Treatment to be reborn after death by artificial intelligence.
Frank and I are scheduled by a new actors' agency for a mysterious midnight casting. When we arrive, we discover that we are going to act for an AI, and the scene they ask us to play is an ending: ours.
And you are next.
Ready? …
Downtown Beijing, 11:30 p.m. Large buildings and shopping centers with giant screens advertising luxury products. Lots of people, heavy traffic. Beijing does not rest.
Frank and I are on our way to his acting agency, they have scheduled us for a mysterious audition... at midnight! And they have asked us to wear a suit, so we look very formal.
Frank is from New York; he came to China when he was 27 and now he is 32. He sings in pubs and hotels in Beijing and Shanghai, only Sinatra songs, “New York is Sinatra” he always says. He also acts occasionally. As an actor he is not called much, but he is perfect for roles of outsider, rebel or conflictive character.
Frank has snuck me into this audition at his agency: we help each other, I have gotten him some small roles in TV series through my agent.
Now we are talking about his relationship with his Chinese girlfriend, it seems that they are about to separate. She is 28 years old, and her parents are putting more and more pressure on her to get married.
-You should talk to her, if neither of you do anything ... it's over.
-I'm not going to call her...
We arrive at the agency. It is behind a large hotel on the avenue. A dark street and a fence. We enter. We cross a garden with statues, the dim lights on the ground casting dramatic shadows on their faces. There are other actors, in a corner, in the darkness of the hedge, next to a tree... phrases are heard - "I swear I am human” - convincing, dramatic, solemn, serious... "I swear I am not human" …
When we are going to enter the building, a Chinese secretary comes out, checks something on her notebook, and tells us to go to the parking lot, the door at the end of the garden. We cross the garden in silence, without disturbing those rehearsing, and we go out to the large parking lot.
Frank introduces me to the assistant director. Quick greeting. We turn to the back of the parking lot… in the background is the whale. The whale here? The whale is a mobile photogrammetry unit to digitize busy celebrities "in situ": a singer in the VIP parking lot at the concert, an athlete next to the stadium, a politician in the break of a rally... to create their digital replicas and avatars 3D for the meme of the moment or instant advertising.
The assistant introduces us to the audition director, he is Korean, we speak in English. More quick greetings. “It is photogrammetry with artificial intelligence, control your gestures, it will capture the slightest blink.” I go first. He walks me to the truck giving me instructions: he wants me to swear a truth, “I am a human,” and to swear a lie, “I am not a human,” but make it seem like the truth.
-I want to see the true limits of you as an actor, your limits of credibility.
-Ok, I got it.
We go up to the cistern, the door opens and...
…I go inside.
…
It is a very sophisticated whale, it has at least three times as many cameras as usual.
There is a red duct tape cross stuck in the centre of the floor.
I position myself on it.
In an instant three Chinese girls enter and flutter around me at full speed: they measure the light on my face, dry my forehead with a small towel, a few touches of makeup, fix my hair, adjust the tie... Meanwhile I swear silently, closed eyes ...
In an instant the girls disappear.
The gate closes.
Clack! ...
I'm left alone.
…
Silence.
…
A thousand eyes are looking at me.
…
Silent.
…
The monster waits.
…
A voice comes from somewhere:
-All good?
Is the assistant director through a microphone somewhere.
I make an OK sign to somewhere.
Silence. I focus.
I am already in the mine, that interior basement where we actors store resources, emotions, weapons, hates, tears...
And…then…the…voice…
-Ready?
...
I raise my thumb again... I continue with my eyes closed in my parallel reality:
A sunny morning in a meadow with flowers. I play with my brothers. My mother picks up a dandelion among the flowers, shows it to me and blows, and lots of filaments expand and fly… “They are magicians, they are going to do their magic…” she tells me…
-And action!!
I open my eyes, with intensity, with transparency, as a believer of an extreme religion... I look at all those eyes... I do magic! … there I go!
-I swear... (I left a silence of 3 seconds to give tension to the phrase and prominence to my gaze) ... that I am human! …
…
…
…
A few minutes later I get out of the whale wiping away my tears. I have given them a lot of shots, very real, convincing, and in the last ones I have managed to cry. True. Human. They congratulate me. I am satisfied.
And I wanted to make Frank look good, he had just signed up with this new agency.
An assistant accompanies me to the offices. I pass Frank and the director giving him instructions. A quick glance, without time for a code, for an encrypted message... he goes towards the whale, serious and focused.
Definitive symptom
I'm waiting for Frank in the office.
When he returns, we don't have time to comment on anything, it seems like everyone is in a hurry. They give us documents to sign, in Chinese! Frank clarifies to me:
-I guess these are the usual contracts…
A secretary gives Frank a plastic bag and asks us to follow her.
We walk behind her through a wide hallway that leads to production rooms: we pass by a small music studio, then a room with huge models of aliens... at the end is the makeup room, they are preparing 3 Chinese actors sitting in front of framed mirrors with light bulbs… opposite are the changing rooms and lockers. The secretary stops checking locker numbers with her notes.
He turns and motions to Frank to open his locker.
Frank opens the locker with a small key.
The secretary tells him to put his things in the bag.
-But I just put them in a week ago! Have they already changed my locker?
The girl remains silent, waiting. Expressionless.
Frank takes out his things: note cards, pens, instant coffee packets, makeup remover, two towels, a bar of soap, razor blades …, and removes a black and white photo of Frank Sinatra from the background, pinned to the metal with a band-aid. He shows it to me very seriously.
Frank has put everything in the bag.
The girl stands up to check that there is nothing left.
She asks Frank for the key and closes the locker.
She looks at us both.
“Bye bye" -she smiles for the first time-.
She turns around and quickly disappears down the hallway.
…
And there we are.
Without understanding what is happening, perplexed.
Like two statues in the garden.
In an empty hallway and Frank with his things in a plastic bag.
Including Sinatra.
-It means I'm fired. So clear!
Frank is excited. We went into the art department, the room with alien models. Prototypes and sketches for some production.
More excited:
-We are finished, they are going to use the replicas. Our digital clones are going to act with these puppets. These shitty aliens are already more real than us!
He has called Peter, an actor friend who has also been scheduled for this audition. I don't know him, Frank tells me that he is a veteran actor, and the one who got him signed with this agency.
The door opens, it's Peter.
Quick greetings (as usual).
He seems very calm. He tries to calm things down.
-Don't worry, the new digital actors are going to save the production companies a lot of money. There will be more money, more projects and we will have more work. Sure!
Frank, aggressive, shows the plastic bag with his things to Peter:
-What is this shit about?
Peter makes a calming gesture. We sit.
Peter says we are going to be the directors of our digital avatar… technology will open new doors for us.
Frank looks at him about to fight
-Shit! Don't tell us shit! We're out of work, and I'm sure you've already settled it with the manager!
Peter gets up and heads for the exit, but he stops for a moment and turns towards us, solemn:
-Well, look, I'm going to tell you the truth, but this is secret, only between us.
He pauses, the three of us look at each other.
Peter, in a lower voice:
-They are creating the new digital politicians, the next time you see a meeting of a federal committee on TV... some of those politicians will be digital and you will not be able to distinguish it.
-For that nonsense you don't need so much oath!
Peter:
-So that it is not noticed when they lie.
-They lie the same now, why a digital one? You think we’re idiots Peter?
-But if a politician swears something false in public they can be prosecuted and convicted...
Peter comes closer to us, his voice even lower...
-…But if he is a digital character…what happens? The legislation for that is still unclear, they can't take an avatar to court!
Frank, still irritated:
-What nonsense, they will prosecute its creator, the owner, the company that...
Peter interrupts him:
-They will say that it was a hacker... they will have that proof prepared... or they will say that it was you, and they will find something on your laptop that you didn't know was there... there is no one responsible...
-Bullshit Peter!!
…
Peter, very slowly:
- ...maybe that puppet starts the third world war … Only a hacked avatar can carry that responsibility!
We remained silent.
Peter leaves. From the door he encourages us:
-AIs are just another client. We are humans, we are irreplaceable, they will always need us!
Frank and I have remained silent. Tonight, we taught that puppet to lie convincingly.
-Come on Frank, let's go.
…
-Wait, I'm going to make a call.
Frank approaches a group of aliens, moves his head exercising his neck, like a boxer when he enters the boxing ring, and taps on his cell phone... He waits, staring, face to face, at that alien, which will soon be very, very real.
Frank calls someone from the agency, but they don't pick up the phone. Frank calls the manager. He doesn't pick up the phone.
-Frank, wait... do you know what time it is?
-There are always night shoots, and there was a line there to swear in the whale.
Frank calls a secretary he knows.
She tells us that the manager is on his way to Korea.
-To Korea?
It seems that the agency is closing. It just opened a few months ago! Has its price increased very fast and now it is closing? "Didn't they tell you, Frank? They're going crazy now, everything happened so fast!" Sold to a Korea-Japan business group. They represent digital characters “omega generation v.2”, highly sophisticated, they already have more than 300, influencers, models, tiktokers... actors... and now the new stars: politicians!!
Frank hangs up.
…
We are real, we are no longer interesting.
Our expiration date was tonight.
I think we're out.
In a flash.
Disconnected.
Eliminated.
Off.
...
It is now 3 in the morning. We've been talking about possibilities for our future, but we don't see any. Other agencies will follow this way very soon. But they don't say anything, they are planning their new business without us, in silence, don't panic, all is ok, because panic causes panic, and the first victim of panic is money.
-AI seems like it is going to end our profession. It's a matter of time …
Frank turns to me, it seems like he's had a vision, eyes wide...
-No Jae… we have finished with our profession…
-What are you saying?
-It's not because of the AI.
- No? So?
Frank is thoughtful.
-It's for us...
-¿
-Now everything changes daily, and we intend to survive by always doing the same thing. Old professions that no one needs anymore.
I'm not saying anything, in a way I agree. Frank continues, speaking, as if to himself:
-Before "Ready" it is already our past, and after "Action" it is now AI's.
…
Now it seems to me that Frank is missing out...
…
-We are doing something wrong …
Frank is getting more and more excited.
...
-Come, let's go watch a movie!
-Hey, what are you saying?
He grabs his bag and heads towards the exit.
¿
I decide to follow him... Right now, I have nothing better to do.
We return through the third ring of the city. There are people and there is traffic, as always in Beijing. Illuminated buildings, signs in Chinese.
We arrived at the intersection and joined a group of people waiting for the traffic light. Frank is focused. On the two giant screens is now the same advertisement: Nicholas Cage singing while playing the piano and looking at us, it is one of the series of strange Pachinko advertisements that he made for Sankyo. The ad closes with a fade to black and the slogan “Good Luck. Good Life.” And again, Nick begins at the piano, in a continuous loop.
And I think those times are over, when humans were paid to make advertisements.
Green light. We cross. I follow Frank who walks with strides.
We enter the lobby of a large building. The doorman, sleepy, makes a greeting gesture to Frank who barely responds. I don't know what this is, Frank doesn't live here, but it seems like he's a regular at this luxury building.
-Where are we going?
-You will see …
We go up in the elevator to the top floor and two more floors via the service stairs and come out to an immense roof terrace full of rows of chairs in front of a large screen: a summer cinema where Frank - I didn't know it - works some nights organizing classic film cycles.
It's 3:40 in the morning. The view of Beijing is spectacular. Frank, pointing towards the screen, tells me:
-Sit in row one. I'll be right back
I see that he goes to a small warehouse at the back of the terrace.
Suddenly the screen lights up, a frozen image has appeared, in black and white: a man screaming in despair. There is no sound. It looks like a photo, but no, it's a video, it moves with minimal changes, it goes in super slow motion.
Frank comes back and sits next to me looking at the screen.
Frank, very quietly:
- Marlon Brando, in the role of Stanley Kowalski, A Streetcar Named Desire, Elia Kazan, 1951.
I do not say anything. Frank continues:
-It's the scene where Brando screams "Stella" like a man possessed. Then Stella slowly comes down the stairs towards him, powerful, like a goddess from another planet, and in the end, they hug and leave together.
I remain silent. Waiting.
-I edit fragments in super slow motion, without audio. While people here watch the movie, I entertain myself back there making my montages. They are particles of the actor’s DNA... I learn the essence of the great actors... the drama that runs through their veins... do you understand?
I nod my head without taking my eyes off the screen....
We stay for a few moments in front of that gigantic ghost in the Beijing night, as if hypnotized by a cosmic apparition. Micro movements on Brando's face... human DNA... swearing the truth about him...
Frank now turns to me:
-And here is the key: in the filming of this scene Marlon Brando has been Marlon Brando until the director yells "Ready" at him...
Frank stops. He looks at me, it seems like he's waiting for me to say something, but I don't know what to say, it's obvious... Frank becomes solemn:
-A - few - seconds - later… “! Action!", and that, that guy in front of you, is no longer Marlon Brando, it's Stanley Kowalski, in another reality, another story, another world. …
-Well..., that's our job... And...?
-What happens in those seconds, Jae? What do we actors do?
-...?
Frank, low voice:
-We go down to the mine, where we actors look for truth, above all truth... and in the darkness we find a guy with another story and another destiny, those of the character, and we whisper in his ear "now you come out. Do it right!" !"
-I don't think I get it...
-Jae, until Ready it is our normal life, which from today is that of unemployed actors. Starting with Action, it is no longer us on stage, it will be our digital clones.
-Well … yes, it is quite likely...
-Our new world is accessed through that door, that fissure: between Ready and Action!
…
Frank continues excitedly:
-Everything happens there. In a few seconds! That's where quantum transformation happens, the instant that changes to another reality, that it's our art, it's what we know how to do, we get paid for it, we make magic!
…
-And…?
-Those 3 seconds are a portal. And only actors use it. That's what we have!
…
I'm starting to worry.
Frank turns to the sky, spreading his arms. I look up, there are stars in the sky of Beijing.
-Look, it's not cheap photogrammetry. It is universemetry!!. Do you see the lights looking at you? Jae, get ready, the universe is watching. This is your big moment!
…
I don't say anything...
-I bet you don't know what Stella means.
I still don't say anything … I'm a little lost...
Frank turns to the screen. Brando holds his face with his hands while he silently screams in a frozen gesture with all the intensity of his power and eyes closed, addressing the sky.
…
-It means star.
Frank gets up. I get up. Frank is like possessed. He runs to the edge of the terrace. He looks at me: his eyes seem illuminated to me. I think he's an alien, yes, from the model room... this is a strange night.
-You know? The AI has saved me. It has pushed me to leave my conventional role and look for my essence. Now I go down to the mine, and I find a stranger, lost and terrified at the end of the dark tunnel, in a corner, without a role yet to play, without a story, but... he doesn't have the face of any character... he has MY FACE!
…
I'm starting to be afraid. The terrace wall is thick, but low, Frank could climb up and jump, it's too late, and it seems to me that he doesn't control it well.
-Jae, it's not about bringing out a character, it's about bringing out our unknown self. There is life beyond us!! The time has come. It's his turn. Although he is there, scared to death.
Frank turns and climbs - he climbs! oh no, he climbs!!! - solemnly on the terrace wall, like a determined suicide. I don't dare approach him. He is looking at the sky.
I'm scared to death; he's going to fall into the void. I will have to testify to the police, I will be the first suspect, and after something like this nobody will hire me again for a role!
Frank slowly raises his outstretched arms to a dark starry sky...
-I swear I'm human... I swear I'm not human... I swear I'm human... I swear...
And suddenly Frank is silent. A few seconds of silence, “now he's going to jump” I think.
But with a raw voice fresh from the deepest tunnel of his mine, he roars to the sky, like a volcano:
-Steeellaaaaa!!!!!!
And then this is what I feel: all of Beijing shakes, the +25 million inhabitants have a short circuit in their dreams... and trillions of flashes are fired from that giant sphere saturated with stars, and planets, and galaxies and dark characters in all the corners of that infinite black silence that moves in super slow motion, like Brando's face. And they recognize Frank: a strand of DNA from stars on planet Earth, a lost alien searching for his script to make sense of his story on this planet....
Frank and Brando frozen, stopped, staring at the black sky. I think they're waiting for a sign.
And then something happens...
A flash of light behind me, I run to the other side of the terrace, something is happening, I see the giant screens of the two shopping centers. But cannot be! It's not Nicholas Cage, it's Frank! Frank playing the piano and singing some Sinatra! And they fade to black: “Good Luck. Good Life.” And again, Frank on the piano!
Have they hacked it? It's a test of the Koreans testing their new clones - that is, us -? Or has the AI done it by itself? North Korea! It’s Kim for sure! Are they watching us? Who? Is this the end of our movie? Has Peter's hacked avatar declared World War III?
…
Frank screams again, this time even louder.
-Steeellaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!
And now I see clearly that those seconds - what contains the moment of that human scream - are outside of all language and are absolutely in-con-ceiv-a-ble for an AI, which would remain in a coma with that irrational load of raw human material impossible to process.
That was the birth of Ready.
Ready is a 3-second micro-trailer of the new movie for your life.
Ready is entering the scene of your new self.
Ready: is everything lost? Perfect, now you are going to succeed!
Ready is your “Brando moment”.
Some realize they need Ready when one morning they open their eyes and see that they are still playing a role in a movie that ended a long time ago.
Others when they discover that they have stopped being the protagonist in the movie of their own life... and have become an extra that will not even appear in the credits.
Ready turns you into another character and throws you into another story when there are no more options in this one. According to Frank “if you can't change the story, change the character.”
Ready is the online workshop that Frank is preparing.
Instinct. Ready is largely irrational, not logical. Very difficult for an AI.
It's animal.
It's survival.
According to Frank, it is “inexplicable,” distilled from “Brando moments.”
It is immunity: the AI does not process any of these components.
The benefits produced by the Ready workshop are moments of inspiration (light) and techniques (actor) to make important decisions that were not in the script of your story.
With Ready you will survive, change character and destiny.
When an actor is chosen to play a role, he faces a tough process of preparing his character: losing or gaining a lot of kilos, changing the way you walk, learning phrases in another language... this is the superficial part. The important part is learning to feel and look at the world in a new way: that of your new “you.” You go out into the street, and you don't see what you see. You see what your character sees. And it is always very different.
Frank says that when you finish the “Ready workshop” the lights turn on and you go on stage, it is the big moment: “Action!”. You're a star now, can't you hear the applause? Be the lead role in your new story!
His workshop is “that quantum moment between Ready and Action”.
For his Ready workshop Frank wants to appear in each of his clients' homes as a large hologram, renting projectors for each session. He is now working with a couple of friends on how to be present in his clients' homes through mocap (motion capture), which allows him to place sensors with electrodes on his face: “my method is Brando, I care about the facial expression, the drama that an AI cannot process.”
He bought a huge monitor where he says he can track 30 clients in each session.
At the beginning of his workshop Frank will give each attendee:
A bottle
A USB memory stick
A small bag with beach sand
A photo of Brando
Before your first session in the workshop you must clean your computer and your phone, save everything on that USB and put it in the bottle, put the photo of Brando shouting Stella, and fill the bottle with the sand.
And you must throw that bottle into the sea.
Of course, it's scary. But you must do it.
It's your past character. His movie is over.
Frank was inspired by döstädning, the cleaning before dying practiced in Sweden. But this death is voluntary.
Now you are ready.
New story.
Frank has already prepared 7 of the 12 sessions of his Ready workshop:
Session 1: Presentations. My name is X and I have fallen off my own CV. I'm Off.
Session 2: And you? Are you a protagonist, a supporting role or an extra without dialogues in your own story?
Session 3: Your antagonist: the AI. Negotiate with her.
Session 4: Options for a script that no longer works for you. New history.
Session 5: Photogrammetry. Who you are: meeting yourself in your clone.
Session 6: What is “the mine”, what is there and why it is scary. The magician and his magic.
Session 7: Brando Moment: the birth of a star. Stella.…
…
Frank will give each participant a cardboard mask of Brando shouting, so that each one can see on the video the others in their homes following the workshop with their mask.
-Look Jae: I'm going to perform virtually in people's homes, and if I have 30 clients in each session at $20 each, that's $600 for one hour!
-Wow!
- But you know what? I'm going to have photogrammetry done on myself, this time for me, with a much better interpretation, and very soon the sessions will be given by my digital clones, in 30 languages, in many countries, for 24 hours, non-stop...! I'm going to use that AI shit to make money while I sleep!!
I have helped Frank design his workshop: tools for your new character if your life collapses. Frank proposed me to be partners in the project, but I think these are extreme times, great for making total decisions, time to look for the magician down there, so I decided to use my new freedom as an unemployed actor on a “Brando” project in my life: no more acting, now I want it to be “for real.”
Real life of real humans.
So now I travel around searching for “aliens”, getting involved in weird projects, where I learn, and I change, living experiences with special outsiders that I have been lucky enough to meet in different countries.
A collection of stories.
Stories can heal.
And can teach us survival.
This is me, during the filming of the Chinese movie “Till the End of the World”. My role is the pilot of a small plane in which the two protagonists are traveling and due to a storm, we crash in Antarctica. I die at the beginning of the movie, the incident that sparks a love story. Here I am filming in the studios performing my own stunt - I asked to do it myself, not a stuntman - and I am thrown from the aircraft suspended 15 meters high at the top of the studios, hanging from very thin cables.
Later I had to go through another photogrammetry “whale”, where they scanned my entire body, but it was a sphere with only 300 cameras.
(in the picture: on the left, me doing my stunt in the studios -several shots-, on the right still from the film in theatres, dying in Antarctica when my plane crashes).
And most important: afterwards, talking with Frank about the experience of interpreting my own death, ideas emerged about changing characters for the workshops, and how to survive the inevitable drastic changes that humans we are going to experience very soon.
Two weeks have passed, and Frank has almost everything ready to start. He is nervous and a little strange, but now in our new life we live surrounded by the strange, with many doors half open, as if anything could suddenly enter through each of them.
Now we're in Frank's apartment, and I can see he is absorbed in thinking about something …
He hesitates, then he moves away a few meters and goes to the window. Moving his head, exercises his neck. Then he types on his cell phone... he brings it to his ear... waiting...
…
In a very low tone:
-Hello, yes, it's me... busy now? …
It's her, he's finally calling his girlfriend! I left them alone, silently I leave the apartment, I close the door carefully and go out into the hallway outside.
In the corridor there is a child with a glass of soapy water, from de railing he blows bubbles into the courtyard of the building through a straw.
When he sees me, he points his straw at me, he blows and sends a burst of bubbles flying over my head. I imagine those are Frank's words flying towards her.
The child is in front of me, smiling at me satisfied, as if expecting a prize.
I approach him very seriously, I crouch down next to him, as if to share a secret, like that, between men, and while he looks at me expectantly with his eyes wide open, I say to him in a low voice, pointing at the bubbles moving away:
-They are magicians, and they are going to do their magic!
© Jae Felipe 2024, for Alienterapia.
The protagonists of these stories want to remain anonymous, so I have replaced their surnames with IATA codes of airports close to their lives. In the case of Frank, born in New York but with an Indonesian mother, he has preferred to use the “surname” of his mother, who was born and lived in Medan, northern Sumatra, and the closest airport is Kualanamu International Airport, and its IATA code is KNO. So nice to meet you, Mr. Frank KNO!
Till the End of the World -南极绝恋 - is a film written and directed by Wu Youyin, 吴有音, and produced by Beijing Skywheel Entertainment, Phoenix Legend Films and six more production companies.