Digital actors to feature prominently in future, producer says

Viewers of the web series My Chinese Chic Boutique could be forgiven for thinking that the tall, slender and beautiful "actress" Guo Guo is a real person. On a Chinese social media post about the show, only a few commented that she looks a little different from "normal" actors.

Guo is a virtual, computer-generated actress and an experiment of producer Chen Hongwei, who has worked in the showbiz industry for 20 years.

Once he obtained the rights to use Guo from another company, he looked for a series to produce so that he could use the digital actor alongside real actors.

He joked that Guo is like an actress who "donated money to a film in order to win her a role".

The 24-episode online drama tells the story of a wealthy girl who travels into a video game world and runs a business there with her boyfriend. Guo has a key role in the series, helping the lead character adjust to the game world.

Last year, Chen's friend introduced him to several digital avatars his company created. The producer then got the idea that they should turn those avatars into digital actors.

"We planned to give Guo Guo the lead role and let another digital actor play the role of her boyfriend. But other crew members thought it was risky," said Chen, co-producer of the series, which only took the team three months to complete.

He said it only cost 3 million yuan ($410,000) to produce the series, and the scenes involving Guo took less than a month to finish.

"With the development of technologies such as virtual reality and AI, everyone can make their own films in the future. There will be more and more digital actors," he said.

A tech savvy person who describes himself as a passionate "crab eater in the film industry" — meaning he likes to be the first to try new things — Chen said many established filmmakers are not very open to using such high-level technologies. However, the younger generation, especially those born after 2000, are active users of the technologies because they grew up with the internet. In other words, they are the original residents of the virtual world, he said.

Chen has joined an online group where young producers communicate with each other about how to make films in the virtual world. There were about 30 members in the group when it was set up last year. Now, there are more than 100.

A female filmmaker in the group using the pseudonym Xiao Tiepian got Chen's attention with a 30-minute drama she made using virtual tools. She was still a college student when she produced the film.

Impressed, Chen decided to fund more of her work.

"They're so talented and good at using these technologies," he said, talking about Xiao and other young filmmakers in the group. "I was totally conquered by their innovation and productions."

Embracing the era of virtual technology, the National Radio and Television Administration launched a guideline to encourage the use of virtual reality in the film and TV industry last month in response to a five-year plan initiated by five ministries last year. The plan aims to boost the development of VR in various industries.

As a tech-driven industry, the film and TV industry is a pioneer in the application of these technologies. Virtual production and digital actors have been increasingly used in films and TV series in recent years.

Chen said that people in the industry are still experimenting with these new technologies.

"It's not only about the actors. Whole films will be shot in virtual worlds," said Chen, who is pursuing a doctorate at the Beijing Film Academy.

"In the future, people can be filmmakers in the virtual world without needing much money. What we are doing now is setting up the virtual world for them," he added.

Chen also runs a tech company that focuses on developing digital assets, creating virtual versions of people and objects in the real world.

"The country is rapidly embracing new technology, and the key drivers are definitely young filmmakers," he said.

He added that young animation filmmakers in China will be the group that makes it big because they possess the knowledge of both film and the new technologies.