Saturday 22 September 2007

Bin Laden the "Synthespian"

Digital images of cinema characters that are becoming so lifelike as computer technology develops that they’re becoming hard to distinguish from real people. These ultra-lifelike CGI images are called “synthespians”. They’ve already been used as stunt doubles in many films. They’ve played Hobbits hanging from rocks over undergrounds chasms in Lord of the Rings. They’ve played legions of soldiers in Hamlet and stood in for Sylvester Stallone when he rides a motorbike across the sky in Judge Dredd. A talking cat in Stuart Little and a man being eaten by a dinosaur in Jurassic Park. One of the best examples is in Forrest Gump where Tom Hank’s character is seen shaking hands and talking to President Kennedy. This was done in the early 90’s; technology today is way ahead of even that! When Oliver Reed suddenly died during the filming of Gladiator, the producers filmed the rest of his scenes with a digital reproduction of Oliver Reed’s character adapted from screen tests and previous shots. There was one part where he had a thick beard which they pasted onto a later shot in another location giving it different lighting effects and even digitally shaving his beard off!

A time could even come when real actors could be out of a job! Synthespians don’t need paying, they don’t need to eat or sleep and you can make them do whatever you like in a single take. They don't develop drug addictions and embarrass people with sex scandals. They can also do things real actors can’t; they can fly in the air, sink into the ground, change shape and star in many of the dangerous scenes that would put a real stuntman in danger. Check out this example of a Polish synthespian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGabt1IRwCE&mode=related&search=

Bearing in mind all this, why are we so quick to believe that this is real?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWHKDASKChI

We don’t even need to speculate about hidden technology from secret govt laboratories! We see the means to fake it every time we go to the flicks!

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