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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

For those interested in Avatar

Tom L said:
Very awesome and very nerdy interview with Cameron where he explains his camera and motion-capture systems. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aao0YSITuxc
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I really enjoyed this interview. He is really excited about what he and his team have accomplished.

Love his comment about lighting
"It's not photo reality, it's a CG simulation of the false reality of hollywood movie making"

I had to think about that one for few seconds:)
 
Shawn Nelson said:
So I read on another forum someone pointing out the tremendous similarities between Avatar and Ferngully... bummer, because I hate Ferngully and I wanted to like Avatar "Ferngully with Machine Guns"
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Haha I remembered loving Fern Gully as a kid and watched it a month or two ago. It's terrible. I was so excited to watch it again-- such a disappointment. I'm afraid to watch Land Before Time now.
 
Tom L said:
Very awesome and very nerdy interview with Cameron where he explains his camera and motion-capture systems. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aao0YSITuxc
Click to expand...

Great interview. And he's not BSing it either--he actually understands the systems he's talking about which is refreshing and I'm sure key to him being able to get the results he wanted.
 
M Most said:
I'm not worried. I have no stake whatsoever in its success or failure.

Personally, I still think it looks like a very elaborate video game. That will appeal to many, and will most definitely not appeal to many others. I've never been a particular fan of the whole performance capture thing, as I'm one of those who looks at it and basically comes away thinking "what's the point?" I felt that way about Polar Express, Beowulf, and would probably feel that way about Christmas Carol if I had any real interest in seeing it. Simulating human actors has its place, but I just find seeing the actual actors on screen a lot more satisfying, both visually and emotionally. There is something to be said for spectacle, but ultimately it's all CGI and every viewer knows it. That, to me, was why I didn't care about the big climactic "battles" in the last 3 Star Wars pictures, why I didn't care about any of the characters in the 2 pictures I just mentioned, why I didn't care about just about anything in the last Transformers picture, and why I likely won't care about anything in Avatar. If one is going to make a cartoon, one should make a cartoon - which is why I actually DID care about almost all the characters in, say, Shrek. Or Wall-E. Or Finding Nemo. Or any of the other projects that didn't try to be something they're not.

But I'm willing to be proven wrong.
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Well what do you think now, Mr Most?

Avatar has been a "HUGE" success by any stretch of the imagination.

http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/

And we haven't even gotten to the Oscars yet. :thumbsup:
 
Tom Lowe said:
Well what do you think now, Mr Most?

Avatar has been a "HUGE" success by any stretch of the imagination.
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I said I was willing to be proven wrong. I saw the picture and liked it. So I was proven wrong.

I would also say that the early trailers were misleading in that they really did not incorporate the look of the final picture, which is why they got the reaction they got, and not just from me. Fortunately, they were only trailers, and the picture was much more realistically integrated. More importantly - much more importantly - it had a good story that was well told.
 
I'm not sure I'd say "good story" as much as "tried & true" story...as posted by many others. The Oscars have given me faith the past couple years that they can get it right and choose some underdogs (Slumdog, Juno, Once). But I seriously hope the Avatar script isn't up for an Oscar. That would be disappointing.
 
In all fairness to Mike, I too went in very skeptical, especially based on the trailers. As I mentioned early on, I thought it looked like a video game when I watched the trailer online. I came out of the movie pleasantly surprised. Here's what won me over.

Na'vi Characters: In 3D, they really came to life for me and it's the thing I liked most about the film. Never before have I invested myself so emotionally in CG characters. The 3D seemed to enhance their believability and proved to me that when 3D is used properly it can enhance a film's storytelling. And for what it's worth, I liked the Na'vi world far more than the "real world", i.e. live action. The video look, the less than stellar acting at times, just didn't do as much for me. But because of the strength of the Na'vi world it offset those flaws.

Story:Yes, the story is simple. Yes, it has been done before. And yes, there are weaknesses. However, if you're like me I tend to let my mind go beyond the confines of the story and fill in my own details, and I think deeply about things addressed in the subtext of the film. This happened to me while watching Avatar.

The movie has made a lot of money. The reason for that probably goes beyond 3D, but I do actually believe that in this case, 3D does enhance the story.
 
Steve, I would actually say that 3D enhanced "the experience," NOT the story. The stories are really unaffected by 99% of what is discussed here on the boards. :-) But I do get what you're saying. The "immersion" INTO the story was helped by 3D and great animation, great textures, etc.
 
Kevin Wild said:
Steve, I would actually say that 3D enhanced "the experience," NOT the story. The stories are really unaffected by 99% of what is discussed here on the boards. :-) But I do get what you're saying. The "immersion" INTO the story was helped by 3D and great animation, great textures, etc.
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I would agree. Although in this case, I would say the 3D also made me enjoy the characters more which in turn made me enjoy the story more. :-)

The thing about story, especially when it comes to these types of movies is that it's easy to point to all kinds of examples throughout history of similar stories. I suppose what people are having trouble with when it comes to Avatar is that it's very easy to point out which stories this resembles. But when you break down most films, they all tend to fall into the same few basic storylines. The one's most often referred to are:

- man vs nature
- man vs man
- man vs. the environment
- man vs. machines/technology
- man vs the supernatural
- man vs. self
- man vs God/religion

It's the details that separate each film, and for me, there were enough unique details in Avatar that kept me engaged. Having said that, there are flaws in Avatar, including ones that involve the story that keep it from going straight to the top of my list of all-time films. So, I do understand the criticism it has received.
 
Avatar is now the highest grossing film of all time outside of the U.S.- surpassing Titanic. And is set to become the highest grossing film of all time worldwide in the next few days. I'd say if your big budget Hollywood movie wasn't already going to be shot in 3D now, there's not a studio in town who won't insist on it from now on... Wow.

Noah
 
Gustavo Penna said:
it is not about 2K, 3 K, 4K or 20 K. 95% of the action shots or with all the real actors was shot with sony's Ex3's.
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I don't know where you got that idea. The cameras on the Pace 3D rigs that were used on "Avatar" are Sony 950 variants (with the imaging section separated from the processing unit), not EX3's. While the 950 is a 3 chip HD camera (i.e., 1920x1080), it is hardly the prosumer level unit that the EX series is.
 
EX3s were not even used, at all, as far as I know.
 
Well IMO the technical aspect of the film, even so not flawless, as I did spot few little Stereography mistakes, was just simply an incredible achievement, as far as the Story, even so at times dialogue and some of the Acting itself, had its moments, was an inspiring one, touching great points in our life, and hope that people see that, unfortunately even if they do, as James intended them, we are a race which thinks mostly of the NOW, and little of the future, we are a race of surviver's, yet we don't take what its upon us too seriously and continue to destroy our ONLY life line, our planet.

Hope we still have time and will make changes fast to suffice.

BUt as far as AVATAR it self as a Movie, I said it form the very beginning, long before the Movie and or Trailer were ever shown, based on my knowledge of what was currently been done by James and his team, Avatar was going to be the biggest movie in cinema history, and now, well is just about is.
 
The x 3's where used on the stereo rigs with motorized variable convergence that flew on the steadicam. and on top of that, they used sony's 950, the HDC 1500 and the F 23 with Digiprimes and canon zooms for most of the tight shots. This Epic movie will just make sony bigger. thats bad for Us Red owners. have you seen how sony campaigns always on box office profits ?

and we have to accept that AVATAR looks way better than the book of Eli. not to mention that more than a movie cameron made a dream come true.
 
Well, color me blind, but I don't think the live action footage in Avatar looks that great. Especially not when juxtaposed with the high resolution CG world they created. I don't think the Sony cameras were the highlight of the film. Maybe it was a combination of the resolution, how it was composited, color graded, etc. I can safely say I have seen better looking RED footage. But nonetheless, it didn't really matter. I liked the movie despite the small issue I had with the live action material. I haven't had the chance to see Book of Eli yet, so I won't compare without seeing. It did seem to me from the trailers there was some rough looking compositing at times, but could have been fixed in the final film. I'll try to see it before it leaves theaters.
 
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