Section B

Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each

statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the

information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a

letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 .

What Are the Ethics of CGI Actors-And Will They Replace Real Ones?

A) Digital humans are coming to a screen near you. As computer-generated imagery ( CGI) has become

cheaper and more sophisticated, the film industry can now convincingly recreate people on screen

even actors who have been dead for decades. The technology's ability to effectively keep celebrities

alive beyond the grave is raising questions about public legacies and image rights.

B) Late in 2019, it was announced that US actor James Dean, who died in 1955, will star in a Vietnam

War film scheduled for release later this year. In the film, which will be called Finding Jack , Dean

will be recreated on screen with CGI based on old footage and photographs, with another

actor voicing him. The news was met with excitement by those keen to see Dean digitally brought back

to life for only his fourth film, but it also drew sharp criticism. "This is puppeteering the dead for their

fame alone," actress Zelda Williams wrote on Twitter. "It sets such an awful precedent for the future

of performance." Het father, Robin Williams, who·died in 2014, was-keen to avoid the same:fate,

Before his death, he filed a deed protecting the use of his image until 2039, preventing others from

recreating him using CGI to appear in a film, TV show or as a hologram

C) The James Dean film is a way to keep the actor's image relevant for younger generations, says Mark

Roesler of CMG Worldwide, the firm that represents Dean's estate. "I think this is the beginning of

an entire wave," says Travis Cloyd, CEO of Worldwide XR, one of the companies behind the digital

recreation of Dean. "Moving into the future, we want James Dean to be brought into different gaming

environments, or different virtual reality environments, or augmented reality environments," he says.

D) Other actors have been revived, with the permission of their estates, for advertising purposes: for

example, a 2011 advertisement for Dior featured contemporary actress Charlize Theron alongside

iconic 20th-century stars Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Marlene Dietrich. Later, Audrey Hepburn

was digitally recreated for a chocolate commercial in 2013. In the same year, a CGI Bruce Lee

appeared in a Chinese-language ad for a whisky brand, which offended many fans because Lee was

widely known not to drink alcohol at all. "In the last five years, it's become more affordable and more

achievable in a whole movie," says Tim Webber at UK visual effects firm Framestore, the company

behind the Hepburn chocolate ad. Framestore used body doubles with resemblance to Hepburn's facial

structure and body shape as a framework for manual animation. The process was extremely difficult

and expensive, says Webber, but the technology has moved on.

E) Now, a person can be animated from scratch. "If they're alive today, you can put them in scanning

rigs, you can get every detail of their body analysed very carefully and that makes it much easier,

whereas working from available photographs is tricky," says Webber, who won an Academy Award

for his visual effects work on the 2013 film Gravity. "I also see a lot of actors today who will have the

desire to take advantage of this technology: to have their likeness captured · and stored for future

content," says Cloyd. "They foresee this being something that could give their estates and give their

families the ability to make money from their likeness when they're gone."

F) A hidden hazard of digitally recreating a deceasedcelebrity is the risk of damaging their

legacy. "We have to respect the security and the integrity of rights holders," says John Canning at

Digital Domain, a US firm that created a hologram rapper (ill,nSt:.AJ·Tupac Shakur, which appeared

at the Coachella music festival in 201Z, 15 years after his death.

G) Legally, a person's rights to control the commercial use of their name and image beyond their death

differ between and even within countries. In certain US states, for example, these rights are treated

similarly to property rights, and are transferable to a person's heirs. In California; under the

Celebrities Rights Act, the personality rights for a celebrity last for 70 years after their death. "We've

got a societal debate going on about access to our public commons, as it were, about famous faces,says Lilian Edwards at Newcastle University, UK. Should the public be allowed to use or reproduce images of famous people, given how iconic they are? And what is in. the best interest of a deceased person's legacy may conflict with the desires of their family or the public, says Edwards.

H) A recreation, however lifelike, will never be indistinguishable from a real actor, says Webber. "When we are bringing someone back, representing someone who is no longer alive on the screen, what we are doing is extremely sophisticated digital make"".up," he says; "A performance is a lot more than a physical resemblance."

I) As it becomes easier to digitally recreate celebrities and to entirely manufacture on'."screen identities,

could this kind of technology put actors out of jobs? "J think actors are worried about this," says

Edwards. "But I think it will take a very long time." This is partly because of the risk that viewers find

virtual humans scary. Edwards cites widespread backlash to the digital recreation of Carrie Fisher as· a

young Princess Leia in Rogue One, a trick later repeated in the recent Star Wars: The Rise of

Skywalker, which was filmed after Fisher's death in 2016. "People didn't like it," she says. "They

discovered the uncanny valley

J) This refers to the idea that when objects trying to resemble humans aren't .quite perfect, they can make

viewers feel uneasy because they fall somewhere between obviously non-human and fully human.

"That's always a danger when you're doing anything human or human-like," says Webber. "There're a

thousand things that could go wrong with a computer-generated facial performance, and any one of

those could make it fall into the uncanny valley," he says·; "Your brain j°:st knows there's something

wrong." The problem often arises around the eyes or mouth, says Webber.. "They're the areas that you

look at when you're talking to someone."

K) An unfamiliar digital human that has been created through CGI will also face the same challenge as an

unknown actor: they don't have the appeal of an established name. "You have to spend substantial

capital in creating awareness around their likeness and making sure people are familiar with who they

are," says Cloyd. This is now starting to happen. "The way you pre-sell a movie in a foreign market is

based on relevant talent," he says. "I think we're a long way away from having virtual beings that have

the ability to pre-sell content."

L) Webber expects that we will see more digital humans on screen. "It's happening because it can

happen," he says. Referring to a line from JurassicPark  he adds: "People are too busy

thinking about what they c·an do to think about whether they should do it."

7\f& 2021' &f: 6 JI 49

3B. There is an ongoing debate among the public as to whether the images of deceased celebrities should be

recreated.

37. The COi technology allows the image of the deceased James Dean to be presented to young people in

new settings.

38. It is very likely that the COi-recreated image of a deceased celebrity will fail to match the real actor

especially in facial expressions.

39. The use of digital technology can bring images of deceased celebrities back to the screen.

40. Recreating a deceased famous actor or actress may violate their legitimate rights.

41. More COi-recreated images of deceased celebrities are expected to appear on screen.

42. The image of James Dean will be recreated on screen with his voice dubbed by someone else.

43. However advanced the COi technology is, the recreated image will differ in a way from the real

actor.

44. A lot of actors today are likely to make use of the COi technology to have their images stored for the

benefit of their families.

45. Some actors are concerned that they may lose jobs because of the COi technology.