Capturing the Actor in Film: Motion Capture/ Performance Capture

Over the last week, we have spoken a lot about acting in class. This art has a special place in my heart, and my pursuit of this career has already taken six years of my life. Through workshops with casting directors, like Paul Weber from Weber Casting, and working with an acting coach out in L.A., I have learned much in those six years. Yet, I have found there is always some new tip or rule to the art. It is a constant learning process that is mostly acquired through experience, especially since theatre acting truly is a completely different concept than film acting.

So what happens when technology changes and the way films can be made reaches a new climax? Do actor's have to reshape how they perform their craft? Answer: Not at all. 

When motion capture was first starting to be used, I remember hearing how worried professional actors had become. Would this new technology replace "the actor" in film, losing the face as well as the performance? Would this technology make acting even harder than it can already be? Again, I think everyone was amazed with the answer, especially when it went beyond motion capture and into performance capture. This new, amazing technology has been seen in so many recent films including The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Avatar, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. 

It started out very new in The Lord of the Rings through Andy Serkis' performance of Gollum. This was an amazing development in film: allowing actors to even become the most different of creatures without all of the make-up and prosthetics that can sometimes come across as very fake. What a freeing experience!

The technology itself is astounding as well. Through the use of a body suit, dots and many, many cameras, an actor's performance can be converted over into a completed CGI character. This character then embodies the soul of the actor that performs the role, even down to facial characteristics. 

At the time of Lord of the Rings, I was so entranced with this concept of motion capture/performance capture that I didn't think it could get any better. I was really wrong. Andy Serkis then appeared in both King Kong and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, using this similar technology. His performances were stunning, and the characters truly took on a life of their own. Something about motion capture/performance capture brings a real life to these characters that creates an emotional draw as an audience member. I truly believe it has to do with the fact that there is a real person behind the CGI, a mind that can understand and convey the depth of the character it portrays. 

I can't imagine the amount of time Andy Serkis had to spend studying ape behavior to get the facial and body movements to the point where they are so believable. This is another aspect of performance capture that is so exciting. It takes a lot of work to learn the behaviors and movements of other creatures. Sometimes actors even have to take months of "classes" just learning how to perform their characters for performance capture. Take it from the cast of Avatar directed by James Cameron. 

I absolutely love this movie. I still remember sitting in the theatre, completely drawn into the film in awestruck wonder at how "real" the Na'vi of Pandora seemed. I know Avatar creates a mix of emotions regarding plot, but one thing no one can argue about is how revolutionizing this film truly is in just how a movie can be filmed. Not only did they use performance capture for the acting, but they literally created the world of Pandora as they went along. This extended even to the point where they made a special camera for James Cameron to use that allowed him to see a rough outline of the CGI world even though it was just an actor in a motion capture suit and a set of boxes around him. When I watched the behind the scenes sections for avatar, I couldn't help but be both amazed and excited about all the possibilities that performance capture offers. After seeing all of Andy Serkis' performances, and now all of the actors on Avatar, this technology have the ability to allow a greater opportunity to both actors and filmmakers in the future. Having minimal, but acting experience nonetheless, I can have nothing but a great admiration and excitement for actors who have been able to be a part of this new style of filming.
~Amber Capogrossi