Jump to content

How The Irishman’s Groundbreaking VFX Took Anti-Aging To the Next Level | Netflix


mono

Recommended Posts

I think the technology did not deliver yet.  It was so distracting for me that I could not get into the performances of any of the actors where it was applied.  The opening shot was of such poor quality, it may have perhaps set the tone for me for the rest of the film.  It looked like some cheap prosumer electronic gimbal was used or something.  (I later learned of the 3-camera challenge they had). I had to stop watching a little bit before midpoint.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How noisy were those rigs, I wonder.. 

 

And yeah, cool techno, but, they still don't look human.. And it doesn't matter if you can capture the performances of the actors without dots or other peripherals to help digital artists. The problem is in the script and in the minds of the creators to use the same actors for different ages,thinking they'd get away with it... It's like trying to not get burned, or hot, while carrying a burning piece of wood. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you all see this?

 

Some Deepfaker on YouTube Spent Seven Days Fixing the Shitty De-Aging in The Irishman

And you know what? It's objectively better.

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a30432647/deepfake-youtube-video-fixes-the-irishman-de-aging/

 

Here's iFake's video, though I presume he basically polished ILM's work:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Jim Feeley said:

 

And you know what? It's objectively better.

Is crazy how some YouTuber did a better job than "the pros". But also not that surprising, often seems to happen with cutting edge technology, the guys getting the big bucks are getting beaten by others. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, IronFilm said:

Is crazy how some YouTuber did a better job than "the pros". But also not that surprising, often seems to happen with cutting edge technology, the guys getting the big bucks are getting beaten by others. 

 

I don't know. As I mentioned above, I doubt iFake on YouTube started with unretouched camera footage. She or he most likely ripped the film from Netflix and thus was building on ILM's heavy work. What they did is cool, but more along the lines of the Phantom Edit. (and to be clear, the quote in your post is from the Esquire article, not me...no worries IronDave).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fact they likely did this just with footage ripped from Netflix just makes this even MORE impressive, as they're missing access to the very large data set ILM was able to draw upon. (as it was filmed with multiple cameras all at once, which was meant to help improve the quality of the CGI in post) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 1/10/2020 at 6:14 PM, Jim Feeley said:

 

I don't know. As I mentioned above, I doubt iFake on YouTube started with unretouched camera footage. She or he most likely ripped the film from Netflix and thus was building on ILM's heavy work. What they did is cool, but more along the lines of the Phantom Edit. (and to be clear, the quote in your post is from the Esquire article, not me...no worries IronDave).

 

I think it's bullshit, because (as we all know) it's the director who decides ultimately how the film should look and sound. Scorsese specifically did not want to over-process the faces and smooth them out completely, because he felt that would rob the actors of their emotional facial gestures. Any $99 editing tool these days has the means to dive in and soften an isolated part of the picture; hell, there's a free version of Resolve that will do it. But it takes skill to know when to stop adjusting, and it's also the director's decision as to how far (or how little) to go. 

 

I have had situations where we had "actors of a certain age" and had to give them a little "beauty pass" to help them out a bit. Often, it was with actresses who were already beautiful, but just needed some help to maybe knock 10 years off. I would demonstrate for the director that the problem is, you crank the knob a little too high, they start looking like plastic Barbie dolls. It takes a lot of time and effort to make it look 100% natural, to the point where you'd say, "wow, I know that actress is close to 60, but she looks like she's 45!" No way can we make her look 30, not convincingly. If they wanted that, they'd have to do a Gemini Man VFX thing where they reconstruct a 30- or 40-year younger person. 

 

I have done two "beauty" scenes in the last year or two, and in the most recent one, when we finished the director looked at the results and said, "I should call the actress, tell her what you did for her, and that she should **** you." I got a kick out of that. Again, it always starts with great lighting, great effects, and great lenses -- we can't do much with crappy material. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hear what you're saying, but I don't think what iFake did was bullshit... Though I think the reaction to it was way too much... iFake was clever, and only clever. But I felt like there was some Uncanny Valley stuff going on (in the Masahiro Mori sense) in The Irishman. And the film was sooo looong that I had time to think about that. But like you say, Scorsese drove all that.

 

Also, that line from your director is funny!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...