Prior to Microsoft Advance 2008, James Cameron spoke about his new film AVATAR, per SEARCHENGINEWATCH.com.
Jon Landau, Cameron's producing partner at Lightstorm Ent., said the abundance of digital information and the ability to use technologies opened up a new window Cameron didn't know existed. When Cameron started, films were photochemical emulsions. They're all digital now.
"The essence of storytelling stays the same," said Cameron. "Intense CG scenes with multiple shots doesn't change that. My greatest horror was the best thing we created would end up like the Ark of the Covenant and be put in a warehouse somewhere. I will make all my films in 3-D. I've been banging on the door at Microsoft since I introduced Windows Media 9 with LL Cool J and Bill Gates in 2002. Now I tell them, this is what you guys need to be doing. I'm going to continue to surf that wave."
AVATAR, which looks to be the biggest release of 2009, is about a man who tries to become a miner by combining his being with an alien during an interplanetary war in which aliens can manifest themselves through human bodies: avatars.
"AVATAR will make people truly experience something," said Cameron."One more layer of the suspension of disbelief will be removed. All the syn-thespians are photo-realistic. Now that we've achieved it, we discovered CG characters in 3-D look more real than in 2-D. Your brain is cued it's a real thing not a picture and discounting part of image that makes it look fake."
While parts of the movie will be subtitled when they're on an alien planet, Cameron said the film will have real heart, an emotional journey of redemption and revolution.
Cameron's world in AVATAR is a complete ecosystem of phantasmagorical plants and creatures, along with a native people with a rich culture and language. "I don't know whether it will be a great film from a narrative and critical standpoint," said Cameron. "The experience of AVATAR will be an experience unlike any other movie."
Starting with Microsoft Research, Cameron investigated the way people see, moving the project from speculation slowly to reality. "AVATAR is the single most complex piece of filmmaking ever made," said Cameron. "We have 1,600 shots for a 2.5 hour movie. It's not with a single CGI character, like King Kong or Gollum. We have hundreds of photo-realistic CG characters. We were Microsoft's sandbox for filmmaking beyond the cutting edge."
The film's technology is all based on a digital asset management system created by Microsoft, tracking every cloud and blade of CG grass in the film.
TITANIC was about technology failing humanity, " In TITANIC as a filmmaker, I struck the perfect balance of technology and the human heart," said Cameron. "I haven't forgotten that lesson with AVATAR. It's the best lesson for any filmmaker."
Cameron has always tried to be on the cutting edge of technology. THE ABYSS featured the first photo-realistic CG character. THE TERMINATOR combined CG and human actors and TRUE LIES pushed the bar higher with composite technology.
As for the future, Cameron said, "I'm on the fourth screen. The giant screen. Then it scatters down to other screens. It gets more interesting as more means of digital distribution become available to us. The interesting thing is the actual movie business is going strong. If you valued up revenues of what's lost to piracy, movies are doing better now than they ever have. You can have an HD screen in your home."
As for Microsoft, he said, "Windows organized things spatially. That gave it its power. But we're not displaying things spatially. What could happen is now that the digital cinema revolution has taken place is the killer app is 3-D. DreamWorks has announced all its animated films will be made and projected in 3-D. Gaming will be changed by 3-D. Consumer electronics people will need to make players for stereo-enabled monitors. Future versions of Windows should be fully stereoscopic. Smaller devices already are 3-D-enabled without glasses. If you play AVATAR on a 50-inch monitor, you're in the game."
"This is the ultimate immersive media. It's my fundamental belief that when you're viewing media in stereo, more neurons are firing, learning rates are higher. Engagement levels are higher," he said.
