It’s a sad day for Aereo and all those who believed in it. The startup, which allowed people to stream live broadcast television to their computers and mobile devices, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, just months after shutting down operations.
The news, which Aereo founder and CEO Chet Kanojia announced on the company blog on Friday, marks the end of an era for the embattled startup, which faced opposition from major broadcasters ever since Aereo launched in 2012. Like Uber and Airbnb, Aereo has been one of those companies that bucked regulation from the outset.
Inside the infrastructure that drove its online service, it assigned every Aereo user a mini broadcast TV antenna, and it used this to argue that its service was no different than sticking a pair of bunny ears on your television. That way, Aereo could avoid paying retransmission fees for broadcasters’ content. But broadcasters never bought this argument, and when it came down to it, neither did the Supreme Court. In June, Aereo shut down operations indefinitely. Now, Kanojia says the company is filing for bankruptcy to avoid “the extensive cost and distraction of defending drawn out litigation in several courts.”
“We have traveled a long and challenging road,” he wrote. “We stayed true to our mission and we believe that we have played a significant part in pushing the conversation forward, helping force positive change in the industry for consumers.”
Indeed, Aereo has been a force for change in this industry. Just last month, one of Aereo’s biggest adversaries, CBS, announced the launch of CBS All Access, a subscription service that allows people to stream CBS content online for just $5.99 a month. A few days before that, HBO announced its own standalone streaming service, which won’t require a cable subscription.
Internet television will live on, though only on the terms of existing content companies—at least for the moment. This may come at the cost of consumers. Though many cord cutters have argued that cable packages are a ripoff and feel they should only have to pay for the content they actually watch, they’re also coming to realize that paying small sums of money to lots of different content providers is going to add up.
But even if Aereo’s time is over, there may be space for a similar service in the future, as the FCC looks to redefine its regulations about who can and cannot retransmit broadcast television. Last month, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler proposed a new rule that would allow internet TV providers to license content just like cable and satellite companies do. Wheeler acknowledged that Aereo has played a key role in changing the Commission’s thinking. In a blog post announcing the proposal, Wheeler wrote: “Twenty-first century consumers shouldn’t be shackled to rules that only recognize 20th century technology.”
It’s been a long week, and everyone is jonesing for that Thanksgiving break to put on their fattest pants and slip into football/food/movie comas. So we’ll keep it simple. Here’s a GIF of Benedict Cumberbatch being flirty with you, and the week’s most noteworthy television.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart—Benedict Cumbertbatch
“I guess this would be the wrong time to ask you to marry me.” But if not now, when?
Saturday Night Live —Leslie Jones On Crazy Bitches
Jost/Jones has to be one of the best odd couples on TV. Not because they have especially good chemistry on camera, but because their anti-chemistry is so compelling. Leslie just walks all over him, but Colin is the perfect little milquetoast fall guy. There’s a tiny hint of fear in his eyes each time they appear together at the “Weekend Update” desk, like he has no real idea how things will go down when Jones lets loose. But one thing is for sure: Upgrading her to full-fledged player is one of our favorite SNL casting decisions in a long time.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart—Jessica Chastain
Honestly, Jessica Chastain just seems like one of the sweetest, classiest people in Hollywood. And she’s like best friends with her grandma, too. So here is Jessica Chastain being the loveliest person ever, if you’re interested.
The View—Jessie J Performs ‘Burning Up’
Whether or not like you pop music, you must respect that Jessie J performs it very well. She’s best known for her minor hits “Domino” and “Price Tag” from her debut album Who Are You, but that dropped all the way back in 2011, and it’s only with her third studio release, Sweet Talker, that the British soul-pop firecracker has gotten substantial traction beyond people saying “Oh, so that’s not Katy Perry?!” No. It is not. Ms. J has been on the verge of breakout for years now, and we’re hoping her phenomenal stage presence and killer voice are enough to make her a certified Top 40 sensation. She’s earned a step out of the wings and into the spotlight.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon—Russell Brand
Here’s a test: Just try and keep up with Russell Brand. We’re on like our third watch and still missing jokes in the flurry of speech.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!—Jamie Foxx
Earlier this week we fantasized about being included in the Duplass family Thanksgiving, but Jamie Foxx’s appearance on Kimmel made us reconsider our vote for Ultimate Turkey Day Gathering. Because really, it doesn’t sound like he has enough houseguests already.
Sesame Street—One Direction ‘What Makes U Useful’
We’ve gotta give it up for One Direction. They’ve managed to sustain a global obsession with their image despite having less charisma than the purple foam “U” in this video. Truly remarkable, gents. And is it just us, or does it seem like no one gave these guys a primer on what Sesame Street was before they shot this clip? ‘Cause they’re acting a little like they’re in front of some basement green screen and feeling pretty weirded out about the whole affair.
Arrow—Draw Back Your Bow
Awwww, snap! You weren’t supposed to see that, Oliver… But more importantly, is that The Atom suit we just saw?!
Key & Peele—Stan Lee’s Superhero Pitch
Presented without comment.
Bonus Track: Saturday Night Live—Cut for Time: ‘Tweet’
Is this the most resource-intensive sketch ever to get cut for time?! God? The fake Obamas? Real Edward Norton? A choreographed original song? Such an undertaking deserves a shout out.
When Ayan Qureshi said goodbye to his dad and walked into a Birmingham, England conference center, he was just another five-year-old. But when we walked out, two hours later, he was something else: a five-year-old officially qualified to install and configure Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
Ayan Qureshi perhaps the youngest ever Microsoft Certified Professional. That means he knows how to do things like encrypt a removable drive using Microsoft’s Bitlocker encryption software or troubleshoot Internet Explorer bugs.
The 1990s-tinged certification test he took inside that conference center is still de rigeur for many corporate and government jobs. Microsoft calls these tests “rigorous, industry-proven, and industry-recognized exams.” But for Ayan—who scored 700 out of 1,000 on the test, the minimum score required to pass—it was a fun thing to do in between swimming and playing tag with his brother.
Ayan, who turned six shortly after his September 24 exam, started getting into computers about three years ago. “He used to sit next to me and watch me very carefully,” says his dad, Asim Qureshi, who also works in IT. So Asim started explaining the basics to his son: how to turn a computer on, how to power down, how to access the control panel. Before he knew it, Asim had built his son a mini computer-lab in his home office, and Ayan was spending one-to-two hours per day playing around with the operating system.
While other kids were playing video games and watching TV, Ayan was installing and configuring operating systems and tinkering with routers and switches. This is not every kid’s idea of fun, but Ayan is different. “I knew that if I introduced him to the games, he would not go for this,” his dad says.
We checked with Microsoft, and they couldn’t tell us if anyone younger has ever been Microsoft-certified. Still, it’s hard to imagine anyone younger than five reading through the dull Microsoft manuals and practicing the test multiple-choice questions you need in order to make the grade. “It’s not easy to pass the test,” says Asim Qureshi.
We couldn’t get an interview with Ayan—his dad says his son has been overwhelmed by the U.K. media’s coverage of his accomplishment—but the kid told The Independent that he wants to be an IT consultant or a mathematician when he grows up. In addition to the Microsoft Command Prompt, he likes remote controlled toys, digital cameras, and science. “I like compasses and telescopes, but I really like prisms,: he told the paper. “The rainbow colored light reflected through the prism is amazing.”
Although he’s now a Certified Professional, it’s still going to be awhile before Ayan puts his skills on the market. “At the moment, he’s just concentrating on his school,” says Asim Qureshi. “But he also will be improving his IT skills.”
Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing with the code-breaking machine Turing calls Christopher. (Expand gallery to fullscreen for larger images.)
Jack English/The Weinstein Company
Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing with the code-breaking machine Turing calls Christopher. (Expand gallery to fullscreen for larger images.)
Jack English/The Weinstein Company
The Christopher prop had to be able to be easily converted from its early stages to its nearly-complete form on the fly.
courtesy The Weinstein Company
The Christopher prop had to be able to be easily converted from its early stages to its nearly-complete form on the fly.
courtesy The Weinstein Company
This is the Christopher prop currently on display at Bletchley Park.
Shaun Armstrong/mubsta.com
This is the Christopher prop currently on display at Bletchley Park.
Shaun Armstrong/mubsta.com
Bletchley Park also has its own replica of Alan Turing's Bombe (shown here).
Shaun Armstrong/mubsta.com
Bletchley Park also has its own replica of Alan Turing's Bombe (shown here).
Shaun Armstrong/mubsta.com
The Christopher prop is remarkably similar to Bletchley's Bombe replica.
Shaun Armstrong/mubsta.com
The Christopher prop is remarkably similar to Bletchley's Bombe replica.
Shaun Armstrong/mubsta.com
Christopher in the film is a little larger than the original machine in order to make it an imposing feature in each scene.
Maria Djurkovic/The Weinstein Company
Christopher in the film is a little larger than the original machine in order to make it an imposing feature in each scene.
Maria Djurkovic/The Weinstein Company
Christopher was located in Bletchley Park's Hut 11.
Maria Djurkovic/The Weinstein Company
Christopher was located in Bletchley Park's Hut 11.
Maria Djurkovic/The Weinstein Company
Nick Dent designed Christopher using Illustrator with a CAD plug-in. This is his design for the front of the machine.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
Nick Dent designed Christopher using Illustrator with a CAD plug-in. This is his design for the front of the machine.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
This is Dent's design for the rear of the machine.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
This is Dent's design for the rear of the machine.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
Christopher was designed to be opened up so moviegoers could see the complexity inside.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
Christopher was designed to be opened up so moviegoers could see the complexity inside.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
The prop was also designed to show various stages of completion.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
The prop was also designed to show various stages of completion.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
The bright red cords on Christopher give the appearance of veins flowing into the machine.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
The bright red cords on Christopher give the appearance of veins flowing into the machine.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
Having a machine that opened up allowed the filmmakers to show Turing working on it.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
Having a machine that opened up allowed the filmmakers to show Turing working on it.
Nick Dent/The Weinstein Company
Alan Turing may be the star of The Imitation Game, but the truly central figure in the film is Christopher. Named after Turing’s childhood friend and first love, the machine not only breaks the German Enigma code during World War II, but also becomes a forbear to nearly every computer out there (including the one you’re reading this on).
The real Christopher was named the “Bombe” (later “Victory”) and although the filmmakers took some liberties in naming their device, they went to great lengths to make sure it looked as much like Turing’s revolutionary computer as possible. The letter-covered rotors, the wires, the dozens of ports—it’s all there. However, production designer Maria Djurkovic (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) did make it open-able so the audience could see its impressive construction. She also ran more red wires into the machine, so as to give it the appearance that it has nerves—and blood running through its veins.
“The actual design is absolutely based on the reality of it,” Djurkovic says. “You extrapolate—you have to make something that’s credible, you have to make something where those cogs turn at different speeds and it effectively has to be doing what the Bombe was doing.”
What’s even more impressive is that she was able to build the machine for £30,000 (about $48,000). The film had a mere $15 million budget so it was a lean build—and cheaper than the one in the film, which Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) says will cost him about £100,000 to make—and what Djurkovic crafted holds up well to scrutiny. So well, in fact, her Christopher has been given a home at Bletchley Park, the UK compound where Turing and his fellow code-breakers created the original Bombe. (It’ll be on exhibit at Bletchley for a year starting this month.) Here’s how she did it.
First, Go to Blechley to See the Bombe
Bletchley Park has a replica of Alan Turing’s code-breaking machine, but the filmmakers couldn’t exactly borrow it and let Benedict Cumberbatch play with it. So Djurkovic and director Morton Tyldum went to Bletchley, which is now a tourist attraction, to figure out how to recreate one. They also brought supervising art director Nick Dent, who took photos and measurements of the machine. (The Christopher replica ended up being a foot or two taller than the original.)
Then Decide What Liberties Need to Be Taken
After seeing Turing’s machine, Djurkovic and company decided they wanted to make one that could be opened up so audiences could see just how intricate the design was. “We sort of wandered around this thing 360 degrees and stood at the back of it saying ‘This is actually much more interesting—the nerve center of the machine,'” she says. “There and then we decided we would build it into two sections and split it.”
Next, Draft Design Concepts for the Machine
Designing Christopher required a bit of actual engineering. To do so, Dent drew his design in Illustrator using a CAD plug-in. “It turns Illustrator into a technical drawing package but retains the artistic and visual qualities that the original package allows,” Djurkovic says, citing Dent’s explanation. “Rather than AutoCAD or Vectorworks, which doesn’t allow for texture or light to be included.” (Click through the slideshow above for Dent’s illustrations of Christopher.)
Build the Damn Thing
After it was designed, the art department had just a few weeks to build Christopher before filming. Djurkovic estimates it took her team—a collection of staffers and interns—about five weeks working in three-person teams to finish the Bombe. “We do everything insanely quickly. When I look back on a film after I finish I just think, ‘How the bloody hell did we actually do that?'” she says. “It’s not just Christopher, it’s every single aspect of the film.”
Make It Easy to Un-Build
Like most movies, The Imitation Game was shot out of order; that meant that Christopher had to be able to look like it was in different stages of completion. “It’s this business of having to in-build the ability to pull it apart,” Djurkovic says. “You don’t know how it’s going to work in the schedule, if you’re starting with it finished or starting with it in the middle stage. You have to adapt.”
Don’t Worry If It Can Actually, Like, Be a Computer
Djurkovic’s replica looks very close to the real McCoy, but it lacks one important feature: It can’t actually crack any codes. “Oh, no, no, no. Absolutely not!” she laughs when asked if her Bombe can do any calculations. “The sum total of its mechanism was that its wheels turned in a sequence similar to the real thing.”
Make a Whole Other Machine for the Beginning and End of the Film
The Imitation Game jumps back and forth in time from Turing’s time code-breaking in World War II to his childhood to his life in Manchester right before his death. Those scenes from his later years show him tinkering with a Christopher-like device. The truth is a bit different. That machine wasn’t in Turing’s home, it was at the University of Manchester. And it didn’t look as much like the Bombe as the one in the film. “That one was much less closer to the reality, because Morton wanted it to echo Christopher,” Djurkovic says. “He wanted there to be a visual echo so we departed from reality.” But, she adds, a lot of the other details in his home were accurate. “Everything that you see on the walls of that Manchester house at the start of the film, that’s not some whim of mine. That’s based on absolutely the kind of things he was studying at that period of his life.”
courtesy Asim Qureshi
Jack English/The Weinstein Company
Maria Djurkovic/The Weinstein Company
