3D resurrections could be next concert rage

Christopher Polk / Getty Images

Rapper Snoop Dogg, left, and a hologram of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur perform at the Coachella music festival in April. The success of the illusion has inspired dreams of more performances featuring long-gone performers.

By Bill Briggs

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Just like the real Tupac Shakur, his holographic avatar is not going away quietly.

When techno whizzes recreated a dancing, lyric-lashing, apparently 3D image of the late rapper at April's Coachella music festival in California, the audience felt a collective chill, the Tupac-Is-Alive army felt (momentarily) vindicated and music moguls?sensed the dawn of a new business opportunity.

Never mind that the Shakur reproduction wasn?t a true hologram but a modern version of a classic theatrical illusion. That won?t stop promoters from trying to create a new market from long-dead performers like Michael Jackson who dazzle live crowds.

?The audience wasn?t wearing 3-D glasses, was not expecting a special effect, but it was so real, people there were saying: ?It creeped me out!? ? recalled Nick Smith, president of AV Concepts, the Arizona-based company that projected and staged the image of a shirtless Tupac greeting the Coachella crowd and then performing with a live Snoop Dogg.

?It?s taken us years to really get the right ingredients together on this. But we?re kind of a copycat society. When somebody sees that, a lot of (people will ask): ?What?s next?? ?

Smith declined to say what long-gone singers and rappers he may be beaming next to upcoming shows, citing non-disclosure agreements.

But family members, close friends and former bandmates of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Freddie Mercury and Lisa ?Left Eye? Lopes of TLC all have talked openly and excitedly in recent weeks about tapping holography to let stadiums full of their fans see those late stars play again -- possibly as soon as this summer.

?Some big stars of the past still have significant name recognition, and I think this technology can help bring them to the forefront once again,? said Mark Roesler, whose agency, CMG Worldwide, represents hundreds of dead entertainers and sports figures.

CMG's roster includes musicians Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Mary Wells and Christopher ?Big Pun? Rios as well as writer Jack Kerouac, actor James Dean and comics Andy Kauffman and Chris Farley.

How about an ?Icons of Americana Tour? featuring holographic recreations of Parker, Kauffman, Kerouac and Dean working their cultural magic -- from the grave?

?We?re always interested in new opportunities for our clients,? Roesler said. ?But the one thing you have to be concerned about is, as the technology gets so good, at what point do you want to make sure that future generations remember your clients for who they (truly) were?

?It?s an issue that you have to keep in mind because you?re going to blur that line between reality and what?s artificially created,? Roesler added. ?And if what you recreate isn?t up to the stature of your existing clients, that can cheapen their image and damage their brand.??

The technology, using Roseler's words, seemed to get "so good" almost overnight -- when AV Concepts teamed with London-based Musion Systems to transmit and direct an animated Tupac copy onto a Mylar-foil screen that was invisible to the Coachella audience. The Internet lit up with chatter, and a video of the virtual Tupac went viral.?

"They (Musion) have been able to perfect this Mylar foil to a point where it?s so clear that high-definition, high-resolution video projected the right way in the right circumstances creates an unbelievable effect," Smith said.?

While the tools have been sharpened and updated, the process is really "an old theater trick from the 1800s," Smith added. Once known as "Pepper's Ghost," the vintage effect once involved an actor who stood below the stage facing a mirror. Using lights, the stage crew would send the actor's reflection onto to a glass sheet hanging from a spot above the stage, allowing the audience to see what appeared to be the actual actor. Tupac's recreation was similarly two-dimenionsal.?

"It truly isn't a hologram. It's a holographic effect, a simulation," Smith said. "But the key is making something look so real that people believe it."?

Live Poll

There's talk that some or all of these artists may perform for crowds via holographic effects. Which would you most like to "see" again?

Seeing may be believing, but technology is decades away from producing a true, three-dimensional, 360-degree hologram that can fool someone into thinking they're watching, even circling, the real deal - much less an immersive image like the walk-in "holodeck" from TV's "Star Trek." A true hologram involves laser beams, a beam spreader and photographic plates.?

"It's not quite where, as a lot of people think, you?ll walk into a room and you?ll see holograms projected in that volume of space," Frank?DeFreitas, a holographer?in Allentown, Pa. "Holography is still very much like going into a gallery and seeing holograms either on a tripod - if they happen to be (on) glass - or on a wall."?

"I do believe holography will be one day the choice of three-dimensional imaging in the world. But there?s a lot of technology that needs to catch up in order to do it on a performance scale. It?s just there yet,"?DeFreitas added. "I don?t think it?s going to be (there) in my lifetime, and I?ve spent a lifetime in holography. I?m 56 now."

Although not holograms by definition, some crowd-pleasing effects already envisioned at AV Concepts include: a musician who's playing in real time somewhere in the world but whose 2D image is uploaded by a cameras and projected onto a stage elsewhere, even appearing to perform a duet next to another live singer; the creation of a digitized, "human-like" figure, a completely concocted artist, who sings new music; and a club that offers a "virtual entertainer" to croon or rap around the clock.

"It?s really about people who break down barriers and think about the 'What if?'" Smith said. "There are so many capabilities out there, and I think (the Tupac event) really brings to light that if you can dream it, you can do it."

Several media outlets reported the Coachella illusion cost between $100,000 and $400,000 to pull off. Smith called those figures "totally incorrect" but declined to offer any details on the true cost.

As for the possible revenue from a holographic, world-touring Michael Jackson or Elvis, it's unclear how much money those events might ring up for the estates of the dead celebrities. The potential would depend on an array of unknown factors: ticket sales, negotiated revenue splits and gate numbers -- not to mention whether the Tupac-style effect quickly grows stale with tech-savvy audiences.

But the man who's devoted his?career to holography -- and who grew up with the Beatles -- already can imagine the ideal evening, some years down the road: Paul McCartney and the late John Lennon sharing the stage again.?

"John is singing at the microphone and Paul is standing behind him, playing (bass guitar). John?s blocking the view of Paul from where you are sitting. So you walk over to the other side of the stadium for a better view," DeFreitas said. "If that were true holographic technology, when you walked to the other side of the stadium, you would be able to see around John and you?d see Paul standing behind -- just as if reality was stored up there."?

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