By Wren Culp
Staff Writer
What do movies like Terminator, Aliens and Titanic all have in common? What unites these movies together? The answer is Academy Award winning director James Cameron.
Movies are always progressing with technology. Today’s modern technology is the backbone for everything on set and in the editing room, but what happens when the technology for your movie does not yet exist?
Cameron took it upon himself to make technology catch up with him. He developed everything from new state- of- the- art cameras to innovative movie sets. He even changed the way actors look in a 3-D environment. All this for one movie. A movie with a $237 million budget and brought in $77 million on its opening weekend. The movie is Avatar, and it has changed the movie industry forever.
In 1994, shortly after finishing writing Titanic, Cameron drafted the idea for Avatar in an 80 page script in just two short weeks. Cameron then announced that he would film the movie using computer-generated actors.
Unfortunately at the time, technology was not up to speed with Cameron’s idea, so he had two choices. He could either wait for the technology to catch up with him or he could drop the project entirely. Cameron decided to stick with his vision.
Twelve years and three films later, Cameron was given the green light to make his dream world a reality. One of the first items on the checklist for Cameron was making a language for the Na’vi, the tribe of creatures in the movie, to use.
To make this happen, Cameron turned to University of Southern California linguist professor Dr. Paul Frommer and, with his help, created over 1,000 words for the movie.
Meanwhile, Fox became skeptical because of its painful experience with cost overruns and delays on Cameron’s last picture, Titanic, even though Cameron re-wrote Avatar’s script to combine several characters together and offered to cut his fee in case the film flopped. However, estimates put the cost of the movie at $280-$310 million, but in the end the movie cost a total of $237 million.
“You get that much money, you better do it right,” freshman Jenny Quinn said.
Cameron started filming in summer of 2008 in a closed warehouse with all green screens. Actors Sam Worthington (Terminator: Salvation) and Zoe Saldana (Star Trek) were both suited up from head to toe in motion sensors.
The motion sensors would record their every movement all the way from their face to their toe muscles. From there the motions were sent to a computer where the animated bodies of the Na’vi were placed over their own, thus creating the Avatars.
“The technology use is pretty awesome,” World History teacher John Harris said. “If he can spend that much on technology and still make a profit, I am impressed.”
Cameron developed what is called a “stereoscopic” camera, which allowed Cameron to view the 3-D environment while he was filming the characters. So other directors such as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were amazed at the technology so much that they visited the set of the movie themselves.
Promotions for “Avatar” topped others in many ways. On Nov. 24, Harper Entertainment released a field guide book on the fictional world of Pandora. Cameron and actors in the film also showed up at 2009 Comic-Con to talk about the film.
On Dec. 18, the movie was officially released across the world. Eager Cameron fans of flocked to see the film and mostly left feeling satisfied.
“He did a good job with it,” freshman Alex Hernandez said. “It was fun to watch and the effects were stunning.”
According to Rottentomatoes.com, a site where reviews are brought together and a percentage is given based on favorable reviews; Avatar has an 82% rating, making it certified “fresh”.
The New York Times gave the movie a decent review, saying it was “…a meticulous and brilliantly colored alien world…”
In January, the China Daily reported that the Southern Sky Column, a mountain in Zhangjiajie, located in the northwestern part of Hunan province, had been renamed “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain” in honor of the film.
Cameron has confirmed that he is going to make two sequels to the film. Both Sam Worthington and Steven Lang have signed on to do the sequel, although development and naming has not been discussed yet.
Avatar has shattered records, been adored by fans, and has been confirmed for a sequel. Is there anything this movie can’t do?
