Avatar Blog Response

1. Production: What challenges did James Cameron have in realizing his vision?
The challenges that James Cameron had when realizing his vision was that he had to incorporate aspects on the real world. The themes of this movie were to relate to our modern world today. The theme of love and war were interpreted in this movie. The love connection between Jake Sully and Natiri is an example. Jake is suppose to be a Navi and see what they are really like and see their life style but then he ends up becoming one of them and betraying his own people. When war comes into hand, our world today is still in a war across the world. This war has been going on for awhile now just like what is going on in Pandora. In 1990 James Cameron first came up with the idea but couldn't move on because of the lack of technology that was around. 2009 was his year when the technology was their for him to create his world of Pandora and the film Avatar.

2. Creating the Virtual World: What was the process used in creating Pandora?
When it comes to the process when used to create Pandora the first step was the idea of it and what it was going to look like. James Cameron had to create the world of Pandora by hand first in order to get the feel for this movie. Pandora's rain forests take after the rain forests that use to cover the Amazon Basin. Having something to look at and get ideas from helps the process. Pandora was digitally created and relates to what some parts of our world looks like today but more fantasy like.

3. Performance Capture verses Motion Capture: How has performance capture changed the filmmaking process?
The performance in this film not animated but was captured by CGI technology. CGI technology replaces the prosthetic and allows actor's to play any character that is created on the computer. This film took the actor's physical action's and movements and puts them into the characters. The CGI technology saved time and money when it comes to a makeup and wardrobe crew. Suits with markers on it were worn by the actors. Camera's were set up all over the spacial volume in order to capture every movement on the actor through the makers on their body. When filming, the computer creates a real time moving skeleton of the actor's movements. Capturing the entire performance of the talent was the intent in order to make this film successful. To make this film emotionally touching markers were put on the actor's faces with a camera attached to a boom that was attached to a helmet. The camera sat right in front of the actor's faces capturing the muscles in their face. This allowed to capture the facial image base performance. What James Cameron's intent was to translate what the actor's are doing emotionally in any given scene and put it into the characters. The muscles in the face correspond the emotion to what the audience will actually see. The true human emotion that was captured allows the audience to understand the feelings that the characters are feeling through out the movie. A big ordeal in the process of the film was the actor's having to really step into their characters. Since the CGI technology captures every movement and emotional feature in the actors face they had to make it realistic. During the film making process the actor's really got into it and started hearing, feeling, imaging, and seeing the world of Pandora and their character. "It's not animation, it's capturing the avatar version of the norm". The character's have the actor's personality and soul through the CGI technology. This film is apart of a revolutionary experience in Hollywood.

4. Avatar Earnings to Boost News Corp:-

a. How much money was spent on marketing for the film?
$400 million was spent making and marketing this film. $250 million was spent to make the film while $150 million was spent for marketing the film.

b. What challenges does News Corp face in realising profits?
The challenge that News Corp faces when realising profits is to not spend all the money on a big film that will not succeed. And not to spend a big amount of money on a film that people will forget about in a couple years.

c. In your opinion, does the massive budget spent on the film effect the authenticity of its message?
In my opinion I think the massive budget spent on the film effects the authenticity of its message. In order to make the movie big you have to have big and experienced actors that know what there doing. Also, the narrative has to be good and in order for that to be good, money needs to be spent. The narrative of a movie is a big part.

5. Socio-Cultural Impact-

- Avatar Challenges Us to Be All We can Be
- Avatar is Marred by Racist Subtext, 2 and 3
- Fail Blog- Avatar's Plot Fail
a. Do you agree with the critic's claim that Avatar "identifies the profound spiritual bankruptcy that underlies our financial insolvency...and reminds us (to)... make new choices for the greatest good of all". Or is this film just a trite recycling of previous plots that reinforces racist stereotypes? Explain with examples from the film.
I agree with the critic's claim because in life there is times when we have to make new choices for the better of things. In the movie, the hero Jake Sully has to chose whether to be one his own peoples side or to take sides with the Navi's. Jake Sully is sent to understand and see the life of the Navi, but ends up falling in love with one. Also, the human's purpose in this movie was to destroy the race of the Navi's for greed and money. While at the same time, their own man has turned against them. Sometimes seeing things from another point of view changes the person's impression of the conflict. The human race's determination for Onobturanium in the movie shows us the greed for money because the amount that they could collect could bring them a great amount of money back on earth. The weaponry use in the war connects to today's humans and world. Humans are portrayed as dangerous, heartless, and greedy when using the weapons for not protection but to hurt others in order to get what they want for finical issues. The finical issues in our world connects to the issue that appears in the movie and how human's fight for what they want and need. The plot to me seems original and fresh because from what I can remember, I can't think of any other movie plots like this one. From reading several articles I can understand why someone would say that it has a racist subtext, but I still agree with the critic's claim.