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> The fear, as I understand it, is that an actor will get scanned as an extra background mook in whatever movie, then not own the rights to their image when th

> The fear, as I understand it, is that an actor will get scanned as an extra background mook in whatever movie, then not own the rights to their image when they get famous later. Exactly. People are talking as if this is just about background roles, but that's not the point. Studios already use CGI people for background roles. That's cheap and easy, and there's no need to scan individuals for that. The whole point of doing these body scans is to generate images that look like that specific actor. They're not doing that because they loved Joe Schmoe's performance as Silent Background Witness #4. They're doing that because Joe Schmoe might become a big star ten years down the line, and if that happens, they want to be able to produce movies with Joe Schmoe without paying him, or without even asking him beforehand at all.

WalterBright 3y ago
> Joe Schmoe might become a big star ten years down the line The chances of that happening are indistinguishable from zero.
- SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
  Not quite because it does happen or there would be no stars. Think of all the actors who played bit parts in TV shows from years ago. For instance, Pedro Pascal was on Buffy. He's a household name now, but then he was nobody waaaay before he was on GoT. The vast majority of famous actors earned their stripes via bit parts. It would behoove a studio to be making these scans just in case they happened to work with the next Brad Pitt at some point.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    Would you be as excited to see a hologram of Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, as opposed to see the real Tom doing his own stunts? Besides, if technology could create a CGI actor as good as a real actor, the screen actors' guild is finished anyway, one way or another.
    - SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
      People pay a lot of money to go see Avatar.
- dmonitor 3y ago
  the odds that any individual extra will become huge are slim to none. the odds that a huge actor started their career with a role as an extra is pretty high.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  >The chances of that happening are indistinguishable from zero Yeah, no. John Krasinski was waiting tables and struggling to make ends meet before getting his part as Jim in The Office that made him a household name today. The casts of Friends and The Big Bang Theory were mostly nobodys before getting their parts which made them multi-millionaries that everyone recognizes today. It's survivorship bias, but some of those "nobodys" actually do end up becoming very big "somebodys" later on, and the movie studios want to own their digital likeness for cheap early on, just in case, so that if they do become somebodys, they can pump out and monetize valuable ML generated content based on their likeness without having to pay them.
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  > The chances of that happening are indistinguishable from zero The chances that it is what happened, given a big star, is near unity. The chances of it happening for any given extra are near zero. But that means capturing the data (EDIT: and, more importantly, rights; the data on its own is mostly harmless) on every extra means destroying the negotiating power of basically everyone who might become a star with any negotiating power, even though each capture is unlikely to have long term value of that kind.

WalterBright 3y ago

> Joe Schmoe might become a big star ten years down the line The chances of that happening are indistinguishable from zero.

SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
Not quite because it does happen or there would be no stars. Think of all the actors who played bit parts in TV shows from years ago. For instance, Pedro Pascal was on Buffy. He's a household name now, but then he was nobody waaaay before he was on GoT. The vast majority of famous actors earned their stripes via bit parts. It would behoove a studio to be making these scans just in case they happened to work with the next Brad Pitt at some point.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  Would you be as excited to see a hologram of Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, as opposed to see the real Tom doing his own stunts? Besides, if technology could create a CGI actor as good as a real actor, the screen actors' guild is finished anyway, one way or another.
  - SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
    People pay a lot of money to go see Avatar.
dmonitor 3y ago
the odds that any individual extra will become huge are slim to none. the odds that a huge actor started their career with a role as an extra is pretty high.
FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>The chances of that happening are indistinguishable from zero Yeah, no. John Krasinski was waiting tables and struggling to make ends meet before getting his part as Jim in The Office that made him a household name today. The casts of Friends and The Big Bang Theory were mostly nobodys before getting their parts which made them multi-millionaries that everyone recognizes today. It's survivorship bias, but some of those "nobodys" actually do end up becoming very big "somebodys" later on, and the movie studios want to own their digital likeness for cheap early on, just in case, so that if they do become somebodys, they can pump out and monetize valuable ML generated content based on their likeness without having to pay them.
dragonwriter 3y ago
> The chances of that happening are indistinguishable from zero The chances that it is what happened, given a big star, is near unity. The chances of it happening for any given extra are near zero. But that means capturing the data (EDIT: and, more importantly, rights; the data on its own is mostly harmless) on every extra means destroying the negotiating power of basically everyone who might become a star with any negotiating power, even though each capture is unlikely to have long term value of that kind.