Innovation
10 Fun Facts about The Near Future. A Better Place.
“Innovate with Purpose” – CableLabs President and CEO Phil McKinney
This week at our Summer Conference we released a short a film titled The Near Future. A Better Place. The second in our Near Future series focusing on virtual reality and AI, the film highlights how our broadband networks and increased connectivity in the home play a crucial role in the innovations of the future of healthcare and telemedicine.
Exclusive from the team that created The Near Future. A Better Place, here are 10 fun facts about our film that will both inspire you and blow your mind:
- The star of the film, Rance Howard. He has been acting for over 70 years and has appeared in over 250 films and tv shows.
- Rance had never cast a fishing lure before this film.
- To create Cookie the robot an art director designed and 3D printed the head and body. A robotics expert programmed the wheels and head motors, two operators remote controlled Cookie’s performance on set, two animators designed and created the performance of the eyes, a voice actor read for the voice, and a sound engineer synthesized the voice.
- The Ollie bus is a real autonomous car created by Local Motors and is mostly 3D printed. Multiple Olli’s were not available, so a special effects technique was used to create the shot with three Olli’s.
- All photos with Rance are his personal photos with an actress standing in for his wife, except for one where his real wife appears.
- A medical technologist expert from the Mayo Clinic was consulted to ensure the nanobots technology was realistic and not too sci-fi.
- The hospital was created in the office space of an architecture company in downtown Oakland, CA.
- The producer’s dog was hired to work with Cookie on set and she gave a stellar performance.
- To create the video wall in the living room, a separate wall was built, painted, and designed over an existing wall in the house and removed after shooting.
- The Super8 remembering-wife shot was created by bringing in hundreds of flowers that were placed in the existing foliage and then removed after shooting.
Now, grab a coffee and watch out for these in our video below:
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You can learn more about the integral role the cable industry is playing in the innovations of the future here.