Avatar 2 Will Change Movies Forever

the production of james cameron's avatar sequels have finally begun revealing what they've been up to for the past decade and it could very well change the future of filmmaking it's been such a long time since director james cameron came out with his box office breaking technologically innovating big blue alien movie avatar like me you might have been very excited at the prospect of a sequel on the horizon but at this point i don't think any of us thought it was going to come out but as we start to look elsewhere cameron pulls the rug out from under you saying here look at these new screenshots new technology industry shaking innovation and you know what he could be onto something let's dive into the innovations behind avatar 2 and why it could change movies forever a quick recap james cameron's avatar no not that one was the 2009 epic science fiction film about humans colonizing a new planet called pandora and her main character jake ends up becoming the savior of the local populist the navy from his own people and their greedy colonialist ways i wonder where i've heard that before the film took reportedly around 15 years to make and upon its release became the highest grossing film of all time until avengers end game took that title in 2019 james cameron was supposed to begin work on avatar straight after his previous box office break in film titanic in 1997 set for release in 1999 but according to cameron the necessary technology was not yet available to achieve his vision of his film and that's not even mentioning how difficult it was to get funding for something this ambitious you see the film was described as a hybrid with a full live action shoot in combination with computer generated characters and live environments integrated within a 3d experience remember the 3d movie craze james cameron really wanted to achieve these incredibly realistic and immersive cg versions of these environments and characters in the film so they used advanced motion capture i'm sure you know of motion capture by now it's regularly used for some of the biggest blockbusters today especially by marvel but motion capture wasn't a new thing that james cameron invented he didn't even really popularize it video games have been using this technique to assist with animation for a long time the first feature filmed to use motion capture was star wars the phantom menace to create jar jar binks which then snowballed into other feature films using the technology including lord of the rings the two towers final fantasy the spirit within monster house happy feet the polar express i'm sure you've seen them however before avatar started filming james cameron thought that the furthest he got with the tech produced essentially what was a blue alien in the uncanny valley meaning it was almost there but not quite specifically the facial expressions it was creepy basically so for james cameron to reach the advanced photorealistic versions of the characters he invested heavily in the development of facial motion capture and visual effects equipment used in the production included new lighting systems new camera systems to allow cg actors to interact with real-life props and actors a record size motion capture stage of the time newer filming techniques for 3d cinema releases a virtual camera system that showed cg characters and environment renders in real time it was like nothing people had seen before cameron had pioneered a specifically designed head mounted camera that would attach and position itself around 6 inches from the actor's face that allowed the expressions of actors to be digitally recorded for cg animators this facial capture technology had been used before on peter jackson's king kong but with a stationary capture device that restricted the physical performance of actors this technology would go on to become widespread in video games animation and film does anyone remember the last of us it brings me to tears and while he did begin working on the world behind avatar around 2005 commissioning actual professors of linguistics to help create the language of the navi principal photography for the film didn't begin until 2007 so if it took so long to make the first avatar because of the technology surely avatar 2 3 and however many other sequels are supposedly in the works should have come by quicker we're not waiting anymore right well it seems like if james cameron makes a movie he doesn't just want to make a movie he wants to blow people's minds or fiddle with some new technology to boot so what is this new game changing technology and why is avatar 2 taking so long according to rumors avatar 2 will mostly focus on the previous main characters children sully and nathiri will have grown older but their children will be pushed to explore new biomes and environments on pandora which also include places underwater of course if james cameron was going to make a movie he'd have to pursue some new technological innovations well it turns out that's exactly what he's doing so on top of perfecting what they were able to accomplish before james cameron has been trying to take motion capture to the next level by actually filming scenes underwater and when we say underwater we don't just mean he's cg it up he's actually putting the actors underwater wearing motion capture suits they have built huge sets in new zealand containing pools that are being used to try and get the fully realistic performances of the characters while submerged they even train the actors to hold their breath for long periods of time the sets are lined on the walls with motion capture sensors and a cover is placed along the surface of the water to prevent the light from interfering with the cameras below cameron said the real difficulty came from how the water creates a moving mirror that reflects the dots on the motion capture suits creating a bunch of fake markers i'm sure you've seen how things change in appearance when partially submerged leads to some funny results sometimes it's kind of amazing but imagine how tiring and time consuming it would be acting like you'd be exhausted swimming for entire film shoots and producer john landau had confirmed in 2018 that water plays a huge part in the movies this underwater tech is groundbreaking for the film industry more and more in the current day we're seeing films using motion capture green screens cg characters and environments being brought on to expand the stories we can tell and once the end product of this technology is released it's only a matter of time before cheaper methods are produced for other productions the film industry has already been making huge strides outside of these developments including john favreau with his national geographic ass telling of the lion king and his screen projection technology in the mandalorian which achieved incredible simulated locations all contained on one set the most difficult thing to simulate however has always been underwater we can do air simulation game of thrones used it many times when characters were riding on dragons it's mostly achieved by suspending an actor in midair with a giant fan blowing in their face but by james cameron's own admission he had a hard time suspending reality while watching the likes of aquaman because he knows all too well how bodies look when moving underwater once this technology has been finessed in avatar 2 we could potentially see it used more widespread this could open up a whole new world of underwater films that were never possible before now movies surrounding atlantis that no longer have to be about underwater superheroes not only that but motion capture and simulated environments allow for much more controlled productions you would need to use this technology if you wanted to create larger-than-life characters like the na'vi this technology opens up a whole new world of possibilities for that but if studios wanted to keep interferences down to a minimum shooting everything within an artificially or digitally constructed set removes the multitude of issues you could face from shooting on location productions already do this by creating indoor sets of several locations if you've seen the inside of somewhere a lot on a tv show it's more than likely on set things like dealing with the public natural light tight spaces and real structures world noise you can't control the weather difficult to use spaces are all eliminated with this type of filming plus even if motion capture could be done on location would you want a real-life shark accidentally coming into frame beside your very terrified actor steven spielberg even said that directing in this type of setting was a lot more natural like something you'd find in a theater production it wouldn't completely remove the need for shooting on location but could lead the industry into using it more to remove unpredictability from a production but now that this technology has finally been developed and is being used for film surely we should be able to visit the beautiful world of pandora soon right well james cameron's avatar series is a complicated project to make because of how big he wants to make it remember that avatar pushed the 3d movie craze into the mainstream i still kind of like the red and blue glasses even if they're a bit cheesy call me nostalgic if you want well it turns out that james cameron might still be exploring a 3d experience but with no glasses of course this means that the film has to be shot slightly differently than traditional mediums and of course there are two sides to the filming of this movie you have the live action segments which require effects work potentially work with miniatures and then you have what we've been talking about for this entire video even though cameron has been able to create amazing visuals with cg that doesn't mean it's not time consuming avatar 2 and 3 are reportedly being filmed simultaneously this doesn't mean they'll be releasing months apart though more like in two-year increments since covet 19 hit the world in march 2020 the production has faced the same hurdles as other blockbuster films while the studios in new zealand have been in a much better position than most due to the country's response to the pandemic james cameron has described the pandemic as forcing unexpected lengthy delays to the production pushing the release dates of avatar 2 and all of its sequels back at least another year until december 2022 and it's not even in the studio's interest to have a finished film during the pandemic the box office return would take a staggering hit and that would be incredibly detrimental to a production with a budget of 1 billion dollars but with an instagram post from producer john plandeaux showing the crew getting a sneak peek at near finished scenes from avatar 2 we can assume what part of production they're at they're still in the filming stages but have at least been able to send some parts to post-production as that is the only part that could continue from home new zealand vfx company way to digital are the ones responsible for the vfx and motion capture of the film and there have been sneak peeks of what they've been working on an image of an underwater crab suit set to appear in the film was released on john planteau's instagram page and since this suit does seem to be for human use it seems like the na'vi won't be the only ones traveling underwater this crab suit is only a taste of what's to come while the extra delay is disappointing it will at least give time for the film to come out as perfect as james cameron wants it to be and who knows by avatar 3 we may get technology that allows us to film in space i mean that's the next step right and there we have it these images coming from social media get me hyped for avatar what do you guys think what new and amazing technologies will james cameron bring to us next let us know in the comments below be sure to like and subscribe for more deep dives like this thank you and we'll see you next time

Channel: Screen Rant

Views: 5,193,181

Rating: 4.8531508 out of 5

Keywords: Avatar 2, James Cameron, Pandora, Navi, Jake Sully, Neytiri, sequels, CGI Blue aliens, Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Underwater, Motion Capture, Film Industry tech, avatar movie, screenrant, screen rant

Id: CmSc_EIqyQI

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/InfinityEnergy]

well, just like Avatar 1 with 3D

[u/sci-fiLover]

Can you really doubt James Cameron?

[u/Cgi94]

Wouldn't expect anything less