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Hollywood Films Making Actors Look Years Younger

时间:2020-01-24 22:43:43

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"The Irishman" is competing against eight other movies for one of the film industry's highest awards: the Oscar for best picture.

When that award is announced in February, many people may pay close attention to the special effects teams that make it and similar films possible.

Martin Scorsese directed the "The Irishman." It tells a story that extends over 30 years. One of the stars, Robert De Niro, is 76 years old in real life. But on camera, he and his co-stars play characters from their 30s into old age. It is something that made the film one of 2019's most celebrated1 movies.

In the film industry, making actors look younger on camera is called "de-aging."

A number of movies released last year have used new digital de-aging techniques to make stars look young. Samuel L. Jackson and Will Smith appeared in films that made them look like younger men.

Some critics are calling 2019 an important year for de-aging effects in film.

The Irishman

There are several methods using computers to make actors look younger than they are.

In "The Irishman," the filmmakers avoided using tracking markers. Tracking markers are dots painted onto actors' faces that let computers mathematically reproduce facial movements.

The young faces of De Niro and others in "The Irishman" are the work of Pablo Helman. He is a visual effects supervisor2 at a company called Industrial Light and Magic. In the past, Helman received Oscar nominations3 for his work on "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" and "War of the Worlds."

He said the decision not to use tracking markers came directly from Scorsese and De Niro. Use of such markers require an actor to wear a headpiece with small cameras attached.

Helman told The Associated Press that such equipment can interfere4 with an actor's thinking while they are working.

"He's going to want to be in the moment with Joe Pesci and Al Pacino on set, with no markers on him. So, if you're going to capture the performance, how are you going to do that?"

Instead, Scorsese used a "three-headed monster," a piece of equipment with three cameras on it. It has a director camera in the center and "witness" cameras on either side that take infrared5 pictures. The infrared cameras do not record shadows created from lighting6 on set. The shadows might interfere with the operations of the de-aging software.

Gemini Man

While the team at Industrial Light and Magic was working on "The Irishman," another group of technical experts was experimenting with de-aging at Weta Digital.

The Weta team created a completely digital, 23-year-old version of Will Smith for the action movie "Gemini Man."

"You have that many years of expertise7 of looking at a human face and knowing what's wrong," says Bill Westenhofer, one of the film's visual effects supervisors8. He said trying to get all the different things to work well together can be difficult.

The character Junior is the younger version of Will Smith's killer9 Henry Brogan in the film. To look like the younger character, Smith wore a gray tracksuit with two cameras attached to his head which captured his facial expressions through tracking markers.

Where it starts

Before filming started on both "Gemini Man" and "The Irishman," each visual effects team found old films of their acting10 stars.

Helman and his team then spent two years looking through old movies to document how De Niro, Pacino and Pesci looked at different ages. They created a program similar to ones used to make "deepfake" videos. Such programs can make people in videos look like someone else.

In the case of "Gemini Man," filming Junior required Smith to spend time in a special room where many cameras captured his facial expressions under different lighting conditions.

Captain Marvel11

Scorsese has criticized movies made by Marvel Studios that used similar de-aging methods to "Gemini Man" as "not cinema." An example is the film "Captain Marvel" which also used tracking markers to make Samuel L. Jackson look much younger.

Jackson's character is Nick Fury. The young Nick Fury was created by comparing images from old Jackson movies with his performance in "Captain Marvel."

Jackson said he was lucky to have earlier films with enough facial expressions to do such a believable job in making his young Nick Fury.

The de-aging effects were the work of a company called Lola Visual Effects.

Weta Digital's Guy Williams said the de-aging of Jackson was well done. He added that "different approaches suit different requirements. It's not a one-size-fits-all kind of situation."

Helman, who worked on "The Irishman," agrees. He believes that 2019 was a historic year for visual effects.

"It's not by chance that we have several movies that have motion capture performance, facial performance, in three or four different ways," he said. "That shows that we're all thinking about digital humans."

Words in This Story

dot – n. a very small round mark

moment – n. a very short period of time

infrared – adj. producing or using rays of light that cannot be seen and that are longer than rays that produce red light

shadow – n. an area of darkness created when a source of light is blocked

tracksuit – n. a special suit worn by actors to help capture a visual effect

deepfake – n. videos in which one person's face is replaced by another's in order to trick viewers

suit – v. to be proper or suitable for


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 celebrated iwLzpz     
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的
参考例句:
  • He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
  • The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。
2 supervisor RrZwv     
n.监督人,管理人,检查员,督学,主管,导师
参考例句:
  • Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说,我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
  • He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。
3 nominations b4802078efbd3da66d5889789cd2e9ca     
n.提名,任命( nomination的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句
4 interfere b5lx0     
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰
参考例句:
  • If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话,可能弊多利少。
  • When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件,棘手的事情就来了。
5 infrared dx0yp     
adj./n.红外线(的)
参考例句:
  • Infrared is widely used in industry and medical science.红外线广泛应用于工业和医学科学。
  • Infrared radiation has wavelengths longer than those of visible light.红外辐射的波长比可见光的波长长。
6 lighting CpszPL     
n.照明,光线的明暗,舞台灯光
参考例句:
  • The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
  • The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。
7 expertise fmTx0     
n.专门知识(或技能等),专长
参考例句:
  • We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
  • You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。
8 supervisors 80530f394132f10fbf245e5fb15e2667     
n.监督者,管理者( supervisor的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • I think the best technical people make the best supervisors. 我认为最好的技术人员可以成为最好的管理人员。 来自辞典例句
  • Even the foremen or first-level supervisors have a staffing responsibility. 甚至领班或第一线的监督人员也有任用的责任。 来自辞典例句
9 killer rpLziK     
n.杀人者,杀人犯,杀手,屠杀者
参考例句:
  • Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
  • The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。
10 acting czRzoc     
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
参考例句:
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
11 marvel b2xyG     
vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异;n.令人惊异的事
参考例句:
  • The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
  • The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

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