A Night at Gatsby's AR
I'm going to tell you something about my life.
The A Night at Gatsby’s AR app or file will be a 2-minute augmented reality playlet to serve as an online marketing tool and demonstrate a future AR version of the adaptation. The app/file begins with voice-overs of Gatsby’s guests repeating some common rumors about him, followed by Gatsby telling even more lies about his life and concludes with his steadfast love for Daisy.
The AR app/file is generated from a live actor into a photorealistic 3D digital model that is controlled and recorded by the actor through motion capture technology to perform the app’s lines and exhibit appropriate body motions, facial expressions and vocal inflections. The downloaded app/file may perform in living rooms, classrooms or any indoor/outdoor area with an open floor space.
Unlike virtual reality which completely immerses the viewer in a totally digital world but requires a somewhat bulky headset, augmented reality imagery can be seen as part of the real world through AR glasses, smartphones or tablets. Not limited to superimposing 2D data and images over the physical world, AR can create 3D objects with full-motion and spatial audio that are anchored in the physical world and can be walked up to and around.
Gatsby's AR Production
The computer-generated text-to-speech-to-video of Jay Gatsby in the top image is a preliminary headshot of Gatsby. In the novel, Daisy tells Gatsby that he resembles “the advertisement of the man. You know the advertisement of the man —” which many assume is the popular 1920s Arrow Shirt Man ad. The actor portraying the AR Gatsby will resemble this Arrow Shirt image.
The middle image illustrates a common four-step AR production process. The human actor with outstretched arms is mapped into an articulated digital skeleton that has over 90 flexible head, face, arm, hand, torso, leg, and foot joints. The skeleton is imported into a robot mesh which is a volumetric representation of the actor’s body. A photorealistic 3D model of the tuxedo-wearing actor is created from a complete 360° set of overlapping digital photographs and the resulting digital “skin” is mapped onto the robot mesh.
The righthand graphic in this image shows the AR set (against a black as opposed to an optical see-through background) with a standing Gatsby and Daisy’s distant green dock light.
In the bottom image, the AR Gatsby (represented by just the robot mesh) will now follow the actor’s body motions and facial expressions as the script lines are spoken and performed.
A Night at Gatsby's AR Script
The AR app or file opens with a black background and Gatsby’s voice.
GATSBY (V.O.) The honor would be entirely mine if you would attend my little party tonight.
The green dock light materializes amid some low-volume background party sounds and the fox trot “The Japanese Sandman.” Some disembodied voices are heard.
FEMALE VOICE 1 (V.O.) Somebody told me — Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once.
MALE VOICE (V.O.) I don't think it's so much that. It's more that he was a German spy during the war.
FEMALE VOICE 2 (V.O.) He's a bootlegger.
FEMALE VOICE 1 (V.O.) You look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody's looking at him. I'll bet he killed a man.
The background sounds cease and Daisy’s distant dock and water reflections materialize. Gatsby enters from the darkness and speaks directly to the viewer. The digital set consisting of Gatsby and dock light is positioned by the viewer within the display frame of AR glasses, smartphone or tablet onto a nearby physical floor.
GATSBY. I'm Gatsby. I thought you knew, old sport. I'm afraid I'm not a very good host.
I'm going to tell you something about my life. I don't want you to get a wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear.
I am the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west — all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years.
Gatsby turns to his right and looks at the green light.
GATSBY. If it wasn't for the mist we could see Daisy’s home across the bay. She always has a green light that burns all night at the end of her dock.
Gatsby stares at Daisy's dock light.
GATSBY. I just want her to go to Tom and say "I never loved you." After she's free, we’ll go back to Louisville and be married from her house — just as if it were five years ago.
Gatsby considers the likely skeptical viewer
GATSBY. Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can! I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before.
She never loved Tom. She only married him because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!
Gatsby looks resignedly at viewer.
GATSBY. Well, good-by.
