The ‘Hawaii Five-0’ Season 7 Premiere: Jack Lord’s Return Via Computer-Generated Imagery
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, in the Hawaii Five-0 Season 7 premiere last night, the show’s producers decided to provide a shocking cameo with a brief appearance by a CGI Jack Lord. Computer-generated imagery is used all the time to re-create people in film, but less frequently on television. But this particular use of CGI in Hawaii Five-0 made it clear why most TV shows should stay away from replicating humans for the time being.
Thanks @MattMitovich – https://t.co/OPIezxXpl3
— Peter M. Lenkov (@PLenkov) September 24, 2016
The actor Jack Lord played Steve McGarrett in the original series from 1968-1980. In the current remake of Hawaii Five-0, the role of Steve McGarrett is played by Alex O’Loughlin. In this opening scene for the new season, the old and new characters – more or less – had the opportunity to meet.
In the sequence, McGarrett – the current version – rolls into a hospital chapel in a wheelchair after having suffered a life-threatening injury. While he’s getting all introspective about life, death, and everything, he notices an older man sitting behind him – who turns out to be the CGI version of Jack Lord.
In the episode, the quiet talk between the two men makes sense and might even be quite touching, but the blatant unreality of the CGI effect draws the viewer entirely out of the scene and the show. When CGI is used well, it should be almost unnoticeable.
But it’s just very difficult to do this on a television budget and time schedule. In the last few years, we’ve seen remarkably realistic re-creations of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, a deceased Paul Walker, and even much younger versions of Michael Douglas and Robert Downey, Jr. For the most part, these big-screen illusions were fairly convincing.
Michael Douglas in #AntMan looks decades younger than I've seen him in ages. Wow! https://t.co/Viasc5YjVi
— Chelle (@Chelle_me_2) July 23, 2016
Computer-generated imagery involves expensive artists, technologies, and techniques. It’s difficult enough to make a CGI character that’s entirely fictional, such as King Shark – who was almost used in Suicide Squad – Gorilla Grodd on The Flash, or a giant walking robot on Legends of Tomorrow. But creating a CGI figure that is supposed to be a specific human being is incredibly difficult.
Is gorilla Grodd back to wreak havoc in Central City in #TheFlash Season 3 episode 5? https://t.co/Ab4NgbHku0 pic.twitter.com/bfedBRfpJg
— Tam (@mystidrift) September 12, 2016
3-D modelers have to create a computer-generated mesh that they then paste photographic textures onto for the character’s skin. The figure has to be rigged with “bones” so that it can be moved and animated. They next use motion capture to reproduce not only the actor’s body movements, but also his or her facial expressions. All of this takes a lot of time and money, which means that most television shows simply can’t afford to even try it.
Some television shows have been able to carefully use computer-generated imagery in a way that was fairly convincing. The Flash on the CW frequently employs CGI to create the illusion that the Flash is racing through the streets of Central City to take on Zoom or rescue a cat. The same can be said for ABC’s Agents of Shield, which makes occasional use of CGI.
But even on these shows, the CGI characters are usually shown at a distance – particularly if they are human beings. One of the few times they showed the CGI Flash up close – during a fight with himself – the fact that it was computer-generated imagery was obvious.
The principal problem for Hawaii Five-0‘s episode is that it was a one off. One of the reasons that The Flash is able to use CGI as much as it does is that a lot of the work has already been done for previous episodes. They already have the figures, the textures, and everything else for many of the characters. All they have to do is animate and render them.
Hawaii Five-0 was starting from scratch and had to accomplish it all in the short timeframe required for single weekly episode. And the result was rather disappointing for the viewers.
Creating realistic human beings who looked true to life in bright light and close-up is something television just can’t seem to do. In fact, very few blockbuster films have done this effectively. Even though it was kind of touching that the producers wanted to do this for the Hawaii Five-0 Season 7 premiere, it actually detracted from the show rather than contributing to it.
[Featured Image by CBS]
