Hey Siri, send a message to Cheryl.
Front reception.
What do you want to say?
Amos is already heading there to pick him up, period.
Please forward any calls I get to Brady, period.
Your message to Cheryl front reception
says Amos is already heading there to pick him up.
Please forward any calls I get to Brady.
Ready to send it?
Yes.
Okay, it's sent.
Hey, Siri,
how do you know if you're doing the right thing?
I'm not sure I understand.
But what do you believe
is the difference between right and wrong?
Hmm.
I don't have an answer for that.
Would you like me to search the web?
No.
Okay, is there something else I can help with?
Set a reminder to pick up Kyle
from therapy tomorrow at 4:45.
Okay, I'll remind you.
Hi, special agent Deena Helms.
You've already met Agent McCullough.
You can call me Amos.
-Uh, agents? -Have a seat for us, Gareth.
Do you mind answering a couple questions?
Great, this shouldn't take long.
You're from Tampa, right?
Don't overthink it. It's a yes or no.
Yeah.
How old are you, Gareth?
29.
29.
What do you do for work?
I'm sorry, am I being detained?
No, not at all.
We're just asking questions, background stuff.
You work on movies, right?
Special effects.
Someone told me you worked
on that new "Star Wars" movie, is that right?
Who told you that?
Why don't you tell us more about it?
Tell us about your work.
I used to do VFX for an animation company.
I've worked on at least 20 different films.
Used to?
I've been focusing more
on software engineering recently for years-
Sounds boring compared to light sabers.
Why quit?
I wasn't getting paid well.
But money's not an issue for you.
Excuse me?
What kind of effects did you do?
Money's not an issue for me?
-Let's talk about- -If money wasn't an issue for me
I wouldn't have applied for your grant.
I didn't mean to suggest anything.
Tell us what kind of effects you did.
My main focus was on 3D renderings.
Of what?
-Actors. -What for?
Well, for "Star Wars,"
it was because the actor I was tasked to digitize
was unavailable to be filmed in person.
Why?
Because they were dead.
What'd they have you do?
I reconstructed Alec Guinness' face as a 3D model.
I analyzed reference footage,
then used a process called D-Term to procedurally generate
his bone and muscle structures,
which one rigged helped the animation feel
more natural and human-like.
D-Term, I've never heard of that process before.
Because I invented it.
So you're basically bringing
dead actors back to life?
I just tried to make the CG characters look as
photorealistic as the technology at the time would allow.
You didn't find it creepy?
I'm sorry, what?
I said you don't find that creepy?
Well, we did our best to cross the uncanny valley.
But when the human brain perceives
that something is just slightly off and it doesn't matter-
No, I mean, digitizing dead people.
Christ, I mean, it's,
it's almost like turning someone's corpse
into a marionette, you know?
Making them do whatever you want.
What if the poor dead guy
didn't want to be in another fucking movie?
It's so macabre.
Am I crazy? Is it not macabre?
I don't think the studio cares
whether it's macabre or not.
Look, I can never tell the difference.
I always can. The faces look like Play-Doh.
Well, we did our best.
Soon we won't even need actors,right?
Everyone will just be digital.
No, you still need them for motion tracking.
Human performances can't be completely computer generated.
How long will that be true?
Some might say we've already crossed that threshold.
I wouldn't know.
Where'd you go to school?
-Brooks-DeBartolo High. -And after?
Nothing?
What about Columbia?
Didn't you go to Columbia?
Wait, no. You dropped out of Columbia
after how many semesters?
Three?
Bjarne Stroustrup said
you were the smartest kid he ever met.
I don't know who he is, but Amos says it's a big deal.
Then you moved to the Netherlands,
spent some time as an intern,
applied and got into Cambridge.
Very nice.
Except that you dropped out after two years.
Flew back to the States,
interned in Palo Alto, then Montreal.
Then went all the way back to England,