Actors Are Digitally Preserving Themselves To Continue Their Careers Beyond the Grave (technologyreview.com) 117
Improvements in CGI mean neither age nor death need stop some performers from working. From a report: From Carrie Fisher in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to Paul Walker in the Fast & Furious movies, dead and magically "de-aged" actors are appearing more frequently on movie screens. Sometimes they even appear on stage: next year, an Amy Winehouse hologram will be going on tour to raise money for a charity established in the late singer's memory. Some actors and movie studios are buckling down and preparing for an inevitable future when using scanning technology to preserve 3-D digital replicas of performers is routine. Just because your star is inconveniently dead doesn't mean your generation-spanning blockbuster franchise can't continue to rake in the dough. Get the tech right and you can cash in on superstars and iconic characters forever.
[...] For celebrities, these scans are a chance to make money for their families post mortem, extend their legacy -- and even, in some strange way, preserve their youth. Visual-effects company Digital Domain -- which has worked on major pictures like Avengers: Infinity War and Ready Player One -- has also taken on individual celebrities as clients, though it hasn't publicized the service. "We haven't, you know, taken out any ads in newspapers to 'Save your likeness,'" says Darren Hendler, director of the firm's Digital Humans Group. The suite of services that the company offers actors includes a range of different scans to capture their famous faces from every conceivable angle -- making it simpler to re-create them in the future. Using hundreds of custom LED lights arranged in a sphere, numerous images can be recorded in seconds capturing what the person's face looks like lit from every angle -- and right down to the pores.
[...] For celebrities, these scans are a chance to make money for their families post mortem, extend their legacy -- and even, in some strange way, preserve their youth. Visual-effects company Digital Domain -- which has worked on major pictures like Avengers: Infinity War and Ready Player One -- has also taken on individual celebrities as clients, though it hasn't publicized the service. "We haven't, you know, taken out any ads in newspapers to 'Save your likeness,'" says Darren Hendler, director of the firm's Digital Humans Group. The suite of services that the company offers actors includes a range of different scans to capture their famous faces from every conceivable angle -- making it simpler to re-create them in the future. Using hundreds of custom LED lights arranged in a sphere, numerous images can be recorded in seconds capturing what the person's face looks like lit from every angle -- and right down to the pores.
Hotblack Desiato clearly started this trend... (Score:1)
...nothing like spending a year dead for tax reasons...
Only a phase (Score:5, Insightful)
The next step will be digital actors, created from scratch. These don't age at all, do exactly what you want, don't act like divas and will work for peanuts.
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Re:Only a phase (Score:5, Interesting)
Most of the CGI, at least character CGI, with today's technology is still pretty obvious to me
It is only obvious when it is obvious. There is plenty of CGI in movies that you don't even notice because it is done so well.
Character CGI is improving rapidly. Fully fake actors are already a thing in Japan. They even have fan clubs. They will be common in American films as well within a few years.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Re: Only a phase (Score:2)
And I want to gag when I read these breathless press releases from movie companies that go on about how "likelike" these SynthaStars are. When I saw the images of Leia and Tarkin in Rogue One, I burst out laughing at how pathetically unrealistic they appeared. I've seen more realistic looking figures in Madam Tussaud's.
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For a lot of Hollywood movies the CGI is the storyline.
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Specifying the vocaloid trend narrows it down.
GP said "digital actor", but you could apply that as far as, say, Roger Rabbit. You'd probably want to tighten the definition, a "digital actor" can have several human bases. I believe the FFXV movie credited characters with a body actor for constructing the 3D model around, a motion-cap actor for script performance, and a voice actor. Even if you remove all that, even if you fast-forward the tech, even if you consider Hatsune Miku and bypass all modeling/voice,
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More importantly, they don't go on Twitter and say idiotic things that will result in a public uproar to cancel the show, recast a movie, or shine other bad light on the studio.
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"He touched my bits!"
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... and opera companies will put on shows with virtual singers who do exactly what they want and DO act like divas.
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A digitally scanned actor will probably want to have a say in the roles that he/she will play. I imagine that they don't want to be portrayed in porn movies, for instance.
Re:Only a phase (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Only a phase (Score:4, Insightful)
Its one thing if the person chose, its their face and name after all, and they can put in clauses on what is and is not allowed, but those that are already dead? Yeah if its one thing we've seen its that there is pretty much zero respect for the dead if someone thinks they can make a buck off the body and as this tech gets better and cheaper? I'm betting shit is gonna get even worse than what we are seeing now which is already getting pretty gross IMHO.
You raise some interesting copyright questions with your moral ones.
E.g., if we can't even use a cartoon mouse from the 1920s, why can we use these dead actors?
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You raise some interesting copyright questions with your moral ones.
The copyright question that came to my mind is "If the actors never die, then why should the rights?".
You can bet some Hollywoo lawyer will have that same thought too. Pretty soon the necessary number of Senators and congressmen will be having that thought as well.
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E.g., if we can't even use a cartoon mouse from the 1920s, why can we use these dead actors?
We can't. They can. Answer: Money.
corpse puppet (Score:2)
I'm for sure going to use that term for now on whenever this topic comes up... and I agree. I'm sure it will turn into a whole new legal frontier, post death rights of use, specifying exactly what your "corpse puppet" might be used for etc...
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But Andy Serkis isn't unique, another good actor could replace him and only a tiny percentage of the audience would perceive the difference. A contract negotiation with him is consequently a lot easier than with Robert Downey Jr.
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The voice software combined with MMD [wikipedia.org] or better animation software and you get "live concerts" [youtube.com]
Re: Only a phase (Score:2)
The problem is that if you make a realistic looking human. Itâ(TM)s virtually guaranteed that it would resemble someone. That person will claim his or her likekess was illegally used and demand royalties.
Re: Only a phase (Score:2)
I think one solution might be to use pre-1923 paintings, pictures, and film as the likenesses to base characters on. The character can be aged or ethicinity biased based on known aging or ethnicity modification algorithms.
Another solution may be to base it on a combined features take from a labeled database of people who signed over their images freely or for a one time fee with certain looks or character traits.
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That's it. I'm making a movie with the guy from The Scream as the main character.
Also, instead of just scanning actors, why not also scan attractive and/or distinctive people who can't act worth a damn? There's no reason the image has to be tied to a specific voice or acting ability.
Good. Computers need to take their jobs, too. (Score:2)
Replacing teachers (Score:1)
Teachers who merely impart knowledge were partially replaced with the advent of writing: Once the student learns to read, he can teach himself a lot from the works of long-dead teachers.
Teachers who are "good teachers" - inspiring, able to reach those who are hard to reach, etc. - those are much harder to replace. However, radio and TV have allowed people like Mister Rogers of Mister Rogers Neighborhood to teach long after they stopped filming, and in some cases, after they died.
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And 'what' does a teacher teach? IF a teachers job is to 'motivate and inspire' then there job is to teach 'values' 'philosophy' and 'religion' not information.
It is the 'value' of knowledge that inspires, even valuing education is the product of specific world view and philosophy.
It should be the parent and the communities job to inspire and motivate, the teacher is supposed to organize , filter topics, facilitate the use of tools that impart the information the students have already come with a desire to
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It won't eliminate celebrities... but it will reduce the number of living celebrities, and turn their kids almost into literal "royalty". Why? The film industry is weird... when an actor gets paid $50 million to make a movie, he or she isn't just providing $50 million worth of acting-in-front-of-the-camera value... the mere fact that they were PAID $50 million adds value to the film by getting others to take the film seriously. Kids from "Hollywood families" will go to the bargaining table able to offer not
The interesting question is (Score:3)
who owns the rights to the digitization?
I'd imagine "forward looking" studios including their ownership in contracts to the point where actors don't own their own faces.
The next step is digitizing the voices...
Re:The interesting question is (Score:5, Interesting)
This came up before when the studio replaced Crispin Glover in Back To The Future 2, and he sued them for using his likeness.
From the wikipedia article:
Dissatisfied with these plans, Glover filed a lawsuit against the producers, including Steven Spielberg, on the grounds that they neither owned his likeness nor had permission to use it. Due to Glover's lawsuit, there are now clauses in the Screen Actors Guild collective bargaining agreements which state that producers and actors are not allowed to use such methods to reproduce the likeness of other actors.[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B... [wikipedia.org]
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This came up before when the studio replaced Crispin Glover in Back To The Future 2, and he sued them for using his likeness.
From the wikipedia article:
Dissatisfied with these plans, Glover filed a lawsuit against the producers, including Steven Spielberg, on the grounds that they neither owned his likeness nor had permission to use it. Due to Glover's lawsuit, there are now clauses in the Screen Actors Guild collective bargaining agreements which state that producers and actors are not allowed to use such methods to reproduce the likeness of other actors.[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B... [wikipedia.org]
How similar do they have to be though.
If they take Crispin Glover and make his nose slightly longer and his chin slightly shorter and change his hair texture slightly... is it still Crispin Glover?
Or if they start with a model that doesn't look like Crispin Glover and alter the parameters so that he does look like him.
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I suppose that if the actor (Crispin Glover or otherwise) feels it looks too similar to their likeness that they will argue it in court.
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Any likeness, to a real person, living or dead is purely coincidental.
Is that digital Hugh Jackman?
No, it's purely coincidental. We don't have to pay the real one anything!
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Any likeness, to a real person, living or dead is purely coincidental.
Is that digital Hugh Jackman? No, it's purely coincidental. We don't have to pay the real one anything!
Which sounds quite fair, but merely hastens the day that CG actors replace humans.
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I've been curious about digitizing the voices and the best way to do so. Something that can take the phonetic alphabet and apply a voice to it would be cool. I'd really like the voice of Joshua from War Games to be my GPS voice.
Nah, everyone wants the quality Jarvis voice of Paul Bettany.
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Or he accidentally becomes invisible [youtube.com].
Funny story: Richard Dean Anderson was actually in the greensuit during the scene with T'ealc.
Porn Applications! (Score:4, Funny)
So now you can have anyone from any time do any thing for your ammusement.
Going to be lots of Wookie Porn!
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true that. porn is tech's killer app.
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Combine that with some better VR and maybe a fleshlight and you've got yourself a multi-million dollar industry, methinks.
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I would prefer Leia but hey whatever does it for you.
Maybe I'll meet you half way and we can have Leia feature in a furries film.
Kinda despicable. (Score:2)
So untasteful... Man, not so long ago this was just a joke in the simpsons....
Carrie Fisher was not in Rogue One (Score:2)
I Will STEAL Those Digitals (Score:1)
And create the biggest celebrity-packed zoophile porn epic, the likes of which has never been seen!
Fuck yeah!
Mind Uploading? (Score:2)
So as far as Ray Kurzweill goes, is this essentially mind uploading [wikipedia.org]? We are preserving the person's essense inside of the computer so it doesn't matter if they are biologically dead, right?
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We are preserving the person's essense inside of the computer so it doesn't matter if they are biologically dead, right?
It doesn't matter to us since "they" will still do what we expect of them. And it doesn't matter to them, either, since they are dead.
Uploading consciousness destructively makes sense only at the time of death, since that's when there's nothing to lose.
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...is this essentially mind uploading?
No, this is nothing of the sort. It's no more mind uploading than taking a picture is soul stealing. This is much more high definition texturing.
No End To It (Score:3, Interesting)
The film industry continues to tighten its grip on its assets, refusing to ever let them go. Trademarks will never expire. Actors will never expire. Nothing will slip from the industry's fingers into the public domain, or off this mortal coil. The long-deceased continue to act in films for all eternity. Their descendants ask when they'll be allowed to rest in peace. They demand the spirit of their long-buried grandfather be allowed to stop being paraded in sequel after inferior sequel, layering shame on their once respected career. Every film is now its own weekend at Bernie's, every summer comedy a macabre sideshow of all the actors whose likeness the studio has purchased. The family begs an end. Stop putting their dead Oscar and Emmy winning father in American Pie sequels. The industry executive laugh. The family has no claim. The actor is intellectual property. They belong to the industry. Forever.
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The film industry continues to tighten its grip on its assets, refusing to ever let them go. Trademarks will never expire. Actors will never expire. Nothing will slip from the industry's fingers into the public domain, or off this mortal coil. The long-deceased continue to act in films for all eternity. Their descendants ask when they'll be allowed to rest in peace. They demand the spirit of their long-buried grandfather be allowed to stop being paraded in sequel after inferior sequel, layering shame on their once respected career. Every film is now its own weekend at Bernie's, every summer comedy a macabre sideshow of all the actors whose likeness the studio has purchased. The family begs an end. Stop putting their dead Oscar and Emmy winning father in American Pie sequels. The industry executive laugh. The family has no claim. The actor is intellectual property. They belong to the industry. Forever.
Or the opposite (sorta) will happen. We'll start asking why we can use a dead actor from the 1950s but not a cartoon mouse from the 1920s.
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Do it (Score:2)
They should preserve the sex funk scent for sexbot implementation.
Nah don't bother. I'm sure blue cheese + musty from under a log will be much more popular.
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They should preserve the sex funk scent for sexbot implementation.
Nah don't bother. I'm sure blue cheese + musty from under a log will be much more popular.
Good Gar! Everyone needs to take a shower first.
Reminds me of "The Congress" (Score:3)
Why just violence? What about porn? (Score:1)
Forget CGI... (Score:2)
Twilight Zone (Score:2)
For celebrities, these scans are a chance to make money for their families post mortem, extend their legacy -- and even, in some strange way, preserve their youth.
Makes me think of that Twilight Zone episode [imdb.com] with the aging movie diva.
I wonder what effect this might have on actors' mental health.
The next step (Score:2)
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I am not sure it will be so simple. People choose the movie they will watch based in part on the actors in the movie. Think of the actors' salaries as a promotional expense.
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I am not sure it will be so simple. People choose the movie they will watch based in part on the actors in the movie. Think of the actors' salaries as a promotional expense.
But a hundred years from now, is Tom Hanks going to be the hot draw?
To my mind, there will be three things going on that work against this Actor immortality
1. It would kind of freeze actors at right now.
2. They would be paying great great great grandchildren huge amounts of money for not a whole lot, and would end up getting involved in family disputes.
3. Why would people in 2250 give a damn about Tom Cruise?
This could be a useful thing as a novelty, but like all novelties, it will grow old, and pr
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The movie industry will likely develop and exploit new "talent".
At one time, people would watch a movie because John Barrymore was in it. Very few people will do that today, but people may watch a movie because Drew Barrymore is in it.
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The movie industry will likely develop and exploit new "talent".
At one time, people would watch a movie because John Barrymore was in it. Very few people will do that today, but people may watch a movie because Drew Barrymore is in it.
Drew is a fascinating actress. She either looks stunning, or not at all, and can turn on the tears like a switch. Regardless I do like her.
No need to die first (Score:1)
Copyright protection... (Score:2)
... will now have to be extended to perpetuity. Right?
Videodrome (Score:1)
Some of this technology is good. (Score:3)
I remember watching Tron: Legacy and the "young-ified" Jeff Bridges looked creepy and fake.
Then the first Ant-Man had a "young-ified" Michael Douglas. It was much better, but still looked "off"
Then the latest Ant-Man -- again, had a "young-ified" Micheal Douglas. The only "odd thing" about it was how good it looked. Knowing how he actually looks today made it difficult to look at him on-screen "young-ified". It was almost perfect.
We're talking about a short space of time for this improvement. Now imagine movies like Forrest Gump with better "high school" looking Gump -- and "college" looking Gump. One who looks more like the age their supposed to be -- and not just the actor with makeup and period clothes.
Also, it would be a good "insurance" policy for filming projects -- in case an actor dies ore becomes incapacitated during filming they can finish the "job" they signed on to.
Creating new material from dead actors? I'm very uncomfortable with. Even if we make it illegal we'll still see it. Hell, I can spend $20 for a MTG Black Lotus forgery that's nearly impossible to tell from the real thing (worth a few grand at least) from somewhere in China.
Wings Out Of Shadow (Score:2)
Not actors, but this story reminded me of this one:
http://www.baen.com/Chapters/0... [baen.com]
But it's not about the appearance. (Score:2)
In most cases, it's not the appearance of someone that makes them a great actor - it's the way they convey emotion - how they deliver the lines - comedic timing...all of that kind of stuff.
Preserving the APPEARANCE of a great actor won't help them to actually ACT after their death.
Doubtless we can teach AI's to do that too - but merely capturing the appearance isn't what's required here.
After all - consider all of the cartoon/3D-animation movies where they hire actual good actors to play the roles.
When Robi
Not Paul Newman (Score:2)
Paul Newman has the following clause in his will to prevent anyone from using his image through:
“virtual performance or reanimation of any performance by me by the use of any technique, technology or medium now in existence or which may be known or created in the future anywhere in the universe.’’
At some point no actors needed (Score:2)
At some point no real actors will be needed anymore, just 3D models that can be used forever.
Getting that big break (Score:1)
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