Avatar (2009) is a highly successful science fiction film created by James Cameron. It stars Sam Worthington, Michele Rodriquez, and Stephen Lang among others. The film has both human and computer-generated actors. The temporal setting of the film is the year 2154 when human beings are presumed to own a mineral known as unobtanium. At this time the mining colony is expanding in a way that threatens a local ethnic group that is called Navi. This tribe lives in a place called Pandora. The title of this movie points at the hybrid humans that are used for studies by some researchers to integrate with the indigenous people of this place called Pandora.
This film is a trendsetter and a trailblazer of a special kind because the kind of cinematic technology and visual techniques it utilizes are unprecedented in Hollywood. The stereoscopic technology that is used in cinematography takes filmmaking to another level. No wonder, the film had nine nominations in the academy awards, and notably, some of the areas in which the film was nominated are the best movie in visual effects, cinematography, and direction.
The movie presents the principles of ecology and imperialism. The word Avatar refers to the incarnation of a Hindu deity in a way that the deity takes the form of flesh. This implies that there will be a technology in the future that will be able to the intelligence of a man into a real body that is placed in a remote place.
The creativity that is used in this film creates very wonderful scenes and watching the film, one cannot miss the luster created by some of the principles of filming borrowed from James Cameron’s prior movie, The Titanic. The use of the floating mountains creates some visual effects that are reminiscent of the Huang mountains found in china. The floating rocks are other visual features that are outstanding in the film and they create a lot of Chinese influence in the movie. The use of the photorealistic CGI on Pandora’s human interior adds value to the film and as one watches it, one feels as if you are interacting with a normal human being.
The photorealistic humans, the Navis are made in a way that makes them higher than the real human beings in the movie. One of the best visually presented scenes in this film is the virulent destruction of the tower of Navi that goes down in flames after being attacked using missiles. This scene vividly brings memories of how the world trade center collapsed during the September 11 attacks in the year 2001. The scene questions the American involvement in the Iraq war, by indicating that the Americans are good at launching the missiles but they had a chance of feeling how others feel when they are hit by missiles, on September 11. The visual presentation of the landscape with embers and ash during the collapse of the Navi tower creates a vivid picture of the gravity of the attack.
Watching the Avatar, one is lost in this new world that James Cameron has created. Even when watching it on the IMAX which has the knack of exposing the smallest flaws of CGI, the computer-generated actors appeared real. He creates a very efficient planet complete with illustrious flora and fauna. The cinematography creates bioluminescence in the landscape and there is the seamless integration of scenes that leaves one wondering about the enhanced technology that is used to create this computer-generated yet tangible set. The way the bioluminescence blends with the backgrounds provides another dimension from which the story is told.
The use of CG in this movie is advantageous because of the way it responds to the IMAX. This ensures that attention is paid to little idiosyncrasies that may expose the frailties of filming. The airfields that are full of soldiers, the ships and the cars were are presented visually in a very clear manner meaning that the filming team had spent a lot of time on the fine details and that is why the film responded well to the IMAX. This is the one that helped to create good typography that has taken cinematography to greater heights.
The 3D is another thing that gives the film an edge because the perspectives and the dimensions appear very natural. The depths of the 3d that created in Avatar are very complicated and paying attention to everything that is focused on creates an effect that is highly captivating and scintillating. The absence of the usual visual gimmicky makes the film real and natural especially the areas where the filming avoids gratuitous shots. The film is so excellent visually that it compensates for the not so groundbreaking plot that is full of the usual film stuff like relationships, violence, and war. This ensures that the simple story is accessible from a visual dimension though some of the visuals that Cameron and his team create are not easy to follow.
Apart from the visuals, the other area in which the movie excels is the cinematography. The blending of the life and the virtual actors without the creation of idiosyncratic distraction creates aesthetics in characterization and sometimes it is even difficult to differentiate between the living and the virtual characters. The direction of photography is exquisite though some elements of cinematography are overwhelmed by the many outstanding visuals that James Cameron and his team have used.
The Pandora is brought out aesthetically and this seems to be the best area of cinematography in this film. It seems that the most difficult part of the cinematography in this film is marrying the real and the virtual images. The shrubbery on the Pandora is real while the scenes of the floating mountains are virtual and are generated in a computer laboratory. This means that bringing these images together required a lot of expertise and professional direction.
The success of production in this case is denoted by the ability to create the whole backdrop and the source of the light on a colored screen. The screen is green in color and the scope of the direction of photography used in Avatar is wider than in most films, especially the 1998 hit Slumdog Millionaire which was the first full CG film to take an Oscar. The other interesting element of cinematography in Avatar is the use of phantom lights, especially when shooting in three dimensions. This is effective in creating ghost effects that blur the images in a manner that doe not create distractions.
The interaction of live-action with computer-generated graphics is another cinematographic achievement of the movie because the CGI images must have been generated from scratch. The success of the director of photography of this movie is highlighted by the animations of the facial expressions of the CG actors because the digital recording of such a scene must have taken a lot of time and a lot of computer space during the generation. I think the reason why the movie took that long to premier is that the technical team had to wait for the cinematographic techniques to advance to the degree to which they applied in this movie.
Had this movie been released two years ago, it would not have achieved the visual and cinematographic success it achieved during its premiere. An innovative lighting system like the one that has been used in the jumble of Pandora adds cinematographic aesthetics. The performance capture that uses the motion stage capture creates a voluminous display that is bigger than any of the previous Hollywood blockbusters. The methods that are used to create the facial expressions are the ones that support the performance capture and this helps in the creation of the special images that make the movie to stand out.
The face captures where the actors wear caps with miniature cameras help in the collection and transmission of their facial expressions. This is the one that helps in the production of the computer-generated scenes because the director of photography can transfer the total performances of the digital actors. It also helps in the creation of many angles of performances. The movie has three computer-generated characters, the Navi. One of them is the protagonist who goes by the name Neytiri. She is a princess in the clan that is at the center of this story and she has fallen in love with the brave Jake. Jake is a real human character.
What is important about the relationship between Neytiri and Jake is how elements of cinematography are used to blend the virtual and the real characters. This is because this Navi character was created through the concept of performance capture and for this character to be able to blend with the human character; a lot of cinematographic expertise must have been put in place. There another Navis is Moat, who is a spiritual leader of the clan in question. She is also a mother to the protagonist. The last Navi in this movie is Tsutey who is an heir to the throne and he is betrothed to the protagonist as the film starts.
The most challenging scene in the cinematography must have been the last scene. This is because it has a motley of techniques that are even confusing to the viewer. This is where the CG Neytiri is holding the real human actor called Jake and the amount of detail paid to the reflections and the shadows behind them made the scene look very realistic.
However, there is one area of cinematography in which the film fails. This is in the area of typography. To start with, the papyrus subtitles are uncalled for and it is very hard to imagine that with a budget of more than 300,000,000 dollars, the attention paid to elements of typography is very scant. The best way to approach issues of typography especially on the Navi is to use a typeface that is customized instead of the downright offensive papyrus.
It is very disappointing for a movie that has excelled in many other dimensions to fair that dismally on the platform of design and typography. The other thing is that cinematography is completely overwhelmed by the visual content and this means that there is much that needs to be done to make CG and cinematography to rhyme. In good cinematography, the person who is directing the photography should be able to make good use of the perfect cameras and the scenic lighting to capture some aesthetic stuff but in Avatar, there is a missing link.
No movie comes close to Avatar and it has set standards that future movies must achieve because the introduction of 3D means that people will be reluctant to go back to the 2D movies. The standards of cinematography and the experience of viewing are so high that everyone that watches this movie is left with a total cinematic experience that no other movie has come close to giving. It is so far the best epic in the history of science fiction and the way Cameron and his team have created elements of high visual experience is bound to create ripples in Hollywood. The movie has set good precedence and put science fiction in an entirely new league.
The success of Avatar means that the three hundred million shillings that were invested in the movie did not go to waste. This is because the movie managed to rake in more than three billion US dollars which was a handsome return for the ten years that Cameron had embarked on this trendsetting project. If at all there will be a sequel to the avatar, it must live up to the standards that have been set by this 209 Hollywood blockbuster that nearly outdid the legendary titanic.