James Cameron: AVATAR Confirmed At Over 2.5 Hours!

Jim here. Thanks to T.M., I grabbed an interview of James Cameron from the French site Liberation.fr and translated it using Google's service. Some of this doesn't quite hold together due to the nature of online translation, but you can certainly get a feeling for what he is saying.

The interesting news? AVATAR is confirmed at over 2.5 hours.

"The technology does not remove the emotion "
By LAUREEN ORTIZ, LOS ANGELES, correspondant
Original article in French

James Cameron tuning, final details its blockbuster prototype terrain. We have requested this interview without much believe. Cameron has not only agreed with generosity, but he ended up inviting us his home in Malibu for a projection.
Private extracts Avatar. We have explained at length the nature and ambitions of this project off-standard. Why have launched a marketing plan as huge, four months before the exit rooms, making the real teaser global event? Is this your idea or the Fox studios?

JC: It was my idea but Fox has loved and extended the concept. I had the idea of
organize a prévisionnage images of Avatar. Fox then decided to make a media coup of the day around this idea of presenting fifteen minutes of Avatar the world. Why? It has lots of reasons. We found the images very strong, first, and I did not Trust a single trailer. The public know that we can make a good trailer with a bad movie. You Take the best scenes and then assemble. I wanted people to see how Avatar works visually in as history. This is something that has never been done before.

After the success of Titanic, you still enormous pressure on his shoulders for this movie?

JC: It was always pressure, every time we made a film. I've never done a film without pressure, my first - where we judge you on the fact that the first - The second film - where you judge see if you are able to do it again -- etc.. It's always the same. If you do not pressure, do not be a filmmaker!

Certainly, but there some talk about 'film the future. " Maybe you do, or try you create a new genre, which is conditioned by the success of Avatar course?

JC: Yes, but I do not make movies to create genres. The genres are created self - same. Other filmmakers might use be tools that created them, but they not necessarily choose to make a film as Avatar.

In Hollywood, the 3D trend continues. Have you seen other movies in 3D?

JC: To be honest, I work so on Avatar that I have not seen other films for some time. I am sure they are good, I saw a bit of Monsters Aliens cons. The other films are animated as the last of Disney, Up. They are relatively short, unlike to Avatar which will more than 2 h 30 and is a true epic destined for a wide audience and for all ages. In any event, exclusively for children.

Avatar includes all action taken on Tour views of actual shares that generated by computer. How did you handle this constraint technique?

JC: We used two different methods: with one, we photographed actors using a stereo camera, such that was developed in the last ten years on documentaries. The other task is to capture the performance of actors, for which we also had to invent technology to obtain a realistic total, including the characters of aliens. Ensure that technology being grafted on the motion capture n ' not erase the emotions of players when of the catch.

All this had to request a very long time ...

JC: Yes, at this level it is closer to a animated film as a standard feature. We the movie started there four years. The first year and a half has been devoted to design, imagine all the creatures, homes, vehicles, vessels Space ... In short, to create a new world from scratch, what always Science fiction. But here, we created two universe, that humans and that of planet Pandora, where people live Na'vi. We invented culture, language, thanks with a university professor Southern California, which has literally created a language of sounds from German African, Asian, etc.. The Na'vi have also their art, their music, their philosophy, and of course their appearances. The six main characters were Na'vi designed from real actors, while a hundred others were drawn from from the same mold. throughout this period, were developed in parallel technology. Then he took two years and half production, including four months of shooting, the rest of the production "Virtual". Currently, work yet over.

Where does this intention to oppose two races, humans and Na'vi?

JC: There is no real conflict between two races, but between characters. It is a collision of cultures between two civilizations.

Good against evil?

JC: No, there are bad people and good humans, like in Na'vi. It is less conflict between good and evil that look at our history. People who are from North America and South of the Europe, England or Spain, for establish their colonies, they embodied all evil? I think Americans answer in the negative! In contrast, some things they have made during their colonization process have been negative, objectively. At what point People become blind to the suffering of others? That's what interested me. It was a long history of invasions led by Corporate technologically superior to those they conquered, whether to control the gold, oil, Diamonds, fur, etc.. Enough Universal is a fundamental element human nature.

Avatar would be a social critique?

JC: Science fiction always is. Same Titanic was a symbol of a divided world into classes, is a microcosm where rich are supposed to be saved, then we let the poor die, it looks like quite the world in which we lives.

But what you criticize in Avatar, n ' Is this not exactly what you do with your movie, which will no doubt crush all French and foreign films at Christmas?

JC: No, well there is a high probability of make a hit, if we do things correctly ... But Hollywood does not come from the willingness of Americans to import their cinema in the world. These are filmmakers from around the world come to Hollywood if they want to work
and global trade. I am Canada! There are people who are d ' Germany, France, Japan ... It's "The Mecca 'of commercial cinema, it could be anywhere, it is that it located in Los Angeles. It's more than a place Geographically, it is an idea, that of beyond its own culture,

Have you had to fly to Hollywood make this film?

JC: Between studios and directors is a love-hate. Studios love the possibility of a great epic that excites the imagination of an audience World. But they hate the fact that goes with it. It was hard to convince producers because there were lots of uncertainties on this project. Is that people would be interested? Technology would it developed? Titanic was already a challenge, perhaps even greater because no happy ending. Everyone dies at the end, and the film was very long. There was a lot of reasons not to do so. Yet if you look at the top twenty big film hits, eighteen are the science-fiction, and one of two exceptions is Titanic! So, it's still a gamble rational.

Avatar has also become a video game. Are you involved in this aspect?

JC: No, I work in partnership with Ubisoft, which develops, but I am not a developer. Not even a player. C ' is simply that the video game industry is more important today than the film, so it's a good way to support
film.

The game he is in fact the future of the film industry?

JC: No, never. These two experiments completely different. Both require imagination, design a creation, but they remain very different. Public side, I do not see why stop the fun going see, collectively, films on screens.