Before talent scouts for Alter Ego convinced him to come out to L.A., he was driving an 18-wheeler cross-country. Lord was on tour with his band, The Three Redneck Tenors when Covid hit and he was forced to find a new line of work. “This is going to change the music game.” “Imagine changing the life of someone who just cannot perform on stage because of a disability or mental block,” Diaz urges, as a beauty team hovers around her, checking to make sure all sequins and such remain intact. Some have stage fright, some don’t look like models, and some have already been sent packing by record executives. Because, if he stepped back, he’d actually appear in front of that piano.” The same live blending issue presents itself with low-lying fog, he points out.Īlter Ego‘s capabilities have attracted singers with a variety of reasons for being closed off - and believing they couldn’t make it as a performer until now. So, just before they move behind a piano, we make sure a certain camera cuts at exactly that frame at that time to make sure it aligns accurately. “You can never have them stood behind anyone or anything. “There are a bunch of nuances as to why that’s harder to do, mainly because the character must always exist on the front of any image,” he says. He wanted to shoot it “like a normal entertainment show - just with this added technology - and not let the technology prohibit that.” One of director Sam Wrench’s biggest priorities was making sure the competition still had “the visual language of a traditional show,” Wrench tells Rolling Stone in the cavernous control room, which smells faintly of pizza. In watching the first episode, it’s easy to forget that the avatars aren’t actually on stage.
While the limited elasticity of the avatars’ faces can sometimes make it look like everyone just got the same bad Botox job, the show is still miles ahead of anything that’s ever successfully been done before.
The result: Avatars that can cry if and when the person cries, avatars with shadows and reflections that follow them appropriately, avatars that can appear brighter or darker depending on the lighting they’re in at the moment, avatars that can brush their hair out of the way and blush. Not only have graphics evolved significantly, but these latest versions of different tech pieces were not designed to interact with each other - and that’s what Fox really had to figure out fast to be ahead of the curve. To say that it’s even supposed to happen right now… We’re all blown away.” “We, collectively on the Fox side, spent at least a year developing the technology.
“You probably could’ve done it last year, but it wouldn’t look as good,” Zinman says, adding that it could take up to six months to get through the filming process - as opposed to the three weeks required for this show. Such a mixed-reality spectacle isn’t something production companies could’ve pulled off five years ago. Moreover, the judges won’t learn the true identity of the winner until they’ve already won.ĭasharra Bridges and her avatar, Queen Dynamite. But the judges, along with host Rocsi Diaz and in-person audiences, watch the performances on eye-level monitors placed strategically around the room - so as to appear as if they’re looking centerstage. In typical music-TV fashion, the winner will get a cash prize ($100,000), as well as mentorship opportunities from celebrity judges: willi.i.am, Grimes, Alanis Morissette, and Nick Lachey. On Alter Ego, which premieres this Wednesday night (September 22nd), the contestants don’t perform on stage, but rather behind a curtain whilst donning motion-capturing suits that control their own highly fantastical, augmented-reality avatars. I was skeptical, a few weeks ago, as I approached the doors to a taping of Alter Ego, Fox’s new singing competition with a high-tech twist, but it felt the same as entering any old sound stage - at least for the first minute or so.
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