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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Replacing Troublesome Actors With Trouble Free Real Dolls |
| 2007-10-18 |
| A dozen headless female bodies hang from industrial metal hooks in the center of the room. To the left are a table of plastic faces, awaiting makeup. To the right, a stack of silicone molds ready for the next order of life-sized love toys. Normally reserved for private play, these high-end, anatomically correct dolls are getting big-screen exposure with the recent release of "Lars and the Real Girl," an offbeat, surprisingly chaste comedy about a lonely introvert (Ryan Gosling) and Bianca, the silicone object of his affection. Bianca, a freckle-nosed brunette, was born just east of San Diego at Abyss Creations. The 11-year-old company that makes RealDolls will ship 400 dolls to the U.S. and abroad this year — at upward of $6,500 each... It's been suggested that eventually Real Doll exteriors will be used on humanoid robots, as they are perhaps the top of the line exterior manufacturers. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #12 an old college buddy is now an EE professor. His latest endeavors have been with a Hollywood Studio that wants to redo Casablanca in color and 3D as a technical experiment. They will have people replay the scenes while scanned in 3D and imaged. Then the facial and body features will be extrapolated from the existing movie with some of his tools and painted on the 3d scans as a modified "skins". If it works as easily as they expect it to then actors are in big trouble. The actors know this. Many refuse to allow 3D scans to be made of them. Others have paid lots of money for hi-res extreme 3D scans of themselves. Then copyrighted them and their skins. Its a brave new medium and hollywood actors are closer to been buggy whip manufactures then they ever imagined. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-10-18 20:59 |
| #11 This was made in 48 hours, including writing, shooting, and editing. There was a little professional-grade equipment -- a small crane and some Kinoflo lights -- but I have a book that shows how to build an equivalent crane out of hardware, and I have a pretty good idea how to replicate the lights. The editing was done primarily on a Mac, but some of the effects were done on a Windows editor, Vegas 7. It came in second out of the 15 or so projects it was shown with. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-10-18 17:25 |
| #10 Robots will not replace actors, CGI will. Computer simulated voices may or may not be used. At some point a kid at home can create a movie for cheap. It may not be a good movie, but the pressure will be on Hollywood to truly improve quality and tone down the other noise. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-10-18 17:02 |
#9 Why the hell not? I'm positive they could out-act Cameron Diaz, Keanu Reeves and Ben Affleck.Well, my dog can outact Reeves and Affleck -- he's got very expressive ears -- and Cameron isn't depending on her acting skills to get by. But point taken. And P2K is right -- actors' days are numbered. |
| Posted by: Jonathan 2007-10-18 15:21 |
| #8 Dekker never had any problems telling them apart. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2007-10-18 13:52 |
| #7 The CGI is already here. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442933/ Voice simulation will be next. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2007-10-18 13:38 |
| #6 Why the hell not? I'm positive they could out-act Cameron Diaz, Keanu Reeves and Ben Affleck. |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie 2007-10-18 13:34 |
| #5 Aw shucks, Rambler. What fun would that be then? |
| Posted by: Gleang Ghibelline7448 2007-10-18 12:07 |
| #4 Why? Robotic actors are another Polavision which was a day and a dollar short up against VHS, a technological leap. Who needs robots when you have ever increasing abilities of CGI. Soon[tm] you'll see and hear a fully passable CGI Clark Gable doing a sequel to Gone With the Wind. Of course Hollyweird will still lack writing talent to justify doing the production, but that is another issue [Intelligence is finite, there are just more people today]. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-10-18 12:00 |
| #3 Mike, and they won't spend the rest of their time telling the rest of us peasants how we should live, think, vote, etc. Oh yeah, and they won't set a bad example by driving drunk, flashing their private parts, snorting coke and other substances, and so on. |
| Posted by: Rambler 2007-10-18 11:50 |
| #2 Two reactions: 1. (shudder) 2. Once robotics gets just a little bit better than it is now, you really will be able to have lifelike robotic actors indistinguishable from real people--except that they always show up on time and never forget their lines. |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-10-18 11:47 |
| #1 Hollywood is already full of brainless dolls--both male and female. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-10-18 11:37 |