Avatar (2009)
We know that film magic. It is the overwhelming feeling when we are immersed in the world on the silver screen, absolutely lost in another place. It’s that jarring moment when the credits roll, the lights come on, and we are jolted abruptly back to reality. The bubble has popped. The clock has struck midnight. It’s time for us to return to our lives, the very ones we left behind two short hours ago.
Avatar was a film that was hyped up immensely. Headlines revealed its smashing financial success. Friends faces lit up raving excitedly. Some found this film to be far over-hyped. Some absolutely adored this story revealing the majestic land of Pandora.
What makes this film so spectacular is its filmmaking technology and sheer dedication to the craft. Its technical feat is far more impressive than its storytelling and character development — and I am so okay with that. Ask me about most other films, and I will vehemently argue otherwise. But all is forgiven in Avatar. Its craft shines so brightly. I could ooh and ahh at the exquisitely stunning visual grandeur of Pandora, but you can read the thousands of other reviews on this film for that. What absolutely captivated me was the performance capture stage this entire film was created on, and the innovative technology we have achieved to make this possible. Wildly fascinating! My 2 a.m. self seemed to think so when I nose-dived into the bottomless world of Google after watching this film.
It’s no wonder James Cameron held onto this idea for Avatar from 1994 to 2009. What happened in those 10+ years goes even beyond the creation of the technology itself.
Cameron worked with Paul Frommer, a linguist from the University of Southern California, to create the Na’vi language made up of 1000+ words.
2-D images of the Na’vi created by the concept artists and designers wouldn’t do. No, no — Cameron needed physical sculptures of the Na’vi form to visualize their look and movements. His vision for this film was so exact that he was unwilling to settle for anything less. Even after preparing to begin production in 1994 for a 1999 release, he halted the project believing that technology was not ready yet for his vision.
The man dove headfirst into creating the technology he believed was needed to do this justice. He created his own Reality Camera System to film in three dimensions to create unparalleled depth perception, and made use of his virtual camera system to facilitate the motion-capture filming. This made true performance capture possible. 100% of what we see in the film is 100% of the physical performances the actors have done on a motion-capture set. This method allowed a fuller range of facial expression and authentic feeling in the way they moved and spoke. We get to see and feel these characters in a distant world with so much humanity and emotion that hits so close to home. This has never been done this way before. And in an era of heavy CGI films that feel almost cartoonish, Avatar feels raw and alive, in ways that a purely computer-generated scene can never attain.
We live in an era where there is great concern over the rising power of technology. Worry is growing over the rewiring of our psyches by the prevalence of technology. The debate around the power and ethics of artificial intelligence is only increasing. And anxiety is soaring about the excessive use of technology. And yet, what I found so captivating about this film is precisely its ability to take this wild force of technology, tame it, harness it, and channel into creating a world that has captivated millions of people. Cameron’s dedication to his craft was the engine on which this whole vision came to life. And without these two things — ground-breaking imaginative technology and one man’s vision — we would have missed out on these glorious two hours of film magic coming to life.
What did you think of Avatar?
What made this film magical, to you?
Listen to our review of Avatar on The Strategic Whimsy Experiment here: https://apple.co/2DH63Vv.
