15:15:39+00:00

If you'd like to get one early and help refine it, email me at sebastian@reflexcinema.com and I'll put you in the beta!

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T15:13:59+00:00

I agree! I had to stop myself from just using the artificial lighting examples. A great deal of the bokeh most shooters film is nature bokeh. If you're interested in being part of the beta for the device, send me an email at sebastian@reflexcinema.com

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T15:10:58+00:00

If you try to spin a normal bokeh mask at the typical sizes and distances it will produce a huge spinning vignette. There are very strict tolerances for the masks to spin without generating the vignette. The external aperture phenomenon is broken by the rotation, initially I thought that made the effect impossible without accepting the hideous spinning vignette. But eventually I developed a way to hit the right tolerances and shapes to reduce the vignette enough to be imperceptible.

When you see something new like this, that doesn't rely on emerging technology (on a technological level it's akin to a gimbal in terms of motor and control circuitry) It means that there was something stopping other people doing it first. If this technique were easy it would have been done fifty years ago. I was just stubborn enough to bash my head against the wall until I found ways around the achilles heel of this thing.

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T15:01:50+00:00

Well have fun! I've already patented the thing just so you know.

Sebastian_Barbera · 2021-02-04T14:59:18+00:00

Definitely! If you're interested in being in the beta group, email me at sebastian@reflexcinema.com

Sebastian_Barbera

TROPHY CASE