3 ms·
I agree that it won't obsolete actors as GP says, but it will absolutely be cheaper and easier. The expense of acting doesn't come from the craft being expensiv
by wutbrodo 5y ago
I agree that it won't obsolete actors as GP says, but it will absolutely be cheaper and easier. The expense of acting doesn't come from the craft being expensive or rare. It comes from the market power that results when the strongest connection we feel to a performance is inseparable from the performer (ie their face). There's a reason that editors and cinematographers don't have fans outside of film nerds,and it's not that because their craft is trivial or that they don't contribute to the film. Technology costs can be reduced, but market power is what allows them to collect tens (or hundreds!) of millions of dollars. Commoditization via deepfakes turns them into just another employee.
You can look at voice acting as an example. Before Robin Williams' performance in Aladdin started the trend of recognizable celebrities as voice actors, there was a thriving community of voice-only actors in big-budget movies, hired for their craft instead of their brand. And yet, you probably can't name a single one, despite being able to name plenty of actors from non-animated films of the era. They were also inherently replaceable, as memorably parodied by the simpsons: https://youtu.be/g5ffaTv4ajg https://youtu.be/g5ffaTv4ajg
It's notable that the studios switched to celebrity actors precisely for the brand that they brought from their non-voice roles.
Deepfakes are pretty much identical to this animated case, allowing it to be extended to physical movies. The recognizable portion of a performance becomes a few model files instead of an actor's face, and the job of a (replaceable) human actor is to play the role of the performer, not just the character.
- goto11 5y agoYou mean you will hire a cheap unknown actor and then add Tom Cruise's face via deepfake, and then market the movie as a Tom Cruise movie? Even if that was legal (which of course it isn't), surely the marketing value of the actors name would disappear if every low-budget movie could use deepfakes of the actor.
- wutbrodo 5y agoNo, I'm suggesting that the tentpole performer will have an entirely synthetic identity.