James Brown, the acknowledged Godfather of Soul and a pioneering influence in music genres ranging from rock ‘n roll to R&B, rap and funk, now finds himself-albeit in digital form-breaking new creative ground visually with a motion-based, 65mm film attraction that debuted last week at the Experience Music Project (EMP). A music museum designed by noted architect Frank Gehry, and built at a reported cost of some $250 million, EMP opened June 23 in Seattle.
Thanks to a mixture of digital and analog means encompassing computer animation, motion capture technology, plaster sculpting and a good old-fashioned body double-all orchestrated by Venice, Calif.-based studio Digital Domain-Brown has been captured in all his performance splendor circa the early ’60s. Digital Domain has re-created Brown at the age of 30, a feat which carries implications-and likely, applications-for the commercialmaking community.
For the past three years, Digital Domain has been involved in helping to create the overall EMP, which was envisioned and underwritten by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Since last October, Digital Domain’s prime EMP focus has been on Funk Blast, an 18-minute film in which a youthful Brown is seen strutting his stuff in a New York street scene, replete with live action performers and famed musicians from his entourage. Brown’s sequence accounts for about five minutes of the film.
Ed Ulbrich, senior VP, production, for Digital Domain’s commercial operation, said that the financial resources and time spent on Funk Blast, have enabled the studio to set up a production infrastructure and pipeline capable of turning out digital creations that appear to be live-action human beings. The long-anticipated CG holy grail has been attained, and can be executed in a relatively cost-effective manner and on a reasonable schedule, contended Ulbrich. Digital Domain plans to screen Funk Blast for ad agency creatives to give them insights into what is not only possible, but also now feasible.
The ability to produce so-called synthespians takes on added potential meaning in the midst of the spot actors’ strike. However, Ulbrich minimizes that angle at the moment, noting that the foundation of the Brown performance is Brown himself, now in his mid-60s, and a body double who has all of Brown’s moves down pat.
But Ulbrich is willing to speculate on other possible ways the ad industry will tap into such digital creation. For example, consider those advertisers that have inked long-term commitments with entertainment and sports celebrities. Windows of filming availability for such celebs can often be limited and fraught with logistical hurdles. But what if, with those celebs’ cooperation, CG creations mirroring them could be created and kept in digital inventory for future use when needed? Over the long haul, this could prove to be a cost- and time-saving option, reasoned Ulbrich, adding that such digital beings would be ready-made not only for broadcast but for new media such as broadband, the Internet and the like.
The value of a digital character that can easily span traditional and emerging media has recently been realized by Motorola and McCann-Erickson, New York, with their cyber spokeswoman/protagonist Mya. In creating Mya, Digital Domain had to "hold back a bit," said Ulbrich, noting that the artistic instinct is to take such a character all the way and make it as close to human as possible. "But the client wanted it to have a cyber feel, so we had to rein ourselves in."
