[HN Gopher] Neural Network Enabled Filmmaking
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       Neural Network Enabled Filmmaking
        
       Author : doener
       Score  : 39 points
       Date   : 2021-05-23 19:11 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.flawlessai.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.flawlessai.com)
        
       | fxtentacle wrote:
       | TLDR: something like FaceGAN to force artificial lip sync for a
       | dub into the video frames
       | 
       | That way, you can dub videos however you like without having to
       | rewrite your dub text to match the visible mouth movements. I
       | like the idea, but in my opinion finding good dub speakers is the
       | challenge, not figuring out what you want them to say.
        
         | dalbasal wrote:
         | I wonder...
         | 
         | The problem with dubbing is that it inherently sucks. That's a
         | poor starting point for making something good. Any kind of
         | connoisseur would watch the original anyway. Not many actors
         | would be enthusiastic about being the voice of Renee Zellweger
         | for the unwashed masses.
         | 
         | Animated films, OTOH, tend to have great dubbing. They hire
         | famous actors, put in the effort... just like they do for the
         | original language.
         | 
         | If dubbing didn't suck, it might start a whole chain reaction
         | towards good.
        
           | scyzoryk_xyz wrote:
           | Nevertheless, in some places in the world it is a mandatory
           | standard to dub and it is a costly process distributors must
           | handle to enter the market. I imagine VOD's could also be
           | interested in this as they have large libraries. Optimizing
           | dubbing for them can really shift the proportion of localized
           | content which can be useful when seeking regulatory approval
           | and what not. I There are also probably many other
           | applications for something like this, albeit I'm with you
           | that dubbing is super lame.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | swframe2 wrote:
       | I like this direction. There is still more work needed. They
       | should post-process the frames similar to the restyle-encoder:
       | https://github.com/yuval-alaluf/restyle-encoder
        
       | jtthe13 wrote:
       | FWIW the french bits are unimpressive at best. I'd stick with the
       | subtitles
        
         | simlevesque wrote:
         | Yeah, it's worse than a good dub for french. The lips move kind
         | of at the right moment, but that's it. The lips don't move the
         | way they should to produce the sound.
         | 
         | In short, it's not even uncanny valley level.
        
       | Uehreka wrote:
       | "Neural Network Lip Sync For Translations" feels like a more
       | honest tagline than "Neural Network Enabled Filmmaking". I get
       | that you're probably aiming for filmmakers, and they can
       | definitely make good use of this tech, but I've gotta imagine the
       | "whales" in this market are companies with hundreds of hours of
       | corporate training videos that need to be localized.
       | 
       | But no matter the audience, cutting to the chase about what the
       | product does is super important.
        
       | TaylorAlexander wrote:
       | Honest request: re-do Short Circuit so the "Indian" character
       | played by a white guy just looks and speaks more like a white
       | guy. I tried watching that movie for fun but the blackface or
       | whatever you would call it really tanked it for me.
       | 
       | Also in your promo video you show "traditional dubbing" to
       | English and I really expected that to be followed by your system
       | on the same clip but instead you moved to other languages, which
       | I can't really grasp.
       | 
       | Edit: I see I've gotten a downvote. You can hear from the actor
       | himself how he feels about playing that role:
       | https://www.dailywire.com/news/fisher-stevens-regrets-playin...
        
         | bredren wrote:
         | It would be interesting to see it fully redubbed with the
         | actor's own unaccented voice.
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | kleiba wrote:
       | Sorry to say but the quality is everything but flawless. Looks
       | very unnatural by itself IMO, and does not seem to match the
       | audio very well either.
        
         | 0-_-0 wrote:
         | You're right. It doesn't look great _yet_ , but in a year or
         | two...
        
       | marstall wrote:
       | dubbing, yech
        
       | bredren wrote:
       | Looks cool to me. I don't speak these other languages, but I like
       | the way the actors' facial expressions are maintained through the
       | dub.
       | 
       | I wonder how longer or shorter phrasing would affect clips or cut
       | length and how backgrounds might also have to accommodate script
       | line length.
       | 
       | This last year's best picture went to Parasite, a "foreign" film
       | with English subtitles.
       | 
       | While film people would probably always prefer the original, I
       | bet most Americans would have watched Parasite dubbed with this
       | technology and not even realized the actors didn't use English in
       | the creation.
       | 
       | Hollywood does butts-in-seats and I think this would put more
       | butts in seats.
        
       | scyzoryk_xyz wrote:
       | I was expecting something to do with actual filmmaking - like
       | writing, production optimization, etc. This is... dubbing?
        
       | pedalpete wrote:
       | I wasn't expecting this to be lip syncing, and so many negative
       | comments here about quality and "I'd rather watch dubs".
       | 
       | To me, this is "good enough" to watch. I don't like dubs because
       | the voice is out of sync with the character, and removes you from
       | the story. I don't like subtitles because I can read faster than
       | they talk, and then I'm left with words blocking part of the
       | scene, and I feel like I know what the person has said, yet their
       | still talking.
       | 
       | This is a great start, and they'll continue to improve in the
       | future.
        
       | ginko wrote:
       | As someone who grew up with dubs I think this looks terrible and
       | distracting.
        
       | chairmanwow1 wrote:
       | The over the top marketing on the landing page is so hilarious to
       | me.
        
         | bredren wrote:
         | Having looked at some Hollywood-focused products and services
         | recently, this type video is similar to a "reel," and from what
         | I can tell this kind of presentation is typical of the biz.
        
       | azinman2 wrote:
       | Firmly in the uncanny valley. I'd rather watch the original with
       | subtitles (and that's almost always the case, not only in terms
       | of preserving acting, but to be exposed to other languages and
       | cultures). But is a cool idea for the future. I imagine in 10
       | years this could be pretty amazing.
        
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