Director Viktor Taranski, threatened to disrupt the filming of his film because of the main actress, who decided to refuse to act, decides to replace her with digital actress Simona, created using a computer. Simone's appearance causes a stir. Everyone is amazed by the girl's acting data - the software allowed Victor to combine in her the talent and appearance of almost all outstanding actresses. Simone has millions of fans, everyone talks about her, she is imitated, she gets an Oscar.
The plot of the movie "Simone" (S1mOne) does not seem so fantastic today. The computer graphics crossed the "sinister valley" and arrived at their destination. So far, not everything is as smooth as ideal, but for now. Technology does not stand still. Digital copies of actors are created, actors are rejuvenated, they create images of actors who have died long ago, etc. I am already silent about animated films, where everything is “drawn” using computer graphics. And when will they shoot a film, not an animated one, but the most realistic one, where the actors will be "assembled" by a computer, as in "Simone"? I will not consider this issue from the point of view of ethics, how humanely it is to replace live actors with graphics, but I will try to do only from the point of view of pragmatism.
Yes, a computer can do a lot today. Or rather, not the computer itself, of course. On Twitter, Wired magazine wrote of Gemini 's young Will Smith : "He doesn't need an acting trailer, food, or paycheck, it doesn't take up space because it's on a hard drive." This was retweeted by Paul Franklin (VFX Supervisor of Inception, Interstellar, and others) with the acrimonious comment: "Well, of course, the computer did it all!"
But it’s true, the digital actor doesn’t ask for food, doesn’t overestimate the fees, doesn’t be late for shooting, doesn’t marry a porn actress, and then flies off during filming to Vegas for a month to go to a rehabilitation center to be treated for drug addiction. A digital actor can be taught everything, any languages and martial arts, given any appearance, made to play all possible emotions and experiences (which are available to a person). It will be possible not to spend money on endless auditions and auditions, rehearsals, unsuccessful takes and reshoots. And Elon Musk won't have to launch Tom Cruise into spaceto make a blockbuster about space. After all, if the viewer likes the worlds created with the help of computer graphics (Star Wars, Avatar, The Lord of the Rings (yes, I know that New Zealand is there, but it was not without graphics), then why not create characters Artificial intelligence has already reached the level where it can do this. On YouTube, anyone can find videos where in old films actors are replaced by others with the help of DeepFake . The same Robert de Niro in "Irish" was rejuvenated with great success on YouTube , than the filmmakers.
The formula for a good film is: a well-developed script + good acting + skillful camera work + high-quality sound + editing. And if the actor is from computer graphics, then at least one variable can be removed from the equation and focus on the plot and narration. Plus save millions of dollars in manufacturing. Cinema is not only an art, it is also a business, and financial considerations come first. In the foreseeable future, there will be a computer character who will express (or, more precisely, generate) human emotions himself. In the meantime, all digital characters are "copied" from a living human prototype. Even the digital clone of Smith from Gemini is far from all digital. He has the eyes of the real Will Smithsome of the facial muscles were also rejuvenated by the old way of retouching skin texture and "digital lifting" of the face, rather than generated on a computer. This is why it looks so good.
In the meantime, they take an actor, draw markers on him and remove all reactions from a living person. It will be easier and cheaper to do it for many years to come. Therefore, the actors will not disappear anywhere. Even the movements for digital crowd scenes are often filmed by the animators themselves. It's faster than programming or animating digital people from scratch. And here we are not even talking about facial expressions, but simply about general body movements. And this is practiced, even though there is a special program for simulating the crowd "Massive" . Its artificial intelligence is not enough to solve individual problems.
But artificial intelligence is learning. You familiarize the machine with many variants of the initial data and the results of their processing. It analyzes processing algorithms, and then performs similar actions with similar examples. This method allows Cascadeur to recreate a character's pose from a small number of predefined positions. To do this, she needed "only" two million examples.
Do you have a favorite actor? How many times have you justified his bad acting or his participation in disastrous films, just because you personally like him or sunk into the soul of one of his images? (Aleksandr Petrov doesn't count. You know, Rusa!) Take Jack Sparrow (Captain Jack Sparrow) for example. Johnny Depp will no longer be able to appear in this image, or in any other ("Fantastic Beasts") due to the lost lawsuits from his ex-wife . And what if others can't play or get used to the role like Depp ?! With a digital copy of Captain Sparrow, this image would remain forever.
You might argue that it is unrealistic to love or believe a fictional actor made on digital graphics. Millions of people who are fans of Hatsune Miku or practicing Jediismdo not think so.
What about the magic of cinema? For any art, deviations from the algorithm are important - spontaneity, inaccuracies, inaccuracies and small errors. Can a computer program learn to be illogical and spontaneous? Will the digital actor improvise, or even go crazy over his role? Probably no. But the program will not get up to gag, like Marlon Brando in the movie "Apocalypse Now" , who did not play according to the script, but simply made up his own lines. Living people will not get injured when performing dangerous stunts, because everything will be done on CGI.
In most cases, modern cinema cannot boast of a good acting and a well-developed script. There are two main reasons films have become mediocre: business and storytelling. Let's start with the film business, which has practically become the "ideal junk producer." In the production of a modern film, everything is focused on what has been done before. The film industry, at its core, tends to do something mediocre because mediocre sells well. The most obvious and absurd reason is the preservation of the rights to the characters for subsequent monetization. If Disney or Sony don't use their characters in their films, then they don't make money from them. From here we get endless reboots, remakes, sequels, prequels, spinoffs, etc. Enjoy! Or not! It doesn't matter, filmmakers don't care.
Characters, through artistic techniques, should help the storytelling by expressing meaningful emotions and, ultimately, engage the viewer, allowing them to relive the film in a more personal experience. Today, characters are the underlying assets of film companies, such as stocks or real estate. If you develop this idea, then the characters of the films are a brand. Batman, James Bond, Harry Potter is a brand that makes a profit from films, video games, souvenirs and toys (merchandising). Spider-Man alone makes more than a billion dollars. In other words, characters are exactly the same product as AirJordan for Nike or iPhone for Apple. There is nothing wrong with characters becoming a brand, as long as the quality of the films themselves does not suffer. And if you
Making a film carries a huge financial risk. The success of a film depends on a thousand things. You can hire a cool director and great actors, but if the script is bad, the film will fail. You can write an interesting and well-developed script, but the wrong marketing can disappoint. It is very easy to fail in cinema. Therefore, in Hollywood they try to predict which film will shoot and which will fail. As David Fincher would say: "To make money in movies you have to make a romantic comedy, Oscar bait, superhero or budget sequel." Filming is expensive. You need a whole team of cameramen, screenwriters, editors, sound engineers and a lot of money. Therefore, most films are similar to each other, different types of gum. But they have no choice, as producers want to make money. If you were making films, would you like to make money from it? Financial prospects are forcing filmmakers to shoot mediocre trash year after year. But don't worry, they will shoot even worse!
Previously, if an American film failed at the US box office, it was the ultimate fiasco. But now films have a chance to raise the box office abroad. For example, in China. The Chinese market is far superior to the American market. This means that after the film has been shot, it needs to be translated into different world languages. And this, in turn, means that making films with complex intellectual dialogues ( "Oil" , "Doctor Strangelove") - undesirable. Better to make films with lots of special effects on simple topics, where there are "good guys" versus "bad guys". The perfect recipe. Superman, James Bond or Tony Stark are recognizable characters, and there is no need to come up with a complex plot to make a movie about them. It is enough to put on a red cloak, a tuxedo and an Iron Man suit, respectively. In simple terms, brand characters are perceived by world cultures exclusively through visuals. That's why superheroics have become so popular. In these films, recognizable characters talk about simple things that are understandable to all people of all nationalities. These films do not develop you aesthetically, emotionally and spiritually, like fast food, harmful, but delicious.
So is it time to fully digitize the characters of such films?The lion's share of the budget goes to the actors' fees. In just one movie, Avengers: Endgame, supporting actors received $ 8 million .
Now about the storytelling in films. For a film to be a commercial success, its storyline must be understandable to the general public. Alternatively, for this you need to write a simple story already familiar to everyone. Most modern blockbusters carry the same chewed message: "Together we are stronger!" or "Believe in yourself!" Together with recognizable characters and uncomplicated ideas, films have a predictable structure. This structure has been pushed for many years and promoters like Sid Field make money from it . The structure is a simplified version of Aristotle's Poetics and Joseph Campbell 's The Thousand Faces... No matter how substantial the artistic value is, what matters is that it sells well. This structure consists of three parts: 1-act - the main character in his ordinary world, the beginning of the main character's adventures and his leaving his world; 2-act - meeting enemies or obstacles, failures in the path of the protagonist, collapse; Act 3 - overcoming obstacles, defeating enemies, returning to your world, which has changed for the main character. When you think about it, most films have this structure. No versatility of characters and their contradictory, and sometimes paradoxical qualities, in their ability to hurt and love each other at the same time, and suddenly come face to face with themselves. No confrontation between surprise on screen and in life. Only predictable mindless mediocrity.
And what is the most important thing about the film? Acting, cool special effects or a scenario twist? Maybe all together? The most important thing about the film is the story, and the way the story is told. And let's not forget about the context. Context matters the most! Therefore, the script and scriptwriters are so important, although here too, artificial intelligence can begin to compete... All this can lead to a dispute: which came first - the chicken or the egg? (although we find out that the egg was earlier than the chicken, according to the theory of evolution) I'm not talking about completely replacing the actors with neural networks in all cinema. After all, AI learns from images created by people. And who knows what magnificent roles people have not yet played ?! How many heartfelt declarations of love and heroic deeds will we see on the screen ?! And the scripts for such films will be written by a person. After all, the most sophisticated screenwriter is human destiny, which a computer cannot calculate ... For now.
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