Rotoscope Technology: Could Hollywood's Silver Screen Idols of Yesteryear Act on the Screen Again?

Will Saturday afternoon matinee favorites once again return to the silver screen? It seems that it might be possible, at some point in the future, to bring back silver screen idols like Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart or buxom vixens like Marilyn Monroe and Carol Lombard. How? By the magic of technology, of course.

Those of you who watched "American Idol" recently during their Idol Gives Back program, saw the queen of music - - Celine Dion - - perform with the king of rock and roll - - Elvis Presley. Those of you, who didn't see this television event, missed something quite unique.

As it turns out the technique used to make this unusual on-screen pairing happen, is very close to being perfected. Once it is, it could open the door to all kinds of possibilities for future on-screen pairings. I personally would love to see Jim Carey together with Bob Hope or Nicole Kidman acting opposite James Stewart. The possibilities are endless.

The Celine/Elvis escapade was accomplished with technology called Rotoscope. It is similar in nature to that used in some Photoshop programs in the photographic world. However, the process is somewhat more complicated and takes some time to merge into a completed product.

In the case of Celine, she originally recorded her part of the song "If I Can Dream" alone, minus any audience or other participant. She then had to perform the same routine a second time - - in the same way - - with a body double of Elvis. He, of course, lip-synched the same song while also matching the movements used by Presley during his original 1968 presentation.

To complete the process, the three pieces, which included Dion alone, Dion with the Elvis double, and the original performance by the King, were merged. Through the rotoscoping technique and editing, the process actually traced and cut Elvis out of his original footage to reassemble him with the other pieces. Once completed, the finalized videotape gave the appearance - - from literally just about any angle - - that Celine and Elvis were singing on stage together.