A campaign for Hugh Jackman’s new sci-fi film Reminiscence lets the audience upload pictures of themselves that are then animated using deepfake technology and inserted into a short trailer. It's just one weird use of the rapidly evolving technology that is also allowing companies to bring deceased artists back to life.
Reminiscence is an upcoming science fiction film written and directed by Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy. The film stars Hugh Jackman as a private investigator in the future who helps people journey through lost memories.
To promote the film the makers have joined forces with Israel-based company D-ID to present a unique interactive trailer using novel deepfake technology. The same system was recently utilized by genealogy company MyHeritage to bring photos of deceased relatives back to life.
In this instance users are invited to upload a photo, either of themselves or someone else. The image is then animated and inserted into a short trailer for the new film.
New Atlas writer Loz Blain kindly offered up his enthusiastic visage to test out the process and you can see the results for yourself in the video below. It's certainly not the most impressive use of deepfake tech we have ever encountered but there is something amusingly compelling about inserting oneself into a trailer in this way. We're not so sure Loz's photo choice gels with the tone of film the trailer is attempting to convey.
While more nefarious applications of deepfake technology tend to dominate media reports, these alternative explorations of the tech perhaps offer greater insight into where things may be heading in the future. Alongside this, and the MyHeritage use, D-ID is also exploring its technology in museum contexts.
The company offers a variety of ways the technology could heighten a museum experience, from presenting an animated Albert Einstein explaining his theory of relatively to having long-deceased artists appear next to one of their works and explaining its origins.
Of course, most of these ideas will inevitably be relegated to the dustbin of failed gimmick ideas. This new trailer, for example, is not especially impressive but this is certainly not the last deepfake experiment we will see. Whether it's animating Salvador Dali to introduce visitors to his gallery or creating a completely digitally generated TV news anchor, we’ll definitely be seeing some weird things over the next few years as companies experiment with this novel technology.
The interactive trailer can be tried at a promotional website for the film here.
Source: D-ID
