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Started by MacGuffin, January 21, 2006, 03:23:18 PM

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Gamblour.

Quote from: modage on August 22, 2009, 09:29:49 AM
the first couple minutes of live action i thought i could get into it then came the blue people and it became a dreamworks cartoon. i think cameron become too wrapped up in the technology instead of the story and too disconnected from what makes something good.  i think it might be time to bury him, zemeckis and spielberg.  i have transferred all my anticipation for this to Inception.

Are you referring to the above 15-minute preview? A guy I know (who's completely untrustworthy, in terms of taste) went to the preview and said this on Facebook:

"Tonight I saw a 15 minute sneak peak of the new movie AVATAR it comes out in Dec. and we saw a few different scenes in IMAX 3D. WOW that shit looked real as fuck, and it looks amazing. I can't wait to see this entire film."

I guess you have to know him to know how annoying "shit looked real as fuck" sounds in person.
WWPTAD?

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: Gamblour. on August 21, 2009, 09:24:17 AM
I think all this talk about digital being integrated with story or creating realistic-looking aliens or not looking cartoony is all kind of bullshit, because I just saw District 9 where all of those things were not a problem.

Not the same thing. I can only judge District 9 based on the trailers, but it seems to mix the digital aliens with actual settings. It also looks like it mixes a lot of models, animatronics with the digital look in the aliens. Avatar is trying to create a wholly digital world with wholly digital aliens where such a large percentage of the film is based on digital effects that the human actors are the things that stand out the way digital creations normally do in film.

polkablues

There were actually no animatroncs in District 9. The aliens are entirely digital creations.
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Gold Trumpet

Quote from: polkablues on August 22, 2009, 12:07:24 PM
There were actually no animatroncs in District 9. The aliens are entirely digital creations.

Then I'll rest on my first point.

modage

I saw the 15 min and it did not look real as fuck.  It looked cartoony as fuck.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Gamblour.

Quote from: modage on August 22, 2009, 01:30:28 PM
I saw the 15 min and it did not look real as fuck.  It looked cartoony as fuck.

So is this film intended be viewed, ideally/optimally, in Imax 3D? That seems a bit silly.
WWPTAD?

picolas


modage

Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Kal


MacGuffin

Hate the Avatar trailer? Star says that was the plan
Source: SciFiWire

The teaser trailer for James Cameron's Avatar underwhelmed the Web at the same time that the preview of about 16 minutes of footage wowed audiences who were lucky enough to screen it in IMAX 3-D on "Avatar Day" last Friday, and star Sam Worthington argues that was the plan all along.

"It's got a hell of a lot of hype," Worthington told a group of reporters in London last Friday. "I read all what was said yesterday about the ... trailer. I can see their point. But, as I said, it wasn't meant to be built for an Apple Mac. It's built for IMAX. It's built for 3-D. That's what [Cameron]'s designed it for. He's designed it to bring people back to the cinema."

Worthington added: "It's interesting that he's released that trailer, that Jim's gone and done that, and then the next day goes and shows it on IMAX. One extreme to the other. We get the criticism, and then we get the rave reviews of what it really looks like in its own formula. That's obviously going to get people to think and go, 'Well, damn right. I'm going to go see this at the cinema.' Jim has always said to me he wants to bring people back to the movies. And he's a smart enough man to ... to be tactical."

Worthington spoke with reporters on "Avatar Day" but had yet to see the footage or trailer himself. "My mates have all gone and seen it," he said. "They say it's a lot better than it is on the teaser. You're meant to see in on the IMAX. I haven't seen it on the IMAX; my mate went and saw it today and said it blew him away. And he's seen about as much footage as I have. So I suggest seeing it in IMAX more than just the regular [screen]."

As for the film itself, Worthington said that he did not feel any pressure while playing the role of Jake Sully, an ex-Marine thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an "avatar," a human mind in an alien body, he is torn between two worlds in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. (Avatar opens Dec. 18.)

"I'll tell you, with Avatar, it felt like an Australian film," Worthington said. "That's mainly because Jim closes you off. And Jim protects you. But I'd be stupid to say you don't want to make epic-scale movies when I was growing up. I like doing movies that I would go and see. You know? ... It feels big when you see, say, the set, but when you're doing the scene, and you're in the moment, it doesn't feel like, 'Ooh, isn't this cool? I'm doing such a big movie.' I think as soon as it starts to feel like that, I'm going to call time out, because my head's wrong."

Worthington also argued that the famously dictatorial Cameron was actually very collaborative on set. "Ultimate collaborator," he said. "Ultimate collaborator. He's the boss. He'll have final say. But he'll tell you, 'Give me what you got.' And the first thing I ever said to him, 'I've got nothing to lose, man. I'll give you everything.' So I threw everything at him, every idea, everything, and he'll whittle it down to get what he wants. But ... that's your job, is to offer and offer and offer. If you're, you know, designing one of the plants, one of the spaceships, the guys would give him a hundred, a thousand different designs, and Jim would go take that from that and this from this and put it all together to get Jim Cameron's [version]."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Stefen

Who the hell is Sam Worthington? Is he some kind of big movie star that I didn't know about. You hear a lot about how great his movies are but I can't recall a single one. What the fuck is going on here?
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

socketlevel

ya that reads like the biggest corporate PR message i've ever seen.  it's like, okay people didn't like the trailer so let's tell them how they're wrong.  The 16 mins that "wowed audiences who were lucky enough to screen it in IMAX 3-D" also aids in damage control, fucking convenient.  it's just trying to hype up the audience into a frenzy again because they didn't "really" experience it.
the one last hit that spent you...

picolas

the more i think about this argument the dumber it is. no one designs their movies for internet viewing. of course they should be viewed in theaters. that doesn't mean you can't see a turd on the smaller screen. it's just a smaller turd.

modage

plus, i went to the theatre.  it was the nail in excitement's coffin.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

polkablues

I've watched movies on an ipod nano before.  And guess what, a good movie is still a good movie, even on a 2-inch screen.  And crap is still crap no matter how big a screen you splatter it across.
My house, my rules, my coffee