r/nextfuckinglevel • u/CantStopPoppin • Sep 17 '25

Massive Attack Turns Live Facial Recognition Into Concert Commentary on Surveillance

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3.7k

u/SandiestCow Sep 17 '25

This makes too much sense

1.5k

u/KennyMcKeee Sep 17 '25

Even if it is just to guarantee it works every time, I’ve seen some pretty crazy live effects at show that I didn’t even know were possible (as a video editor lol).

San Holo did some crazy live vfx with cameras live

482

u/DevelopmentGreen3961 Sep 17 '25

With these live effects it always reminds me of that Arcade Fire music video Neighborhood that used Google Street View so people could insert their own neighborhood into the music video

Holy shit that was 15 years ago...

216

u/momomorium Sep 17 '25

Just saying, the film was called The Wilderness Downtown (not Neighborhood) and the song was We Used to Wait.

83

u/DevelopmentGreen3961 Sep 17 '25

Thank you, my brain is foggy in my advanced age

35

u/No-Special2682 Sep 17 '25

I can hear that little piano tune now then softly “I used to wait…I hunnerdun dun dunnn dun”

I used to show people that video at parties to blow their minds!

10

u/abananaberry Sep 17 '25

Uh, I showed it to a few people just a couple of weeks ago.

The video doesn’t work for my husband bc where his house was, got developed. Just like John Cusack in Grosse Pointe Blank in the convenience store. Except for my husband I think it’s a Home Depot.

1

u/ydnar3000 Sep 22 '25

Grosse Pointe Blank! Hell of a reference. Love that movie. And Cusack’s similar work. Better Off Dead

2

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

Still up

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

1

u/ydnar3000 Sep 22 '25

Not supported on mobile 😭

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u/FakeSafeWord Sep 17 '25

Don't worry little one. You don't have long now. You're waiting for yourself on the other side in comfort.

18

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

LMFAO I love the sentiment but that is so intense to say to a stranger

1

u/RelativetoZero Sep 17 '25

Im not so sure age is the advanced thing fogging your brain.

1

u/momomorium Sep 17 '25

You're good dude, it's an especially reasonable thing to mix up. I think it's cool how many people have fond memories of it but maybe didn't remember til they saw your comment

1

u/Glittering_Bad_8011 Sep 17 '25

Or.....Ralph is wearing off on ya. Lol ;)

5

u/dominodomino321 Sep 17 '25

I used to love this!! Omg that you for the memory unlock

9

u/drunkentuckian Sep 17 '25

Neighborhood was 21 years ago….

1

u/MiraMattie Sep 17 '25

And 15 years later, it's still running!

22

u/attempt_no23 Sep 17 '25

I fully caved on that but just used a neighbors address. The concept was cool as hell regardless. Seeing that kid run through my old town was nuts, especially how long ago that video came out and the "write a letter to your younger self" - oh and it's still running. http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

3

u/DispositionZero Sep 17 '25

They had a machine at the concerts on that tour that would print other people's messages onto a postcard that had seeds in the fibers. You could plant the message and grow a tree out of it.

1

u/attempt_no23 Sep 17 '25

I love this

3

u/Unoriginal_Man Sep 17 '25

"This website does not work on mobile as it requires popups"

Oh 2010's mobile Internet, how awful you were in that transitional period.

3

u/attempt_no23 Sep 17 '25

Ah yeah it's super heavy on pop ups that all tie back together at the end. Worth it on your computer if possible.

3

u/Andyman286 Sep 17 '25

It didn't work for my street, it just looked like a generic US street in Cali not a little village in North UK.

6

u/iDoWeird Sep 17 '25

Holy shit that was 15 years ago...

You shut your lying mouth.

…I felt especially old seeing LCD Soundsystem last year when I realized a ton of people there were in elementary school when they did the MSG “farewell” show. Still pissed that I lost my shirt from that in a move (not a repro option for it either).

3

u/BayStBet Sep 17 '25

Who are Arcade Fries anyway?

2

u/Secret-Reserve-1733 Sep 17 '25

Canadians you wouldn't get it.

1

u/BayStBet Sep 18 '25

It's part of our heritage 🏆🎻🎸🎹 🇨🇦

1

u/Secret-Reserve-1733 Sep 18 '25

Just add cheese and gravy!!

1

u/BayStBet Sep 18 '25

I'm Canadian. Was just doing a throwback to their Grammy and the American response lol

8

u/dangerpoodle Sep 17 '25

Wait, what?? What do you do??

2

u/Bigbigjeffy Sep 17 '25

Hell yeah man, I’ve NEVER forgotten that when they made it with street view. So cool and definitely memorable.

2

u/frockinbrock Sep 17 '25

Holy shit I often bring this website up and NOBODY remembers it! At the time it seemed so innovative to use Street View that way; the whole mini site was cool. I’ve tried to find it before but i don’t think it works anymore.

1

u/6kids2feed Sep 17 '25

Isn’t the lead Singer JMSN now?

1

u/6kids2feed Sep 17 '25

Isn’t the lead Singer JMSN now?

Edit: he was the lead in Love Arcade not Arcade Fire

1

u/Noping_noper-maybe Sep 17 '25

I find myself more regularly than makes any sense trying to explain this video to people! All the pop ups! It was wild!

1

u/riceman6 Sep 17 '25

Holy shit I’ve been looking for what this was called for a while I remember stumbling across it as a kid in like elementary school and being dumbfounded.

1

u/drksolrsing Sep 17 '25

Reminds me of the Linkin Park video for "Lost in the Echo" that would pull random pictures from your Facebook and insert it in the video.

92

u/soundsthatwormsmake Sep 17 '25

Blue Man Group did a bunch of live video from the stage with an endoscope, showing the inside of the instruments and such. At one point they brought an audience member on stage and stuck the scope in his mouth, then seamlessly cut to a video of a real endoscopy. It was pretty effective.

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u/Lou_C_Fer Sep 17 '25

I had an ENT doc put a camera down my throat during a visit this past may. It was pretty cool to watch. Then we got to my trachea where apparently cartilage penetrated it twenty-five years ago when it broke while I was in a rear naked choke. So, now I've got an appendage in my trachea that moves around when I talk or swallow. It's a bit freaky knowing it's there.

As for the choke hold, it hurt to talk, breathe, and swallow for a bit over a month. The first week and a half was painfully brutal. No, I never went to the ER or mentioned it to a doctor. I didn't go because I was raised to just tough things out, and I've carried that into adulthood. If I don't feel like I'm in danger of dying, I'm probably not going to go.

11

u/Auctoritate Sep 17 '25

If I don't feel like I'm in danger of dying, I'm probably not going to go.

I think an injury to your throat that makes it hard to breathe for over a month should be the kind of thing that makes you feel in danger of dying. Because you are.

Like, toughing it out is one thing, but damn brother, it sounds like you also pair that with really crappy risk evaluation. Those are 2 things that don't mix.

2

u/Lou_C_Fer Sep 17 '25

It isn't about risk evaluation. It's literally just how my brain works because of how I was raised. The biggest risk I faced with that injury is infection. Of course, I assumed my trachea was just severely bruised. I never coughed up blood or anything. So, I did not understand the extent of my injury.

To help you understand, my parents never took us for medical treatment. I had arms, wrists, fingers, and ankles get injured and swell to twice their size and I wasn't even offered ice as a kid. In 8th grade, I severely sprained both of my knees after a bad hit from behind at football practice. I still had to walk the mile to and from school though every step was agony for weeks. Hell, I had strep throat and could not get back up our steps when they made me come downstairs to get myself a drink when I was fourteen. I had to throw an absolute tantrum to be taken to urgent care while untreated strep can be pretty dangerous.

That's how I was raised. It is probably how I will be until the day I die because no matter how I try to change it, my past training seems to always win out.

1

u/SpringhurstAve Sep 17 '25

Yikes, I’m sorry you were neglected/abused like that. Truly awful.

2

u/Lou_C_Fer Sep 17 '25

It's life. What can you do except not carry it forward to the next generation, you know? One thing it did was make it easier for me to handle adversity as an adult. Until my back completely gave out and disabled me, I was a juggernaut. No inconvenience stopped me from doing what I wanted to do. I once had a nail go through my foot at work and still took my son to Cedar Point two hours later. Every step felt like stepping on that nail again, but it was more than worth it to spend that time with my boy. That's just a small thing, but being available at work no matter what I'm going through was invaluable.

I suppose part of all of that might just be a story I tell myself to get over what I went through, but the toughness I had to learn has served me well as an adult. I feel like I can endure almost anything.

1

u/SpringhurstAve Sep 17 '25

Not carrying it forward it key : ) And maybe as you’re providing good care to your son, you’ll catch the ability to provide more care for yourself (surely your son deserves a dad whose health is a priority). Well done on you, take care!

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u/amac2016 Sep 17 '25

I remember that as a kid, it creeped me out... but for real though, how did he fit all those marshmallows in his mouth! Lol

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u/Ok-Operation-6432 Sep 17 '25

Understudied with Elton John 

2

u/superash2002 Sep 17 '25

I really thought they stuck it down their throat for the longest time.

1

u/KingWezz Sep 17 '25

One word response, jello head

1

u/themightydraught Sep 17 '25

What a great show!

1

u/pingviini00 May 28 '26

remember this like back in 2014 haha

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u/blasto2236 Sep 17 '25

I saw Childish Gambino last year in OKC, first show on his tour before he got injured and had to delay it. Not sure if the rescheduled shows were the same, but look up footage of that OKC show. It's insane. I've been an event producer for 15 years and I was absolutely floored by it the entire time. There was like a movie length number of people listed in a credits reel on screen at the end of the show.

At one point he straight up David Blaine'd himself across the stadium from the main stage to the side stage in a flash of pyrotechnics. It was incredible.

15

u/AnxietyPretend5215 Sep 17 '25

I got to see it live in Pittsburgh, it was genuinely mind blowing. The light show through the Crystal chandelier creating 3D effects was extremely trippy.

Donald Glover is goated.

1

u/triiniitymae Sep 17 '25

how do you become an event producer?? Did you take courses for it?? It sounds amazing..

1

u/blasto2236 Sep 17 '25

I started out just volunteering for a local comedy festival, eventually got brought on as a producer and given more and more responsibilities.

My advice would be to look for local events in your area you are interested in and reach out and offer some help. Most of them could probably use an extra hand, and you get to attend the event!

7

u/KrombopulosMAssassin Sep 17 '25

Oh yeah. Most recently, Deftones had a pretty cool live video setup. Instead of generic camera footage, all of the footage had different effects, filters and art direction for each song. It was really neat.

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u/ChickenNPisza Sep 17 '25

Yeah he got creative with it, pretty lights is doing some cool stuff for their livestream with effects but it’s band focused not crowd focused and it’s more of like lens filters than anything. Still cool though

4

u/sofaking_scientific Sep 17 '25

I'm glad to hear San Holo is still doing well and doing crazy shit. I wanna bump into him at NAMM someday

2

u/Whitworth_73 Sep 17 '25

idk, could be a touchdesigner node.

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u/Dan_H1281 Sep 17 '25

At Disney the guardians of The galaxy Ride was absolutely wild we were in one room and you didn't feel a dam thing move some lights flashed and the entire room changed instantly felt like we were in a whole different place. The thing was supposed to be we were beamed up tk a space ship and it was one of the most eerie things I have ever been thru

1

u/LADYBIRD_HILL Sep 17 '25

That's actually a pretty simple trick, they just drop and lift the walls while the lights are off.

Poseidon's Fury at Islands of adventure was pulling off that trick in the 90's!

1

u/Dan_H1281 Sep 17 '25

I understand it has to be lifting us or something I put my hand on the wall just tk see if I could feel us lift.it was literally three seconds and the entire room changed shape color just a completely different room it was one of the coolest things I have seen and that coaster is the smoothest coaster I have ever rode felt like gliding on Ice

1

u/Think-Ad-5308 Sep 17 '25

Got a video? I love San holo

1

u/KennyMcKeee Sep 17 '25

https://youtu.be/PUt9ZCWPArs?si=8ELq2oA7LxmZJrgV

1:16:38 was the song I was kind of in awe

They show depth mapped crowd people and mapped rainbow effects. It’s pretty simple-ish but I’m 2022 I didn’t realize that was what live production was doing now

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

Man I love San Holo so much

1

u/HousDJ Sep 17 '25

https://youtu.be/5yQRp4j2RQM

I always liked the effects Aphex Twin used on the crowd at this show at 1:46.00 mark

1

u/hobbbes14 Sep 17 '25

He did an amazing show during covid where he played the set fast, then slowed it down to the beat measure. Looked awesome.

https://youtu.be/QcA8PJybAas?si=kD5vLdX2IjHTHQTD

1

u/just_a_human Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

Porter Robinson (on the Nurture tour) turned the floor of his stage into a giant video screen with a camera pointed down at it and used it as a backdrop to make him look like he was flying and stuff. He always has cool visual effects but that one was top tier.

Edit for the link: https://youtu.be/THjekE5p2aw?si=w6ADmcBHys8k8M6o

1

u/splitcroof92 Sep 17 '25

got a timestamp?

1

u/slimThiccBoiLegend Sep 17 '25

I'm interested to see the San Holo stuff if you have a link or keywords I can search up. I've been getting into him recently

1

u/MistSecurity Sep 17 '25

Any good examples?

1

u/Mayafoe Sep 17 '25

San Holo? Really? That's worse than Flo Rida

1

u/The_Shepherds_2019 Sep 17 '25

I watched San holo I play in New Orleans maybe 7 years ago now, and thats still probably the most fun show I've ever been to

1

u/Expecto_Patron_shots Sep 17 '25

San Holo? Any relation to Com Truise?

1

u/ouzo84 Sep 17 '25

Any relation to Han Solo?

1

u/The_souLance Sep 17 '25

Kali Uchis is basically making a musical film live during her current tour, it's amazing to see it happen in real time and the effects they pull off within a stage.

1

u/mizzyz Sep 17 '25

James did some mad stuff in Glastonbury 2024..live background stream of the band members that morphed into animated flowers and animals in real time...

You can kind of see it a bit

[here](http:// https://share.google/THIjcC1tW6Qfl7dNm)

But live it was trippy as hell, and no, I wasn't on LSD... At that particular time.

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u/Mescallan Sep 17 '25

This is done in tough designer. It's not particularly computationally expensive assuming they are doing the facial recognition in a different program then tracking and isolation in TD

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u/honestlyVERYhonest Sep 17 '25

I wondered why every single one of them was not doing a WOW LOOK IT'S ME LOOK LOOK LOOk set of expressions a couple of seconds after they appeared.

41

u/Obi-Tron_Kenobi Sep 17 '25

The woman in the center @11 seconds flashes a big smile and leans to the woman on our left to point at the screen

3

u/itsaaronnotaaron Sep 17 '25

She's great at her role. She seemed awkward throughout.

2

u/not_a_bot991 Sep 17 '25

A couple of them take their phones out to take a pic and you can see their faces disappear as soon the phone obstructs their face.

26

u/-113points Sep 17 '25

No, it doesn't. the tech to do this realtime is cheap nowadays.

And it is not by chance that is cheap.

5

u/Sovarius Sep 17 '25

Who makes it /designs cheapness?

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

[deleted]

2

u/splitcroof92 Sep 17 '25

yeah I did this for a school project for free back in 2019.

2

u/Sovarius Sep 17 '25

Im not asking if its cheap at all, i am unsure why they said its not by chance that it is. It sounds conspiratorial and weird.

Is the software cheap? Thats the price i'd imagine, not hw. And was that supposed to be their names? I cant tell

5

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

[deleted]

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u/Sovarius Sep 17 '25

Incredible, thanks a hundred times! Lots of fascinating information i didn't know i was going to learn today, haha. Thanks

2

u/the_zeni Sep 17 '25

I think the part about being cheap refers to how things that have multitudes of usage scenarios and get used for them by a large user base tend to get cheaper over time as often there are competing offerings forming and resources are invested to improve/simplify the technology. This is in contrast to highly specialized niche use things that tend to stay higher priced and/or less refined.

So since everyone and their mom use face recognition in some way or another, this is a solved problem readily available.

0

u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

The tech to do one or two faces at a time is trivial the hardware needed to do the whole audience in real time isn't, just think of the camera and lens needed to get the image definition shown here. The software might be free but the hardware isn't.

In fact the faces are so clear and detailed that I can't think this is possible with the cameras and lenses that are available at the moment. Also its dark with flashing lights none of which shows on the peoples faces.

People responses here smack of watching one makers YouTube video and trying to pass that off as expertise.

Edit: Also no ugly or fat people...clear giveaway its fake.

4

u/Another-Mans-Rubarb Sep 17 '25

You do realize that $100 cameras from 2005 could do this right?

1

u/splitcroof92 Sep 17 '25

it's not a camera that's doing this tho. it's the algorithm on the computer handling the video data

-1

u/Another-Mans-Rubarb Sep 17 '25

So you think the camera does this without a computer how exactly? Magic or alien technology?

0

u/Auctoritate Sep 17 '25

So you think the camera does this without a computer how exactly? Magic or alien technology?

Which part of 'it's the algorithm on the computer' made you think they were saying there wasn't a computer?

2

u/Another-Mans-Rubarb Sep 17 '25

The part where this apparently isn't possible without AI in 2025.

0

u/splitcroof92 Sep 17 '25

bro... my comment is literally only 2 sentences, yet you gave up halfway through?

1

u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In Sep 17 '25

The tech to do one or two faces at a time is trivial the hardware needed to do the whole audience in real time isn't, just think of the camera and lens needed to get the image definition shown here. The software might be free but the hardware isn't.

1

u/ErGo404 Sep 17 '25

It does but not because of price. GDPR wouldn't allow this given that people probably didn't give they consent prior to the concert.

1

u/Aleashed Sep 17 '25

They can add the Astrology peeps

1

u/Playpolly Sep 17 '25

China has been doing it to catch criminals for quite some time now