The use of artificial intelligence is worrying in Hollywood. But that did not stop Tom Hanks from being amazed by this “incredible” technology, which allowed him to be rejuvenated “in real time” in his latest film.
In Here: The most beautiful years of our lives.the American actor alongside Robin Wright, for a journey through time towards the intimacy of a couple, with their joys, their sadness and their doubts, spread over several decades.
Technology allows Tom Hanks to play his character across generations, from the idealistic teenager to the frail old man.
in real time
The directors teamed up with studio Metaphysic to develop a tool called Metaphysic Live, an AI that can rejuvenate or “age” actors on command. “The amazing thing is that it was all happening in real time,” says Tom Hanks.
The 68-year-old actor could see the result of his performance, with his face softened or marked by the weight of the years, a few moments after each scene.
“We didn’t have to wait eight months for post-production,” he recalls. “There were two monitors on set. One showed the actual transmission captured by the lens, and the other was just a nanosecond slower and showed our ‘deep fake’ version.”
8 million images taken from the web
“Deep fakes”, those videos where a personality is recreated by AI and can be used to facilitate scams, are of concern in the midst of the presidential campaign in the United States.
The use of AI is also controversial in Hollywood, where actors and screenwriters held long strikes last year when they believed they were threatened by this technological advance.
“Let’s say it right away: a lot of people are in their pants,” Tom Hanks admitted at AFI Fest this weekend in Hollywood.
For Herefrom director Robert Zemeckis, the artificial intelligence company “took 8 million images of us from the web” to recreate faces corresponding to all eras, he detailed.
“They searched the web for photographs of us from all eras: all the events we filmed, all the photographs from the movies, all the family photographs that could have existed somewhere,” he explains.
It is not the only technical feat
The use of AI is not the only technical feat of Here. The film is shot entirely with a static camera, placed most of the time in the corner of the living room of an American suburban house.
This fixed shot is adorned with regular jumps in time: the narrative moves forward and back to different moments in the couple’s life, and even goes back to previous generations or distant times, going back to the dinosaurs.
Here is based on a graphic novel by Richard McGuire, which uses the same concept. “We had to be faithful to the style of the book,” explains filmmaker Robert Zemeckis, praising a process that engenders “a really powerful intimacy.”
Source: BFM TV
