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- De-Aging Tom Hanks... Live!
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De-Aging Tom Hanks… Live!
Sometimes people write in and go “what’s up with the weird pictures?” I like to think I’m drawing a clever visual metaphor to the topic of my stories, but I could also just be posting strange, irritating stuff that annoys readers!
Anyway the photo above may or may not be the author dressed up for a high school production of The Phantom of the Opera for which he may or may not have been roundly booed and mocked. Most importantly, this person who may or may not be me is wearing a weird, distressing mask. Sort of like this:
I know, it’s not fair to pick on the de-aging effects from a 15 year old film! That is sort of my point, however, I just don’t think de-aging effects will ever completely outrun the human eye’s training to see these things over time. That was also my comment about Here, the Robert Zemeckis film from last year featuring de-aged (and aged) performances from Tom Hanks and Robin Wright.
All that said, the production of Here is interesting, primarily in that rough de-aging effects were applied to the performers in real time (as opposed to after the fact), so that the actors and filmmakers could review the footage and modulate their performances accordingly. This is all detailed in a Vox article and accompanying video.
“Got so good” I think is stretching it: this stuff still looks weird to me (although I might just be a curmudgeon). Regardless of my own ick factor, the on-set implications of such technology are exciting across all levels of production. About a year ago we looked at an article about the production of the TV show Ted, which used similar technology to render its foul-mouthed teddy bear while shooting.
For instance, theoretically with such extensive de-aging technology I could stage a performance of The Phantom of the Opera that is very cool and awesome where my voice doesn’t crack and I don’t slip and fall and my friends don’t laugh at me, and everyone cheers at the end instead of giving half-hearted applause. In theory!
Achieving the Moonlit Look of Nosferatu
An “extended cut” of Nosferatu is now available on Peacock, so if you haven’t seen it, now’s your chance to watch it, although sans the incredible theatrical experience I had, where I went to see the film in the theater on Christmas Day and a toddler screamed for almost its entire run. I would think the screaming toddler demographic would be more attuned to watching things at home on Peacock!
One of the things I loved about Nosferatu was its gorgeous look, from the production design to the cinematography. Filmmaker Magazine has a fantastic interview with the film’s Oscar-nominated DP Jarin Blaschke. On how they achieved the film’s moonlit look:
It was shot on color film. I matched all those scenes [with that blueish hue] to each other. In retrospect, maybe I should have cheated some of them a little less blue if they were coming after a candlelight scene. I can tell you they’re all exactly the same color, but they feel different depending on the context. That was a lesson for me.
The lighting is just naked HMIs or daylight LEDs, then you have a tungsten film stock. All the moonlight is shot through a filter on the camera that’s similar to the filter I used on The Lighthouse. It completely eliminates red and orange light and most of the yellow. So, the red layer on the film has like zero information, and you’re giving more exposure to blue and a little bit to green. We’d done that on The Northman as well.
For Nosferatu, I was going to try to restore just a little bit of that red information, but we couldn’t get a new filter made in time to test and shoot. It was easiest to create that look with a filter on the camera, but I also found a gel by Rosco that I think was called Summer Blue that had a pretty close spectral response to the filter. Sometimes I put that on the windows if it was a night interior, or if I had to mix light with torches I would put that gel on the HMIs. That’s the least desirable way but that’s the only way you can do it when you want to affect your moonlight, but you want the firelight to remain intact. So, on set, you have this ridiculously crazy cyan light next to your torch light, and then in the grade you just grab the blue layer and desaturate just that layer.
There’s so much cool stuff in this interview that I would just end up reposting the entire thing, so head on over. It’s filled with background about how scenes were lit, lenses used, color grading, and the decision-making behind its 1.66 aspect ratio.
Kernels (3 links worth making popcorn for)
Here’s a round-up of cool and interesting links about Hollywood and technology:
The streaming future of the NFL. (link)
A video breakdown of John Carpenter’s inimitable directly style. (link)
4 of this year’s Oscar-nominated production designers on their pivotal scenes. (link)