A few days ago, the Academy Awards 2014 where held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Every year, many talented actors, actresses, filmmaker, and artist hope for an Academy Award.
With the ever increasing technological advancements in CGI and performance capture, it is no wonder that some want a separate category for performance capture. Andy Serkis, known for his memorable performances as Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy or Caesar the ape in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, thinks otherwise. According to Serkis, there shoudn’t be any distinctions between actors who play digitally enhanced “avatars” and those playing “in-the-flesh” roles:
“People always say there ought be a separate category for actors playing digital avatar roles but I absolutely disagree. The process of acting is exactly the same. I have never drawn a distinction playing a live action character to playing a digital character … It is just another set of cameras that records your performance in a different way. Like an actor puts on costume and make-up in a live action movie, with performance capture it’s like put-ting costume and make-up on afterwards.”
In order to promote performance capture technology, Serkis created with Jonathan Cavendish The Imaginarium. The Imaginarium consults and provides production services to film.
