Revolutionary Film
Twitter is buzzing tonight about the new James Cameron movie “Avatar” coming out in December. This is Cameron’s latest movie since the highest grossing film Titanic set sail 10 years ago. You will be hearing about Avatar more in the news because of two things: 1) it’s reported budget between $200-$400 million to make and 2) it uses 3D rendering for the entire film.
A teaser trailer for the movie has the storyline taking place on a very distant planet circling a very distant star. Images from today’s 25-minute preview to the audience shares some interesting footage that makes it look very alien (not Alien) to what we are used to in movies. One post says it was “stunning, literally jawdropping”.
Cameron informed the audience that each frame of footage takes 30-50 hours to render and then double that time for 3D. I have read articles about how when James Cameron was shooting this film, many directors dropped in to see what he was doing.
Cameron is known for engineering his own resources for making the shots he wants. He developed the technology for the effects in The Abyss, Terminator 2, and filming underwater for Titanic. For his latest movie, he developed the Reality Camera System by basically putting two HD cameras side-by-side and blowing the images up to Imax. He took the “green-screen” film making to the next level as well by creating a way to view the usual post-production animation sequences live in the filming process. So, no more tennis balls on a stick for the actors to run dialogue with.
In the June issue of Empire Magazine (which was guest-edited by Steven Spielberg), directors who visited Cameron on the set of Avatar were declaring their love of the new format and noting they would be making films using the new technology. Many posted comments that they were really excited about the possibilities and could not wait to try it out. Steven Spielberg hasn’t even moved to digital film but he has already committed to the 3D revolution in his next film with Peter Jackson called Tintin.
A quote from George Lucas says, “Within the next ten years, every movie will be a visual effects movie because it will be an essential part of the cinematic tool kit” and you know he isn’t balking from this 3D revolution.
Cameron is the innovative filmmaker in a time when people aren’t going to movies. If his film is successful in getting audiences committed to going to see it in 3D rather than download it illegally at home, then I think this type of movie making will continue to rise. Cameron has already touted that the 2D film experience is dead and binocular 3D will replace conventional theater experiences. Only a few more than 2100 theaters are equipped to be 3D-ready in the United States so I don’t think this movie will be a candidate for wide-release.
I know this isn’t a media blog. I’m a simple technology director for a school system. But, it does make me think about the future of the technology we are putting in our schools. If we go by the old models of technology rollout from film we see movies in color to TVs in color; movies to digital then TVs and cable to digital; movies in HD then TVs and cable to HD. If movies go 3D then what happens in the home? and in the school?
I don’t know of schools that are putting BluRay into their computers right now. But if the format for making a film changes to 3D, won’t Television follow? (Television?!? What is this…1982?) Computers and projectors – will they be up to the format for streaming 3D media? What kind of RAM do we need? What kind of video card will we require? Are we watching the world unfold around us and preparing for these changes?
I for one think the next generation of operating system needs to have 3D capability. Flat images and folders pressed up against a monitor are so….old when we have touchpads and ways to interact on all of our devices. Check out BumpTop and Microsoft Surface to see how interaction is taking place with software.
I don’t think it is so futuristic to start looking into adapting our schools for the migration to 3D learning environments. I think it is something we could start researching now so we aren’t shocked later at how quick these tools develop. And no, this isn’t about Second Life though with improvements it could be. Second Life is a start but it is too rocky right now.
I’m talking about full 3D integration that doesn’t rely on an alternate world or characters. If Web 2.0 is read/write and Web 3.0 is personalized web experience, maybe this is Web 4.0. 3D web immersion with OS/Internet/Media? Maybe Web 3.0 is the Windows ME of the web development – shortlived, a little buggy, but transitions to something of greater quality and production value.
I don’t know. I can’t predict. But I can buy a ticket and get on the 3D revolution!
