VOA – CONNECT
EPISODE # 228
AIRDATE: 05 27 2022
TRANSCRIPT

OPEN ((VO/NAT/SOT))
((Banner))
Hi Tech in Film
((SOT))
((Pasha Sol
Motion Capture Technical Artist))
Motion Capture came to entertainment from the medical field. It was used across chiropractors and sports coaches for people who wanted to improve the sports advancements.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Hi Tech in Art
((SOT))
((Mercedes Dorame
Native American Artist))
A lot of my work references objects or culture that has been erased from the history books. And so, I have to give a lot of history lessons and tell these stories in a way that people are not familiar with.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Lo Tech in Trade
((SOT))
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader
Schooner Apollonia))
There's an experiential side to it. And so, to some degree, engaging with people, getting them on boats, getting crew sailing again, keeping this wisdom alive is the only way it's going to persist, right?
((Open Animation))

BLOCK A


((PKG)) MOTION PICTURE HOLLYWOOD
((TRT: 05:55))
((Topic Banner: The Magic of Motion Capture))
((Reporter/Camera/Editor: Genia Dulot))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main characters: 3 female; 1 male))
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Pasha Sol
Motion Capture Technical Artist))
Motion capture suit, as the parts that are on Robyn right now, is basically the base on which I will be putting these markers which are covered in reflective coating. Our cameras are going be sending infrared light over to this and then the light is going to bounce back and the camera is going to register where the marker is.
((Pasha Sol
Motion Capture Technical Artist))
So, as you can see in the volume, there are 69 cameras looking at Matthew right now. And here on the monitor, I can see 68 cameras showing up and seeing all of his markers. Markers are lit up over here.
This is Matthew’s cluster, which is just five markers put together. That will help me recognize him apart from other actors.
((Pasha Sol
Motion Capture Technical Artist))
Motion capture came to entertainment from the medical field. It was used across chiropractors and sports coaches for people who wanted to improve on the sports advancements and also on the recovery from trauma.
((Pasha Sol
Motion Capture Technical Artist))
I can track your motion and I can analyze that and I can track and see how can I make you perform better or what is the progress of the recovery from a certain trauma. If you have an injury in the knee, for instance, you will not be walking symmetrically and I can spot that using motion capture very precisely.
((Pasha Sol
Motion Capture Technical Artist))
It is a revolution because of the entertainment industry. It has been around for a while but only recently the entertainment industry started to absorb it in such a big amount.
((Matthew Brezina
Motion Capture Actor))
My career as an actor, I was trained in theater and then when I moved to LA, I did a lot of film and I came across mocap [motion capture] acting because I really fell in love with video games and I wanted to figure out how to act for video games.
((Matthew Brezina
Motion Capture Actor))
Sometimes in MoCap, you get to play and I have played like dragons, werewolves and so forth like that. It’s studying a lot of animals. It’s looking into how animals move. Once you actually get there, it’s kind of thinking of, okay, a dragon has joints a little bit different than a human does and it also has wings and it has a tail. So, like with a tail specifically, you have to imagine that you have a tail and how that weight would shift your body.
((Pasha Sol
Motion Capture Technical Artist))
Now we have Matthew in real time moving around. What’s most important is that I can see Matthew’s bone movement based off of his markers.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Pasha Sol
Motion Capture Technical Artist))
The system is actually completely disregarding everything that has to do with anything apart from the skeletal movement. It is up to the actor to transfer the weight through their performance. That’s why a very light person can play a very big, burly, heavy character if they are a good enough actor and they can show that weight in their body movement.
((Robyn Dennis,
Motion Capture Actor))
That’s the one thing I love about motion capture. It’s not about how you look. It’s about how you bring the character to life. I’ve played people who were like eight feet [240 cm] tall and they’re, you know, really wide. So then, you have to take into consideration like okay, I am not really eight feet tall but if I was and I am more heavyset, how would I walk?
Like okay, this leg weighs like one ton, so I’ve got to…ugh...ugh…you know, as opposed to regular everyday life. I am 5’4” [160 cm], so.
Being able to be anything in this industry is really freeing and it’s empowering.
((NATS: Matthew Brezina and Robyn Dennis))
Capture! Action!
((Matthew Brezina
Motion Capture Actor))
Get in! Are you okay? Okay, don’t move. What is that? What is that?
((Robyn Dennis
Motion Capture Actor))
Get it off!
((Matthew Brezina
Motion Capture Actor))
I’ve never seen spiders that big.
((Robyn Dennis
Motion Capture Actor))
They are huge. Oh my God!
((Matthew Brezina
Motion Capture Actor))
This is supposed to be fun.
((Vince Argentine
CEO, Rouge MoCap))
Here at Rouge, we have done pick-up shots for Black Panther, Spiderman, Guardians of the Galaxy, things like that. So, Marvel films, we have worked on a bunch of different video games.
((Vince Argentine
CEO, Rouge MoCap))
In feature film, we use what’s called digital doubles a lot. So, we’ll actually 3D scan actual actors in their costumes and then build a 3D puppet out of that 3D scan. And then we fit it with bones, like an armature, like you do like a marionette. And then the motion capture is what drives that marionette.
((Vince Argentine
CEO, Rouge MoCap))
Classic example, but I know Tom Cruise does all his own stunts, but you can take a headline actor like Tom Cruise and then take a stunt actor that can do crazy backflips and stuff and take a photo-real version of him and have another actor play his motions.
((Vince Argentine
CEO, Rouge MoCap))
We do that with body motion capture and then now, in a lot of things with face motion capture, with those HMC head-mounted cameras. We’re actually recording the facial expressions and the body and fingers all in one go. And then that is puppeteering your CG [computer generated] avatar.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((NATS: Matthew Brezina and Robyn Dennis))
((Matthew Brezina
Motion Capture Actor))
Spiders are crying. It’s not even a very good stick.
((Robyn Dennis
Motion Capture Actor))
Okay, let’s just go. Okay.
((Matthew Brezina
Motion Capture Actor))
Okay. Three, two, one.
((MUSIC/NATS))



TEASE ((VO/NAT/SOT))
Coming up
((Banner))
Enhancing Art Through Science
((SOT))
((Mercedes Dorame
Native American Artist))
So, I make these kind of constellation cosmic spaces as a way to kind of point people into interacting with something that they can recognize.

BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))

BLOCK B


((PKG)) NATIVE AMERICAN ART IN AUGMENTED REALITY FORMAT
((TRT: 04:28))
((Previously aired July 2021))
((Topic Banner: Native Art Augmented))
((Reporter/Camera/Editor: Genia Dulot))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main characters: 1 female; 1 male))
((NATS))
((Mercedes Dorame
Native American Artist))
I grew up in Los Angeles. Part of my cultural ancestry is Tongva, which are the original people of Los Angeles. And a lot of my work revolves around looking at land, land access. Our tribe is not federally recognized, which means we don't have sovereign land base. So, I always have this feeling that I’m, you know, moving through Los Angeles, moving through this territory that's my ancestral homelands but there’s all these private property signs and people call me a trespassing or call me a trespasser. And so, it’s this odd feeling of, you know, this deep connection and then kind of also being told that I don't belong here.
((Mercedes Dorame
Native American Artist))
So, I make these kind of constellation cosmic spaces as a way to kind of point people into interacting with something that they can recognize. A lot of my work references objects or culture that has been erased from the history books. And so, I have to give a lot of history lessons and tell these stories in a way that people are not familiar with.
((Text-over-video:
"Portal for Tovaangar" by Mercedes Dorame is one of five augmented reality works set up by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in collaboration with Snapchat))
((NATS))
((Mercedes Dorame
Native American Artist))
Translating my physical work and my installations into this digital kind of augmented reality space, really points this Indigenous presence, this Tongva presence, to the future for me.
((NATS))
((Stuart "Sutu" Campbell
Extended Reality Artist))
If I create an augmented reality artwork, that is, you're looking at it through your phone and it's activated in that physical space, that's a spatial artwork. So, what we have at LACMA is a spatial artwork.
((Stuart "Sutu" Campbell
Extended Reality Artist))
As my hand moves around this environment, I am holding down the trigger and the red strings growing out of the controller. So, what I am doing here now is like I can grab the artwork with my controllers and I can scale it up and look at it very closely. And what I've done is, I've pulled in a photo of Mercedes' artwork, which I am using as a reference at the bottom of this sculpture, and I am then sculpting on top of it everything else, the ropes and the rocks, and then I recreated it in a 3D program.
((Stuart "Sutu" Campbell
Extended Reality Artist))
This is Snapchat's Lens Studio, what we are looking at the moment. So, what you can see here is the same painted artwork. It's now being placed on the floor in this 3D environment. So, I'll send it to my device.
((Stuart "Sutu" Campbell
Extended Reality Artist))
So now, we have the artwork. It's in my living room. I don't have a lot of space in my living room, so I'll shrink it down a bit. And you can see the artwork is now on the floor and then I can go in close and I can look at the details.
((Stuart "Sutu" Campbell
Extended Reality Artist))
We have these big, long ropes stretching out everywhere in every which direction and immediately when I gave it to my friend's daughter, who is like five years old, she started crawling under the ropes and climbing over the ropes and like literally on her back on the ground, sliding around the ground. And it was really motivating her to explore the art from all those different vantage points.
((Stuart "Sutu" Campbell
Extended Reality Artist))
We can do that with physical art. But it was interesting to see that we also can do that with these virtual artworks, that something that's not tangible has that power. Like you know that you can walk through it but still she was kind of going underneath it.
((Mercedes Dorame
Native American Artist))
The stones kind of have their own life. The stones, which was really fun, which I can't do when I’m making an installation like that, are like up in the air and they kind of create their own little constellation around the piece.
Utilizing these new technologies and these things that, maybe, I haven't engaged with in the past, is a way for me to insert and proclaim that, you know, Tongva people belong in the future visions of place, the future visions of art and the future visions of technology.
((NATS))


TEASE ((VO/NAT/SOT))
Coming up
((Banner))
Old School Tech
((SOT))
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader
Schooner Apollonia))
As we are trying to encourage folks to think about how the Hudson river is a way to move things, understanding the connection is really important.

BREAK TWO
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BLOCK C


((PKG)) SCHOONER APOLLONIA DELIVERS SAIL FREIGHT
((TRT: 10:00))
((Previously aired July 2021))
((Topic Banner: Sustainability in Simplicity))
((Reporter/Camera: Aaron Fedor))
((Producer: Kathleen Mclaughlin))
((Editor: Kyle Dubiel))
((Map: New York City, New York))
((Main character: 1 male))
((Sub characters: 1 female; 7 male))
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
Hi, I'm Sam Merrett. I'm Captain and Team Leader of the Schooner Apollonia, which is the wonderful ship we're all aboard right now. The Apollonia is a schooner, which is just a fancy way of saying it's a sailboat, which has more than one mast. And we sail freight and cargo throughout the Hudson Valley from our home port, right back here in Hudson, New York, all the way down to New York City.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
All right. Is everybody ready on their lifts?
((Speaker 1))
Yup.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
All right. Go ahead and pull away both lifts.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
We’re using the wind to transport things sustainably but with the purpose of weaving together all of these amazing producers throughout the Hudson Valley. So, we're connecting people who make maple syrup right here, people who make hot sauce right here with consumers down in New York City and then we're even flipping things around. When we turn around, we're sailing up cargoes like coffee and things like that, that you can't really grow around here.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
Our primary cargoes on the Apollonia are brewers malt, oak logs for mushroom cultivation, bulk flour that was grown and milled right here in the Hudson Valley and other grains. And those are what we consider the like bulk cargoes or the large cargoes. We also have individual cargoes. We work with small-scale producers delivering everything from honey to maple syrup to hot sauce. The Apollonia is an old boat. She actually turned 75 this year. She's from 1946.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
That's the Hudson Athens Lighthouse. That's from 1874 and it's a fascinating little spot. But yeah, that is up until the 1940s, there was actually a family that lived there that had to keep a lamp oil fire burning as the only means of navigation there. You know, now the coast guard runs it with a little solar panel and it’s kind of a much simpler ordeal.
Matt, let's see if we can get a little speed up and then we'll tack.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
The Hudson River's an amazing body of water. It presents all of the challenges of sailing anywhere that I've ever sailed. In some ways, it's more challenging because it tends to be quite skinny. There's lots of commercial traffic. There's lots of shallow water, things like that. The wind is always changing and always fighting with you but what's amazing about the Hudson River is the people that it connects. I think that's what really makes it work for me, is that we're constantly sailing past towns and people and we're interacting with them, right? We see our jobs very much as delivering cargo and also connecting people, connecting whether that's a producer to a consumer or whether that's just someone who lives in Hudson with the whereabouts of something cool that just happened in Kingston. You know, like that’s what ships were historically as they were messengers, not only of cargo and freight but also of news and weather and, you know, you'd send something to a friend at another town. And so, I think as we're trying to encourage folks to think about how the Hudson River is a way to move things, understanding the connection is really important.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Brad Vogel
Partnerships and Logistics, Apollonia))
This is definitely a new thing at the same time because it just started within the last year to make these runs from Hudson, New York, down the Hudson River, to here in Brooklyn, New York,
((Photo Courtesy: Grain de Sail))
and really connecting a lot of different towns and communities along the way and showing people that there's a way forward on sustainable freights and cargo.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
Sail freight has been, you know, something people have done for thousands of years.150, 200 years ago in the Hudson Valley, most of what was moved, was moved by sloops and schooners like this on the Hudson River. And of course today, there's this crisis we're having with the climate and we're looking for some solutions and I feel inspired by the past and feel like this is still a realistic solution. So, the concept is to try it out and see how it goes. We are looking to the past but not in some living history kind of museum way, just in what were practical solutions like horses, total renewable energy. The wind obviously still exists. The Hudson River, still a resource that's here. Once it was the superhighway of the region. Maybe it has a utility as such again.
((Jamie Pierce
Customer))
Today, I came down to pick up some honey and some cider that I ordered on the Apollonia.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
So, Lou right here, is riding our.....this is our standard distribution rig right here and you can just take off whenever you want.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
It is a Tern e-bike equipped with a Carla trailer. In the trailer is 400 pounds of malt from upstate farms and Lou is about to ride it for distribution. In addition to that, what we've got today is some friends came out with a team of horses. I mean, this is kind of, we've got in some ways reappropriation of 18th century technology to be the green version of the future and horses are obviously a renewable solution.
((NATS))
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
The next load is going to Van Brunt,
((Robert Tronsky
Owner, Triple T Farm))
Okay.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
which is the closest delivery. So, that should be nice. Nice and refreshing load after last time.
((Robert Tronsky
Owner, Triple T Farm))
Yeah. Last one was a boatload.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
Yeah, totally. This one's right around the corner and it's the rye, which is the unmarked bags. Same stuff we got you. So, yeah. He's using that to make a white rye whiskey.
((Robert Tronsky
Owner, Triple T Farm))
Oh.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
So, it should be good hopefully.
((Robert Tronsky
Owner, Triple T Farm))
Yeah.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
Actually, we will be ready by this fall. So, when we do this again in the fall,
((Robert Tronsky
Owner, Triple T Farm))
Yup. We'll go back out.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
you can taste some of the products of our labor.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
And on the way up, we're going to bring whiskey from Van Brunt Whiskey and we're going to bring a bunch of mead from Enlightenment Wines. We're also rendezvousing with a French ship
((Photo Courtesy: Grain de Sail))
that sailed wine and chocolate over across the Atlantic Ocean on Monday.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
So, we're going to have some wine and chocolate in our northbound cargo. And there's probably something else I'm forgetting. But that’s, you know, it's been a long trip, been underway for about a week now. So yeah, we're just trying to get the boat unloaded and things being squared away.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Speaker 2))
Hoist up the John B’s sails.
See how the main sail sets.
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
You have to understand that the people we work with are very passionate about what they're making and very thoughtful about that. And they've thought about the taste. They've thought about the impact. They've thought about the producers. The idea of supporting local farms to a lot of these people is common practice, right? And the idea of organic produce and fair trade and how the labor is treated. And they're really trying to make the best product and that's not just flavor. That's also story and impact.
And then I think, by and large, they all take the trucking part for granted, right? You build it. You need to get it to someone. You make it. You need to get it to someone. What do you do? You throw it on a truck. That, sort of, is how our distribution network is set up. And so, when we approach them with the idea that there was an alternative, I think at first, they sort of didn't really believe us and then we've been sort of demonstrating that that's the case and building a network of people who have faith in us.
((Tanya van Renesse
Crew Member))
There's a lot of people who try and do something like this. I mean, when he got this boat, it was just bare bones. There wasn't no mast, no booms and in just a couple of years, he put it all together. If it wasn't for his just amazing drive and energy, it would never ever been able to take place.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Speaker 6))
I feel so broke up,
I want to go home.
((MUSIC))
((Sam Merrett
Captain and Team Leader, Schooner Apollonia))
For us, part of this is that sailing and many of the sort of traditional crafts, you can't preserve them in books. I mean, you can write amazing stories about sailing. Obviously, you could write down the goods. But the truth is, if you don't do it, you'll never really know how to do it, right? There's an experiential side to it. And so, to some degree, engaging with people, getting them on boats, getting crew sailing again, keeping this wisdom alive is the only way it's going to persist, right?
((Matthew Soltesz
Crew member))
When people hear we’re delivering by sail, they're first confused and just, "No way." Like, "No, really. No fossil fuels?" "Yeah, none." And then, "Interesting." And then their second question is, "Well, do the numbers add up?" I was like, "Well, that's the point. That's what we're working on." And I think when we explain what we're doing, I think people overwhelmingly just understand that, you know, the system that we have working now just does what's not working. The system that's in place right now is not working and it's not sustainable. And it's just the power structure, trade structure, everything. It's not sustainable. It's good for now. It's good for maybe 10 years but it's not going to be good in 50 years and it’s sure as hell not good for our grandchildren. So, there's got to be a way to change things. And this is a small attempt. It's a test case but it gets the conversation started. So, that's the point.
((MUSIC/NATS))


BUMPER ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect


((PKG)) EXPLAINER: CHINA PANDA
((Topic Banner: The US, China and Pandas))

CLOSING BUMPER ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect

BREAK THREE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))



SHOW ENDS