« BEAVER HUNTING
FIVE TROJANS SCORE IN DOUBLE FIGURES TO LEAD USC PAST OREGON STATE, 73-56	1 *
AILY TRO
AN
Cinema grad students cross digital frontier
School of Cinematic-Arts’ Motion Capture Performance class is the first of its kind.
By ELLY WONG
Daily Trojan
The director of films such as “Forrest Gump” and “Back to the Future” is teaching a new graduate studies course on revolutionary moviemaking technology at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
This spring, Robert Zemeckis has teamed up with digital systems specialist Eric Furie to launch and teach a new class, "Motion Capture Performance ’’
Zemeckis has been driving the widespread use of the motion capture forward in the professional world, utilizing this new medium in his recent feature films, “The Polar Express” and "Monster House.”
“We’re ecstatic to have (Robert Zemeckis) come and do this," Furie said. "He brings sheer experience in directing this new art medium, but he also brings decades’ worth of filmmaking and directing experience, which is extremely valuable.”
The School of Cinematic Arts, which has been consistently ranked the No. 1 film school in the
nation by U.S. News and World Report, is the first film school in the United States to utilize this state-of-the art technology
Motion capture performance, also known as performance capture, has been gaining steady ground in transforming the way animation is made in the movie industry, allowing actors to become the animators.
The idea is to capture the movement of performers and transform it into animation. In the past, animators had to fastidiously draw or program each blink, breath or bend of a character, Furie explained.
Now, filmmakers essentially can direct actors for animation reels just as they would in a live-action movie.
Motion capture also allows for . the subtleties and details of human movement to be rendered.
"It’s a powerful new tool that allows you to capture the nuance of human performance, not just in terms of big body gestures, but of detailed facial expressions," said Richard Weinberg, cinematic-arts research associate professor.
Motion Capture technolog)’ has been used in the past in the fields of medicine and engineering, but using is it for filmmaking is a new avenue that is quickly opening up,
I see MOTION page 3 I
Jeffrey Long I Daily Trojan
Action! | Professor Eric Furie demonstrates how animation can be computer generated in movies. Furie and director Robert Zemeckis are co-teaching "Modern Capture Performance" this semester
STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SINCE 1912 I VOL. 160, NO. 17 I WWW.DAILYTROJAN.COM
WAISTLINE WASTE »
AMERICANS SHOULD RE-THINK THEIR OVERLY MEATY DIETS, JOANNA LIN WRITES	T
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2007
« MOMMIE DEAREST
DIANE KEATON IS AN OVERBEARING MOTHER IN NEW COMEDY
County+USC routes uninsured patients to private clinics
QUICK Administrators say the pilot program will relieve stress on
FACT
Program has seen an average cost savings of $10,000 for each of the 127 patients already enrolled.
county’s overcrowded emergency rooms and save tax dollars.
By DAN LOETERMAN
Daily Troian
Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center may have found its own solution to what is rapidly becoming a healthcare crisis in Los Angeles emergency rooms.
County + USC's answer is to give its emergency room a lift by redirecting “frequent fliers" — patients who visit the ER often because they can't afford health insurance — to private clinics, where they may meet with one doctor over the course of many months.
“Were paying for their health care
anyways, and it's expensive, and it comes out of my paycheck and your paycheck in thc form of taxes,” said Allen Miller, the CEO of COPE Health Solutions, a private nonprofit organization that helped develop and execute the program with County + USC.
“(The new model) is just cheaper. An ER has a huge overhead," Miller said. “In a community clinic, the primary care doctors know more about a patient, where they don't have to do unnecessary tests At the ER, the doctors don't know anything about the patient."
Five to 10 percent of ER patients drive 50 to 60 percent of the County +
USC emergency room costs. Pete Delgado, County + USC’s chief executive, told the Los Angeles Times.
Nine ERs have closed in Los Angeles County in the last five years, and next year County + USC will have less than half the number of ER beds it had 10 years ago, the Times reported last week Each ER visit can cost County + USC tens of thousands of dollars, while a visit to a clinic runs taxpayers about S150. Miller said COPE was given S250.000 for the initial pilot program, enough to enroll between 150 and 175 patients, and most of which is used to pay five “care managers," who can manage up to 30 patients each.
The program has already enrolled 127
patients and has seen an average cost savings of $10,000 per patient enrolled, Miller said.
The program takes an innovative and simple approach to alleviating the high costs uninsured patients plate emergency rooms, said Deborah Villar, development director of external affairs at the clinic.
“They had to do something different," Villar said “What are they going to do if they’re already overflowing now? They need partners like us.”
The private clinics will operate using a sliding pay scale, Miller said. Patients will not be required to pay if they can not afford it, but patients who can afford care will be asked to pay what they can. he said
I see ER page 3 I
Opening series »
The U^C baseball team opens a three-game series against Long Beach State tonight at 7.
SPORTS, PAGE 12
Expanding the web »
Annenberg professor joins statewide Broadband Task Force to bring Internet access to more Californians.
NEWS, PAGE 3
Game winner»
USC senior guard Shay Murphy hit a game-winning 3-pointer to give The Women of Troy a 68-65 win over Oregon State.
SPORTS, PAGE 6