Before writing this I will admit to you readers out there that I am not really an avid moviegoer. Don't get me wrong, I do love the big silver screen and the joy that it produces. Consequently it is what I dislike such as the high ticket prices, even higher concessions costs for a bag of candy smaller than a pack of pocket-sized Kleenex tissue, and most of all just the people who go there that keep me from going in the first place.
Oh yes, you know who you are. You let your phones ring or even check them throughout the movie so that the display illuminates everything around you. Then there are those that must shuffle through every plastic bag just to crunch on that one last kernel of popcorn. My digression reserves one final group of people hated by moviegoers above all others: those people who love their babies so much that they bring them along to sit still in a loud environment for hours at a time. You may love that child, mother and father moviegoer, but the rest of us sure don't. Now to get back on track...
Amidst my distaste for the aforementioned experience, a movie will come along once in a while which will make these annoyances pale in comparison to what is being shown on the screen. The movie that brought me back is Avatar.
Avatar was directed by James Cameron. The plot (stolen from IMDB) tells of a paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission [where he] becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home. The movie itself conveys several powerful messages all centered around how much influence perspective can have on a situation and even weaves a beautiful love story into the movie.
How did audiences respond? In just over a mere 21 days, Cameron's movie Avatar becomes the 2nd highest grossing film of all time worldwide at just over $1.1 billion dollars with huge potential to continue. To put that in perspective, only one movie in the history of movies has earned more money. If you don't know / remember, it was another James Cameron film from 1997: Titanic, which had earned $1.84 billion dollars. What sets Avatar apart is that Titanic took several months to reach that volume whereas this movie is well on its way in just under a month.
Cameron had the idea for this movie back in the early 90s but recognized that the technology needed was nowhere near what it would have to be for this film to be made. Just a few short years ago, he realized that while the technology still wasn't ready, it was close enough that the tech he would need could be adapted thus completing the leap from imagination to reality.
Spending almost a half billion dollars of the studios money, he didn't just invent new technology, but reinvented cinematography and the expectations we'll have for future movies. To do this, he created entirely new 3D camera systems which even leveraged motion tracking cameras to capture detail like never before. Every actor not only wore a motion body suit, but also a camera that was mounted directly in front of their face. While they were acting each scene, the computer was able to manifest the entire range of the actor's muscle movements in their faces, and thus the he was able to transfer real human emotion into the characters seen on the screen.
The actor’s faces were portrayed on a species called Navi. They would be the humanoid equivalent of us, standing nine to ten feet tall and capable of living on an otherwise uninhabitable planet. They fly six-winged hexapods known as Banshees for activities like hunting and travel. To capture flight on these creatures of the sky, entire rigs were created that had the freedom to move similar to that of a mechanical bull. The actors on them would be forced to use their center of balance during 'flight' with the motion of the rigs adjusted to mimic what each flight in the scenes would do. This translated to very realistic motion of the Navi throughout the movie.
Ultimately what made this movie such a success with me (and to the box office) was in Cameron's superior level of attention to detail. His focus on really bringing the CGI characters to life in a more human like form ultimately redefined how we think of CGI characters and how far we will be able to use them in the future. His attention to detail also extended to the world itself, being truly immersive much like the world in Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Entire species and ways of life were created. To illustrate this, one trailer created for the movie takes actual scenes from the movie and turns it into a four minute "Discovery Channel"-esque special about the organisms living on Pandora.
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