Performance Transfer: Combine The Best Performance and Shot

The actor’s performance in the close-up is incredible. But when you cut back to the wide, it doesn't match. The edit feels jarring, and it’s breaking the scene.

Your options are limited: either use a take you like less, or try to match the two shots as smoothly as possible. Neither is great.

Performance transfer – when you copy an actor’s facial performance from one shot and paste it onto another – is a core use case of visual dubbing. 

When applied correctly – with the actor’s consent – the technique can be an extremely powerful way to solve problems in the edit.

As a result, your edit will have the shots, performances and impact you want.

This blog post explains:

• What performance transfer actually is
• How to use the technique
• The benefits of performance transfer to filmmakers

What Actually Is Performance Transfer?

Performance transfer is a key technique of visual dubbing and AI-assistive editing.

The technique is new, and the concept is simple: you take the performance from one take and map it onto the shot from another take. 

Performance transfer stands apart as a DeepEditor use case because it’s the only one that requires a full audiovisual file as driving data. For other workflows, like visual ADR, audio alone is enough.

The actor's expressions, delivery, timing, and emotional intensity – you can move all of it to the shot you actually want to use.

When You'd Use This

Performance transfer shines in a few specific situations:

• Fix continuity between takes: An actor delivered a line slightly differently in the wide versus the close-up, and it's creating a jarring edit. Transfer the preferred delivery to both shots – problem solved.
• Salvage technically flawed takes: The actor gave their best performance in a take with focus issues, bad lighting, or a compromised frame. Transfer that performance to a cleaner take.
• Reduce coverage requirements: Instead of shooting endless safety takes to capture every possible performance variation, you can work more efficiently on set knowing you'll have flexibility in post.
• Elevate good-enough performances: Sometimes a performance is fine, but you know the actor did it better in a different setup. Now you can use that better version wherever you need it.

How To Do Performance Transfer

1. Upload your media to DeepEditor

Simply upload the angle or setup you want to use as your source media, and then upload the take with the desired performance as your driving data.

2. Create a draft visual dub (vub)

Upload your new audio recording and original shot together in DeepEditor – either in the web app or via the Avid plugin. 

DeepEditor will copy and paste the performance you want onto the shot you want, preserving all the facial movements.

Because DeepEditor is assistive AI, not generative, every output from DeepEditor is fully controllable after creation. If needed, you have the option to use the DeepEditor refinement tool to make tweaks to the vub. 

It’s also critical you get consent from the actor once your vub is created via the Artistic Rights Treasury (A.R.T.) to be compliant with guilds and unions. 

3. Place your vub in your timeline

Insert your DeepEditor vub into your timeline in Avid or other non-linear editor, and continue your edit!

The Benefits of Performance Transfer

Using performance transfer on a recent series, director Rajeev Dassani said, “I knew that in certain cases, if I didn't get the exact performance I needed in a wide shot, I can now move the close up shot to the wide shot."

That means every micro-expression, every subtle moment, every piece of emotional nuance comes from a real human performance, not a reconstruction.

• Your best shots make it into the edit, every time
• Continuity issues become trivial to solve
• Emotional beats stay consistent across takes
• Fewer takes needed on set (less actor fatigue, lower costs)
• Editors gain unprecedented control over performance in post

For the first time in live-action, you can shape performance with the freedom of animation – while DeepEditor ensures the process is secure, transparent, and grounded in full actor consent.

Performance Transfer Is One Technique of Many

DeepEditor offers several powerful use cases for film and TV production, each designed to solve specific post-production challenges:

• Visual ADR: Change or replace dialogue seamlessly
• Censorship editing: Modify content for different markets and ratings
• Performance muting: Reduce or adjust emotional intensity

Performance transfer addresses the age-old problem of choosing between technical quality and acting quality. But the underlying technology – frame-by-frame facial performance control – opens up entirely new ways to work.