Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 07:50:29 PM

Login with username, password and session length

ABBA are good, right?

Started by bgmnts, May 11, 2022, 05:52:23 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

famethrowa


daf

#91
Short clip from the end of the concert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePuiAAxsYj4

Spoiler alert
[close]

Tony Tony Tony

Don't suppose anyone here has shelled out for a ticket to the Abbatar thing?

SteveDave

Quote from: daf on May 27, 2022, 12:36:20 AMPretty sure I heard that they've prepared a few more songs than just the ones for the opening night - probably holding a solid gold banger or two back for future shows, so the set doesn't become stale.

For the holograms? Will they get bored? Are they sentient?

daf

Lol!

No, I meant for the live musicians - plus it's a draw to get punters back if there's a couple of fresh numbers mixed in they hadn't seen before.

I'd speculate that 'Hole in My Soul' might well be 'rested' and replaced by something like KMKY after a few months.

Would genuinely love it if the holograms were sentient.

By a third of the way through the tour, they're just going through the motions, by the end, Agnetha's hologram has left due to irreconcilable differences with the rest of the holograms and they've replaced her with a hologram of Cheryl Baker.

SteveDave

The Olympic park is going to be honking of Lambrini puke and covered in furry cowboy hats for the entirety of this Summer isn't it?

checkoutgirl

This is uncharted territory. Industrial Light and Magic. 5 weeks performing in motion capture. Band. They built their own stadium! They mean business. Never before has so much time, effort and money been put into someone not being arsed to appear on stage.

Mind you Elvis and Roy Orbison did similar a few years ago. It begs the question why Abba bothered with music at all, they clearly hate touring and performing or they would have done some in the last 30 years. It's not like people didn't want them to do it.

checkoutgirl

As a moneyspinner it's actually genius. All they have to do is a couple of months light work (motion capture, a few interviews, go on stage waving once or twice), then sit back and watch the money roll in. Plus it gets people off their back about making a comeback. Punters visiting London will make the Abbatoir show part of their itinerary like a Broadway musical or West End show.

It could be making their children and grandchildren money long after they're dead.

Captain Z

How does it work then, are the real Abba there/in a secure location singing live while the "avatars" bop around, or is the whole thing just pre-recorded?

checkoutgirl

Quote from: Captain Z on May 27, 2022, 02:30:41 PMHow does it work then, are the real Abba there/in a secure location singing live while the "avatars" bop around, or is the whole thing just pre-recorded?

The voices, motion, dance moves etc were all done by the real Abba in a studio over a period of weeks and captured. They then make the holograms based on that. The recorded voices are played in synch with the holograms, lightshow etc on the night and a live band play along in a pit or backstage.

They did appear in person for the opening night(s) and stood on stage waving at the hysterical crowd and then fucked off.

I think that's it, isn't it?

I can imagine them showing up in person again to wave at the crowd every now and again if ticket sales dip or if they want an ego boost. That's the kind of thing that would generate buzz and shift a few tickets. Maybe they'll show up for our show!! We'd be in the same room as them!! How much? 200 quid? Bargain.

SweetPomPom

Body doubles were used for the motion capture - no-one needs to see the the real moves of a band of 70+ year olds.

idunnosomename

By holograms you mean a moving image projected onto glass?

So futuristic its been done since 1862

daf

#103
Just to nip the hologram thing in the bud, they're not holograms.

QuoteAffectionately known as "Abba-tars", the characters are not 3D holograms - as everyone involved in the production is at pains to point out. "I don't think any hologram shows have been successful,"producer Baillie Walsh told Dazed magazine last year. "After five minutes, I don't think they're that interesting.

Instead, the characters appear on a massive, 65million pixel screen, with lights and other effects blurring the boundaries between the digital elements and the "real world" in the arena."

As far as I've been able to work out, they seem to be CGI images projected on high resolution screens - but with careful lighting that makes them appear to be 3D and actually on the stage.

QuoteWhile the virtual Abba are restricted to the centre of the stage, a spectacular floor-to-ceiling light show adds a propulsive dynamism to proceedings. The band perform Chiquitita against an eclipsing sun, and are surrounded by pulsing laser beams during Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).

As long as you keep your eyes away from the big screens, where the avatars assume an unfortunate "uncanny valley" effect, you feel like you've been transported back to the band's last UK concert, in London's Wembley Arena, 42 years ago. (One more look and you forget everything, to coin a phrase.)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61592104

Technically none of the "holograms" we've seen perform over the years are actually holograms, but people use it as shorthand because it sounds better than "CGI projected onto a bit of perspex", or in this case, "CGI ABBA on a big telly + lasers"

prelektric

I suspect it's something that needs really to be seen in person. Doubt videos would do it justice.

But then, that's the point isn't it? Smart move by them, it's not like they need the money, but they are doing something a bit more creative and ambitious than most. Apart from the fact they are all in their mid 70s, and in varying levels of health, at least one of them (Agnetha) rightly hates touring.

I'd have bought a ticket myself, and an expensive train ticket from the North East, and an even more expensive shitty hotel at least 3 miles from the venue. But I'm almost certain that the crowd would be utterly unbearable and ruin the experience for me.

So I didn't. I've got the albums, arsed, cigs, etc.

daf

Getting into the spirit with the Live at Wembley Arena 2xCD from 1979.

Amazingly dynamic sound - You could knock nails in with the drum beats!

Doing this is pretty brazen when they're still alive.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on May 27, 2022, 03:52:48 PMTechnically none of the "holograms" we've seen perform over the years are actually holograms, but people use it as shorthand because it sounds better than "CGI projected onto a bit of perspex", or in this case, "CGI ABBA on a big telly + lasers"

Yeah, nobody gives a bollix what the actual word is. And the term Abba-tar is too much like PR speak and doesn't work unless ABBA are working the controls from another location.

It's hologram, done.

daf

The thing that fools the senses seems to be that the lights in the venue will sweep across the audience and  also appear to interact with the ABBAtars in real time, casting CGI shadows behind them.

That's something not possible for the Pepper's Ghost type of illusion like the Whitney Houston one  - which is essentially a 2D image with it's own light source.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: SweetPomPom on May 27, 2022, 02:56:23 PMBody doubles were used for the motion capture

Why were they wearing those full body Kraftwerk suits? And why would they need body doubles? They were hardly known for their complicated dance routines. They barely moved two feet for their performances. Their videos had them playing chess.

prelektric

EDIT: Never mind, got the wrong end of the stick. (sigh)

SweetPomPom

Quote from: checkoutgirl on May 27, 2022, 07:17:28 PMWhy were they wearing those full body Kraftwerk suits? And why would they need body doubles? They were hardly known for their complicated dance routines. They barely moved two feet for their performances. Their videos had them playing chess.

They scanned both the band and their doubles, and then combined the two. The doubles did enough of the heavy lifting to be credited though.
Frida walks with a stick now.

prelektric

Quote from: daf on May 27, 2022, 05:55:30 PMGetting into the spirit with the Live at Wembley Arena 2xCD from 1979.

Amazingly dynamic sound - You could knock nails in with the drum beats!

See, daf's got the right idea here. Spend all that money if you want on what is a rather interesting experiment, but the reality is all in these recordings, when they were actually there.

The Late Satoru Iwata

Wrap your laughing gear around the riff on this


daf

Feature from 'The One Show' with the musicians that will be playing live in the concerts -


Head Gardener

Quote from: checkoutgirl on May 27, 2022, 01:02:38 PMAs a moneyspinner it's actually genius. All they have to do is a couple of months light work (motion capture, a few interviews, go on stage waving once or twice), then sit back and watch the money roll in. Plus it gets people off their back about making a comeback. Punters visiting London will make the Abbatoir show part of their itinerary like a Broadway musical or West End show.

It could be making their children and grandchildren money long after they're dead.

so true, it'll be The Beatles, Bowie etc next this is the next generation cash cow

DrGreggles

The Beatles have been a cash cow for 50+ years already.

dontpaintyourteeth

Not remotely arsed about ever seeing that show myself but it's a genius money spinner, good for them honestly. I saw a nice new boxset of all the albums just came out. Might get that. Seems like more of a long term thing, you know.

Head Gardener

Quote from: DrGreggles on May 28, 2022, 07:50:42 PMThe Beatles have been a cash cow for 50+ years already.

yeah but wait til they step back on the virtual stage, I can see Sgt Pepper at the O2 in 2027 (60th Anniversary Spectacular)