L’attore e la recitazione nella motion capture
Pubblicato in: Acting Archives Review, 2016, vol. 11, pp. 38-69.
Characters in movies and video games are created (in whole or in part) with the help of motion capture. The essay describes the characteristics of this technology and aims to verify whether and how motion capture has influenced the actor's work. Using heterogeneous sources (websites, online magazines, newspapers and essays) the essay lists the most influential opinions and the most relevant issues within the debate about acting and digital technologies in pre- and post-production. Starting from few considerations on how the digital manipulation has heavily intervened on the final outcome of the actor's work, and taking into account the proliferation of entertainment in which the characters are a mix of live action and digital animation, the essay concludes with certain practical and theoretical considerations on how we might re-consider the actor’s tasks in these new production contexts. The paper is accompanied by an overview of the technologies used, and by a series of selected videos from the web. The essay features also an interview with John Dower, a director who has worked for the motion capture and video games and is co-founder of The Vault Mocap in UK.