James Cameron's "Avatar" (grading and discussion)

[Flavius]

Apropos digital screenings: while I watched it for the second time the screening equipment, apparently powered by MS Windows, crashed because it got too hot (as we later learned). And when a roaring windows startup chime finally broke the uneasy silence there were a lot of cheers..

 

[Hyperspace05]

Apropos digital screenings: while I watched it for the second time the screening equipment, apparently powered by MS Windows, crashed because it got too hot (as we later learned). And when a roaring windows startup chime finally broke the uneasy silence there were a lot of cheers..

Wow, really? I would have thought the projectors ran on something more... robust.

 

[MarianLH]

I'm curious: is there anyone who had heard the term unobtanium back when it was an obscure engineering in-joke, before it became a genre savvy term for "macguffin", who still thinks it's "lazy writing"?


Marian

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Apropos digital screenings: while I watched it for the second time the screening equipment, apparently powered by MS Windows, crashed because it got too hot (as we later learned). And when a roaring windows startup chime finally broke the uneasy silence there were a lot of cheers..

Wow, really? I would have thought the projectors ran on something more... robust.

It's a wonder that bloody paper-clip didn't turn up in the movie after that. "It looks like you're attempting to protect an indigenous culture from a marauding alien corporation. Would you like help?"

 

[Deckerd]

I'm curious: is there anyone who had heard the term unobtanium back when it was an obscure engineering in-joke, before it became a genre savvy term for "macguffin", who still thinks it's "lazy writing"?


Marian

It's been a cycling in-joke for years, in the never-ending struggle to make racing bikes as lightweight as possible.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

It's a wonder that bloody paper-clip didn't turn up in the movie after that. "It looks like you're attempting to protect an indigenous culture from a marauding alien corporation. Would you like help?"

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Various versions of Windows run an amazing percentage of the applications and interfaces you encounter on a daily basis - supermarket self-checkout stations, ATMs, etc. I'm not at all surprised that it's used to run digital projectors - in fact, I'd be a little surprised if they were using any other commercial off-the-shelf operating system instead.

As to Alice In Wonderland - the first time I took any interest in the movie at all was when they ran the 3D trailer just before Avatar. Now I'll probably see it.

I'm curious: is there anyone who had heard the term unobtanium back when it was an obscure engineering in-joke, before it became a genre savvy term for "macguffin", who still thinks it's "lazy writing"?


Marian

Not I. Of course, I read just about all complaints regarding "lazy writing" in skiffy movies as "I'm frustrated/offended that they didn't do it the way I would find reassuring." There's an obsessive streak a parsec wide in fandom where trivia is concerned.

 

[Ryan]

But many things have been accused of being gimmicks, and are now being taken for granted

And you have things like viewer interactive movies and smell-o-vision which were accused of being gimmicks and were.

This isn't the first or even second attempt at 3D films. It's been done before with the same result every time.

As long as it requires glasses I don't see 3D having any real staying power. I imagine what we're going to see is an explosion of films using the technique that tapers down to niche releases within the next five years.

Thing is, plenty of tv and movies had been doing frozen time stuff BEFORE it showed in MATRIX as bullettime. In fact, Berman shot down a frozen time look for INSURRECTION on the basis that it was already played out by 1998 ... MATRIX came out, what, 4 months later?

I don't know about plenty. There were a couple ad campaigns using stills. I don't remember it being used in films and certainly not for live shots like The Matrix did.

The point though is that Hollywood always tries to cash in on the flavor of the moment and at this moment it's 3D. I mean, is anyone really going to argue Avatar wouldn't have been successful if it wasn't in 3D?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Apropos digital screenings: while I watched it for the second time the screening equipment, apparently powered by MS Windows, crashed because it got too hot (as we later learned). And when a roaring windows startup chime finally broke the uneasy silence there were a lot of cheers..

In this case it would be called the Na'vi Blue Skin Of Death.

It's a wonder that bloody paper-clip didn't turn up in the movie after that. "It looks like you're attempting to protect an indigenous culture from a marauding alien corporation. Would you like help?"

 

[trevanian]

Thing is, plenty of tv and movies had been doing frozen time stuff BEFORE it showed in MATRIX as bullettime. In fact, Berman shot down a frozen time look for INSURRECTION on the basis that it was already played out by 1998 ... MATRIX came out, what, 4 months later?

I don't know about plenty. There were a couple ad campaigns using stills. I don't remember it being used in films and certainly not for live shots like The Matrix did.

WING COMMANDER rented a really nice time-slice rig for its frozentime live-action work (I think three shots), which came out a couple months before MATRIX.

LOST IN SPACE did their live-action frozen-time using a seriously inferior, mostly CG version of the process (just a couple of photographs and a lot of low-rez extrapolation for the in-betweens), over a year before MATRIX.

There was a tennis commercial in the mid 90s that kicked it off anew, and the Gap ads were what really knocked it through the roof.

 

[Hyperspace05]

For those of you interested in the art and production design of Avatar (and the thoughts behind them), a site just put up some very cool pages:
The Complete History of Pandora, According to Avatar's Designers

The four sub-articles have lots of cool information (in particular this one)... They also have some very cool (& large) pre-production artwork, here is a small sample:
1. The mile-long starship (ISV Venture Star) -
Note that this is actually a 'pull' design, the two engines are up front, so this view is from the back looking forward
2. Jake & Neytiri viewing the Pandora landscape
3. Quaritch escapes from the crashed Dragon - Note that this scene is different from what ended up in the film, here the Dragon crashed in a lake

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Great! Thanks.

 

[777]

Some more news on Avatar sequel:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/3292672/Cameron-reveals-Avatar-2-plans

James Cameron has a "road map" for an Avatar sequel.

The legendary director is thrilled audiences have responded so well to his sci-fi epic, which recently became the highest-grossing film of all time and has received nine nominations at this year's Academy Awards.

He is already feverishly planning a second, third and even fourth film, and plans to start working on the next one immediately.

Cameron insisted he always wanted to make more than one Avatar movie because he had invested so much money into props and technology. He claimed it wouldn't make good business sense to quit after one when you could make more for much less money.

 

[Kegg]

Fourth?

Fourth?

This may well be the decade of the Na'vi. Looking forward to all of this, anyway, if guardedly - I can't imagine how Avatar has material for four films, though evidently Cameron does, even if he concedes that the further one goes along with the sequels the vaguer his ideas become (so I suspect it might be a little ad-hoc like Star Wars or the Matrix, let's hope mostly the former). I had heard hints it has something to do with other moons of Polyphemus or something, so that makes sense.

He's right though, a sequel was financially sound even pre-release, what with the props, technology and all. Post-release, it's virtually inevitable. I just wonder what the heck even number two is about.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Avatar 2: The Search For More Money?

 

[RoJoHen]

So, will humans return in these sequels, or will they take place entirely on Pandora with no humans at all?

Also, a sequel means no Sigourney Weaver, which makes me sad.

 

[Kegg]

Just like a sequel to Star Wars means no Alec Guinness. It's not like either actor's character died in a way that left the door wide open to reappearing as some sort of ghost.

 

[Hyperspace05]

So, will humans return in these sequels, or will they take place entirely on Pandora with no humans at all?

Also, a sequel means no Sigourney Weaver, which makes me sad.

It is unclear... Cameron has stated two things about the next script/film:
1. It will center on Jake/Neytiri
2. It will take place (partly) on other moons of Polyphemus

Since the script is not yet written, who knows - I guess it will be a combination of the above two points, and it is probably a given that RDA or some other human organization will return.

And as Kegg mentioned, Weaver might still have a small part.

 

[Trek4Ever]

Also, a sequel means no Sigourney Weaver, which makes me sad.

I agree. She was one of the best things about the film and it's a shame she didn't pick up a best supporting actress nomination for her work.

 

[Neroon]

For those of you interested in the art and production design of Avatar (and the thoughts behind them), a site just put up some very cool pages:
The Complete History of Pandora, According to Avatar's Designers

The four sub-articles have lots of cool information (in particular this one)... They also have some very cool (& large) pre-production artwork, here is a small sample:
1. The mile-long starship (ISV Venture Star) -
Note that this is actually a 'pull' design, the two engines are up front, so this view is from the back looking forward
2. Jake & Neytiri viewing the Pandora landscape
3. Quaritch escapes from the crashed Dragon - Note that this scene is different from what ended up in the film, here the Dragon crashed in a lake

Holy smokes.... that is some seriously nice material there! Thanks especially for capturing the images that you did. The one of Jake and Neytiri is now my wallpaper