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I question what is real and not real on a daily basis and deepfakes don’t make things any easier.

This technology has enlivened the strange and confusing part of the internet by creating ultra-realistic videos of people with their faces pasted onto someone else.

Sure, deepfakes can be quite fun, like the Harry Potter video that puts Morgan Freeman’s face onto Dumbledore, Meryl Streep onto McGonagall, and Keanu Reeves onto Sirius Black.

But deepfakes can wade into creepier territory, like those Tom Cruise videos, or the ones that bring to life photographs of our late family members.

For a fun take, using genealogy company MyHeritage’s same deepfake technology, Warner Bros’ creators are promoting Reminiscence, Hugh Jackman’s new movie about memory, in a rather unique way.

Per New Atlas, the campaign allows anybody the chance to upload a picture of themselves or someone else, which then becomes animated using deepfake technology and inserted into the short, interactive trailer.

Written and directed by Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy, Reminiscence stars Hugh Jackman as a private investigator in the future who helps people journey through lost memories.

The trailer can be accessed from this site, with a step-by-step guide of what comes next below:

• You will hear the voice of Nick Bannister (AKA Jackman) who guides you to the first step, entering your first name.
• Then, you select and upload an image of a face, whether it be yours or someone else’s, with their consent of course.
• A deep, techy sound plays in the background while the image is uploaded to the portal and you answer a few questions about the image.
• Then you click around with the “memory”, connecting the dots, which allows the image you uploaded to take on a life of its own.
• The final step is to watch the memory in full, download it to share, start over, or buy tickets to the movie.

Don’t worry about that extra double chin that you seem to have generated out of thin air, it’s just the nature of a deepfake.

Here is an example from New Atlas’ Loz Blain, whose photo choice they’re not sure gels with the tone of the film:

Again, the interactive trailer featuring your face can be made here.

Reminiscence will be in theatres from today.

The trailer is weird, but I have not been dissuaded from watching the film.

[source:newatlas]