Sign in or 
| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 7 2010, 2:34 AM EST (current) | KNDestroyer001 | 2877 words deleted, 3 photos deleted |
| Dec 15 2009, 5:23 PM EST | dustpaint |
Changes
Key: Additions Deletions
On June 23, 2009, James Cameron previewed 24 minutes of his new, highly-anticipated movie, Avatar, to over 1,000 industry attendees at the Cinema Expo in Amsterdam. The evening opened with introductions from James Cameron and the rest of the Avatar movie cast, followed by 24 minutes of footage from the movie (mostly from the beginning), and ended with an after party.All attendees were required to sign non-disclosure agreements, but anonymous reports have already leaked online, and so far its unanimous - Avatar is blowing people away.From the effects to the artistry, journalists and media outlets agree that this movie could "change movies forever," and it will most likely dominate this holiday season when its released on December 18, 2009.Anonymous attendee #1 (from IESB)Tuesday night at the Cinema Expo in Amsterdam Twentieth Century Fox showed some exclusive scenes from James Cameron’s Avatar. Cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver introduced the scenes. First up was Weaver who explained how the Avatars work. Her character Dr. Grace Augustine is a scientist who dreams of living side by side with the 10-feet tall, blue skinned creatures the Na’Vi. To make it possible for humans to live on Pandora, she created these Na’Vi replica’s, Avatars.A photo on display at the Avatar movie screening after partyNext up to tell the audience about Avatar is Stephen Lang. He plays Colonel Quaritch. A 'first shoot, ask questions later' kind of a guy. He’s the only one who gets into character, when adressing the audience. He said that Dr. Augustine is ‘nothing more than a tree hugger’. The only way to deal with the Na’Vi is to kill them. “They maybe stronger physically, but we have more powerfull weapons,” he says. Leading man and by all means the new action hero, Sam Worthington, had a bad case of jetlag. Barely audible he tells the audience about his character, Jake Sully. A crippled ex-marine who travels to Pandora and comes into contact with Dr. Augustine. She gives him a chance to walk again, as an Avatar.Zoe Saldana plays a Na’Vi called Neytiri. She says: “It took months to prepare for this role. I had to learn to fight like a Na'Vi. It was very demanding, but also really fun.” And just when the audience thought this was it, James Cameron walks on stage wearing 3-D glasses. A roar of applause fills the auditorium. “The futures so bright I gotta wear shades”, he riffs. It took Cameron and his crew more than four years to come to this point. “It’s hard to believe, but the first year and a half we spend thinking about how we’re going to make this movie.”The audience got to see several finished scenes with Jake’s Avatar walking around on the beautiful Pandora and fighting all kinds of exotic creatures. In one of the scenes Jake and Neytiri walk in the jungle at night. Flowers, trees and the earth glow in the dark. The last scene is the battle between the humans and the Na’Vi. Because it's unfinished, it consisted of crude 3-D scenes, like out of a video game. It makes me want to create a time machine like Cartman from South Park, so that I don’t have to wait till the 18th of December to watch the finished movie. If it's anything like the scenes I saw, it's going to be one of the best movies of the decade.Anonymous attendee #2 (from Coming Soon)I've just returned from a preview screening of James Cameron's hugely anticipated movie "Avatar" at the Cinema Expo in Amsterdam and I'm still feeling the after effects of this jaw-dropping experience. First off, I'm really not a fan of the so called 3-D craze, that's currently taking Hollywood by storm. Before the "Avatar" screening, Fox showed us "Ice Age 3" in 3-D and although the movie is pretty entertaining, I don't understand why it has to be in 3-D. What is the added benefit? I just got a headache from the whole experience. For some reason or another, my eyes just can't get used to the 3-D experience. With it comes the fact that 3-D until now has been used as a gimmick.Would "Avatar" change my mind? With anticipation I directed my attention to the 20th Century Fox show reel. After some pretty disappointing clips from other movies like "Gulliver's Travels" you could feel the tension in the theater. Then it appeared on the screen: AVATAR. After a brief introduction from cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver, we were asked to put on the 3-D glasses (really uncomfortable, especially if you already wear a pair). Most of the scenes were from the first half of the movie.A photo on display at the Avatar movie screening after partyIn the first scene we see Sam Worthington's crippled ex-marine Jake Sully, who just arrived on the planet 'Pandora.' He's in a wheelchair and just rolled in to hear Colonel Quaritch, played by the impressive Stephen Lang, talk to the troops. He's giving a classic speech that every military leader gives at the beginning of a battle. Jake listens as an outsider to this speech. A melancholic smile appears on his face. Although the scene is in 3-D, I haven't really noticed it. Finally a director who doesn't feel the need to stick it in the audience's face with cheap tricks like pointing objects at the camera.In the second scene Sigourney Weaver's Dr. Grace Augustine explains to Jake how the process of transporting your mind into an Avatar works. Although the scene is mostly exposition, we've got a good look at the lab and more importantly we get a first glimpse of the Avatars, the Na'Vi lookalikes. These tall blue creatures lie in water tanks, waiting for their human to 'jump' in their bodies. Besides Weaver and Worthington, the scene introduces Joel Moore's character Norm Spellman. As is usually the case with Moore, his character is the comic relief.It's the third scene where my heart begins to pound like crazy. Jake and Norm will inhabit their Avatar for the first time. They enter some sort of capsule and - flash – their mind enters the blue creatures, now lying on hospital tables. And not before long Avatar Jake wakes up. And it took my breath away. I thought--just like you guys--that I've seen it all with Gollum, or The Hulk, but Cameron has done it again. These creatures seem so real, that within minutes you forget you're watching an enormous and very blue CGI character. Even the eyes are totally convincing. The characters have real personalities and a soul.
In the fourth scene the Avatars of Jake, Norm and Grace explore the jungle of Pandora. The surroundings remind me of a planet that appears briefly in "Revenge of the Sith." A lot of massive colorful flowers and plants grow everywhere. Jake's unbridled enthusiasm works on Grace's nerves. And not before long they have their first confrontation with some creatures. Some sort of rhino with a flower sticking out of his head looks like he will kill Jake, but he's not scared and he let's out a scream. The 'rhino' runs away, but not because of Jake. A more dangerous creature – a wolf? – jumps at Jake from behind.In the next couple of scenes Jake meets Na'Vi Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Jake finds himself alone at night in the jungle with only a torch as protection against some evil looking dogs. Eager to fight them, Jake says: 'What are you waiting for?' When one of the 'dogs' attacks him he slams the torch in the creature's face. A fight ensues that Jake can't win by himself. Lucky for him, there's Neytiri who with her trusty bow and arrow helps Jake chase away the creatures. Just when Jake wants to offer his gratitude, Neytiri knocks his reached out hand away and says to Jake that killing these creatures is a bad thing. When the scene fades out to black, my mind begins to work overtime. How the hell is it possible that I never once felt like I've been watching a movie where almost everything comes out of a computer?The most beautiful scene follows directly after the one I've described above. When Jake wants to take his torch with him, Neytiri takes it from him and throws it in the river. Like magic the flowers and plants – even the grassy soil - begin to glow in the night. The beauty completely takes my breath away. Meanwhile we get to learn more about Neytiri and her people. Everybody who knows the story of Native American Pocahontas and John Smith, will recognize a lot of similarities. Before you can sing "Colors of the Wind," Neytiri guides Jake through her world. Mysterious flowing and glowing seeds from a mystic tree appear out of nowhere. To Neytiri's surprise Jake attracts them. She has a look in her eyes like he's the 'chosen one.' And of course she's right. Jake has to lead the Na'Vi into battle against the massive army of Colonel Quaritch.In the next scene we meet the Banshees. The Na'Vi ride these fierce looking creatures when they hunt. After some exposition, where Neytiri explains to Jake that a Banshee first has to respect you, before you can ride it, she takes flight and another gorgeous scene unspools.The last scene wasn't completed. What we saw, was sort of a video-game version of the mother of all battles. Countless numbers of Na'Vi riding their Banshees attack Quaritch's fleet. I can't wait to see the battle fully rendered.Overall I was really impressed by what I saw. The effects are in a league of their own. After some disappointing or even pointless 3-D movies, "Avatar" may be the first movie where 3-D is properly utilized.Anonymous attendee #3 (from MarketSaw)This was all part of the 20th Century FOX 2009/2010 presentation. We saw clips of movies not out til november '10. But then Avatar was introduced and the crowd went silent. Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Stephen Lang stepped on stage and introduced us to their characters and a brief into of the story. They then announced we would see a large range of clips in sequential order.We got to see clips with their scene numbers attached. Which ranged from sc. 8 to scn 48 -54 til 82. 82 is the last fully completed scene we saw which was only in act 2 of the film. The clips were amazing, can't go into detail too much but we see Jake a lot. My memory of quotes is fuzzy cos of the impression the screen makes.First clip showed us a militairy briefing with Stephen Lang's character about how brutal the N'avi are. He says: "My job is to keep you all alive, but I'll fail." Jake is in a wheelchair listening to the brief.Next scene we get into the lab, see two N'avi on labtables subdued. Jake enters lab with Joel Moore's character Norm Spellman who's a new doctor but knows a lot about N'avi.Next scene we see Jake and Norm entering two tanks. Jake is getting out of the wheelchair, tries to get into the tank. Someone wants to helps him but he says he can do it himself and gets his limp legs into the tank. Sigourney's doctor Grace says "So you just came out here without any training and decided to get in on this?"Then we see them take hold of their N'avi's. Norm is adjusting slow, while Jake stands up, wobbles, hits stuff with his tail and then STORMS out of the base into the wild. Until now, all we saw was the base in 3D, mostly humans and now the 2 N'avi Avatars.They look NOTHING like the drawing you've seen. They're living creatures with blue skin, bigger yellow eyes than humans with tails. The avatars even look like their human connectors. You will NOT believe the detail. Jake's character will get a wound in a scene we saw later, it looked so real. You could see beneath the skin's first layer, like only real wounds show. We later meet creatures that look like the evolutionary link between a pherodactyl and a bird. They can connect with the N'avi and hunt with them. They connect with only ONE N'avi and do this by swallowing the N'avi's tail with their mouth so they stay connected.The world outside is amazing. It all lives, breathes and works. You will not believe the amount of leaves that look like someone created that jungle for real. Later scenes involved Grace, Norm and Jake in the jungle exploring. Jake encounters a animal which stomps towards him, Grace tells him to stand his ground. He does and the animal backs away to reveal a more sinister animal behind them. Jake fights it and runs.Next scene we only see Jake so I assume he lost Grace & Norm. He is being attacked by very very very nasty black dogs. Not only do we see their teeth, their gums look nasty as well. It's all so photorealistic you first wonder where they got these dogs. They look like our dogs but slightly different and it's only then you realise what this is. All CGI.Jake gets saved by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a real N'avi with bow and arrow. Afterwards he wants to thank her but she gets mad. She says "You not need thank me, this shouldn't have happened. They shouldn't have to be killed if it wasn't for you." The next scene we see is Neytiri and Jake on a treeledge entering a Pandoran village where seeds of a sacred tree touch Jake. I mean touch. They touch his skin and then some fly off while others get absorbed by his N'avi skin.After that: Cameron entered the stage. He talked about the beasts and how we now saw how it was to walk on Pandora. Now we were going to fly. We then get introduced to the beasts I mentioned earlier and a small scene of Neytiri riding one ends the scenes that were finished.Cameron then came back, talked about the specifics of the rendering already mentioned by others and then said: Now imagine 3000 of these beasts.One more scene was shown then of something that will be near the climax of the movie. A battle between humans and N'avi. It was mo-cap footage of humans with the template CGI. Best to describe it would be World of Warcraft on a high-end PC. That's what it looks like when it's 40% done. And that is NOTHING like it'll end up but it shows WETA, Cameron how the scene will play. And even in that stage, the amount of bodymovement is absolutely realistic. In that scene we also meet the bot that was displayed at the afterparty.What is most imporant about this movie: Everything lives and breathes. The tree in the scene with the sacred seeds glowed. Not the bast, but the tree underneath glowed like a living thing. Jake encounters plants which look like a kid's slide which shrink when he touches them. Little fireflies and birds fly through the shots without being there. You just take them as the world, like a dove in Central Park. It's not placed there, it lives there and just happens to be in the shot. There's a shot of leaves somewhere which is so photorealistic you don't want to think it's CGI. You believe this world from the get-go. It's there, you don't need to believe it because you will experience it.The cast and Cameron came back on stage after the last clip, took a VERY VERY VERY long round of applause and the houselights came on. The audience afterwards was stunned. Everyone just gasped, wondered and just couldnt believe what they saw. [Cameron] is so proud of this movie and still handles it with great suave like he just folded a paper plane. I am just mindbaffled how a genius like that can contain himself with something like this.This movie will change the industry. It can now enable me to play a character in a studio, then to be transferred into something different on screen so an audience will believe I am that different character. This is not the Polar Express style 'change of character'. This will enable actors to act without them being cast on looks, but on bodylanguage from now on. Fifty years from now I'll tell my grandkids I was at this presentation and witnessed it 6 months before the movieworld was changed.Only shame: I won't be able to see the final product like we saw today. With Cine Expo the most advanced projectors and audio is installed which won't be rolled out to most cinema's til probably next year's summer. But IMAX 3D will make this movie shine like never before, I hope.I hope this gives you an impression of what we experienced. I had a hard time putting it to words. You just can't fully do it.
In the fourth scene the Avatars of Jake, Norm and Grace explore the jungle of Pandora. The surroundings remind me of a planet that appears briefly in "Revenge of the Sith." A lot of massive colorful flowers and plants grow everywhere. Jake's unbridled enthusiasm works on Grace's nerves. And not before long they have their first confrontation with some creatures. Some sort of rhino with a flower sticking out of his head looks like he will kill Jake, but he's not scared and he let's out a scream. The 'rhino' runs away, but not because of Jake. A more dangerous creature – a wolf? – jumps at Jake from behind.In the next couple of scenes Jake meets Na'Vi Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Jake finds himself alone at night in the jungle with only a torch as protection against some evil looking dogs. Eager to fight them, Jake says: 'What are you waiting for?' When one of the 'dogs' attacks him he slams the torch in the creature's face. A fight ensues that Jake can't win by himself. Lucky for him, there's Neytiri who with her trusty bow and arrow helps Jake chase away the creatures. Just when Jake wants to offer his gratitude, Neytiri knocks his reached out hand away and says to Jake that killing these creatures is a bad thing. When the scene fades out to black, my mind begins to work overtime. How the hell is it possible that I never once felt like I've been watching a movie where almost everything comes out of a computer?The most beautiful scene follows directly after the one I've described above. When Jake wants to take his torch with him, Neytiri takes it from him and throws it in the river. Like magic the flowers and plants – even the grassy soil - begin to glow in the night. The beauty completely takes my breath away. Meanwhile we get to learn more about Neytiri and her people. Everybody who knows the story of Native American Pocahontas and John Smith, will recognize a lot of similarities. Before you can sing "Colors of the Wind," Neytiri guides Jake through her world. Mysterious flowing and glowing seeds from a mystic tree appear out of nowhere. To Neytiri's surprise Jake attracts them. She has a look in her eyes like he's the 'chosen one.' And of course she's right. Jake has to lead the Na'Vi into battle against the massive army of Colonel Quaritch.In the next scene we meet the Banshees. The Na'Vi ride these fierce looking creatures when they hunt. After some exposition, where Neytiri explains to Jake that a Banshee first has to respect you, before you can ride it, she takes flight and another gorgeous scene unspools.The last scene wasn't completed. What we saw, was sort of a video-game version of the mother of all battles. Countless numbers of Na'Vi riding their Banshees attack Quaritch's fleet. I can't wait to see the battle fully rendered.Overall I was really impressed by what I saw. The effects are in a league of their own. After some disappointing or even pointless 3-D movies, "Avatar" may be the first movie where 3-D is properly utilized.Anonymous attendee #3 (from MarketSaw)This was all part of the 20th Century FOX 2009/2010 presentation. We saw clips of movies not out til november '10. But then Avatar was introduced and the crowd went silent. Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Stephen Lang stepped on stage and introduced us to their characters and a brief into of the story. They then announced we would see a large range of clips in sequential order.We got to see clips with their scene numbers attached. Which ranged from sc. 8 to scn 48 -54 til 82. 82 is the last fully completed scene we saw which was only in act 2 of the film. The clips were amazing, can't go into detail too much but we see Jake a lot. My memory of quotes is fuzzy cos of the impression the screen makes.First clip showed us a militairy briefing with Stephen Lang's character about how brutal the N'avi are. He says: "My job is to keep you all alive, but I'll fail." Jake is in a wheelchair listening to the brief.Next scene we get into the lab, see two N'avi on labtables subdued. Jake enters lab with Joel Moore's character Norm Spellman who's a new doctor but knows a lot about N'avi.Next scene we see Jake and Norm entering two tanks. Jake is getting out of the wheelchair, tries to get into the tank. Someone wants to helps him but he says he can do it himself and gets his limp legs into the tank. Sigourney's doctor Grace says "So you just came out here without any training and decided to get in on this?"Then we see them take hold of their N'avi's. Norm is adjusting slow, while Jake stands up, wobbles, hits stuff with his tail and then STORMS out of the base into the wild. Until now, all we saw was the base in 3D, mostly humans and now the 2 N'avi Avatars.They look NOTHING like the drawing you've seen. They're living creatures with blue skin, bigger yellow eyes than humans with tails. The avatars even look like their human connectors. You will NOT believe the detail. Jake's character will get a wound in a scene we saw later, it looked so real. You could see beneath the skin's first layer, like only real wounds show. We later meet creatures that look like the evolutionary link between a pherodactyl and a bird. They can connect with the N'avi and hunt with them. They connect with only ONE N'avi and do this by swallowing the N'avi's tail with their mouth so they stay connected.The world outside is amazing. It all lives, breathes and works. You will not believe the amount of leaves that look like someone created that jungle for real. Later scenes involved Grace, Norm and Jake in the jungle exploring. Jake encounters a animal which stomps towards him, Grace tells him to stand his ground. He does and the animal backs away to reveal a more sinister animal behind them. Jake fights it and runs.Next scene we only see Jake so I assume he lost Grace & Norm. He is being attacked by very very very nasty black dogs. Not only do we see their teeth, their gums look nasty as well. It's all so photorealistic you first wonder where they got these dogs. They look like our dogs but slightly different and it's only then you realise what this is. All CGI.Jake gets saved by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a real N'avi with bow and arrow. Afterwards he wants to thank her but she gets mad. She says "You not need thank me, this shouldn't have happened. They shouldn't have to be killed if it wasn't for you." The next scene we see is Neytiri and Jake on a treeledge entering a Pandoran village where seeds of a sacred tree touch Jake. I mean touch. They touch his skin and then some fly off while others get absorbed by his N'avi skin.After that: Cameron entered the stage. He talked about the beasts and how we now saw how it was to walk on Pandora. Now we were going to fly. We then get introduced to the beasts I mentioned earlier and a small scene of Neytiri riding one ends the scenes that were finished.Cameron then came back, talked about the specifics of the rendering already mentioned by others and then said: Now imagine 3000 of these beasts.One more scene was shown then of something that will be near the climax of the movie. A battle between humans and N'avi. It was mo-cap footage of humans with the template CGI. Best to describe it would be World of Warcraft on a high-end PC. That's what it looks like when it's 40% done. And that is NOTHING like it'll end up but it shows WETA, Cameron how the scene will play. And even in that stage, the amount of bodymovement is absolutely realistic. In that scene we also meet the bot that was displayed at the afterparty.What is most imporant about this movie: Everything lives and breathes. The tree in the scene with the sacred seeds glowed. Not the bast, but the tree underneath glowed like a living thing. Jake encounters plants which look like a kid's slide which shrink when he touches them. Little fireflies and birds fly through the shots without being there. You just take them as the world, like a dove in Central Park. It's not placed there, it lives there and just happens to be in the shot. There's a shot of leaves somewhere which is so photorealistic you don't want to think it's CGI. You believe this world from the get-go. It's there, you don't need to believe it because you will experience it.The cast and Cameron came back on stage after the last clip, took a VERY VERY VERY long round of applause and the houselights came on. The audience afterwards was stunned. Everyone just gasped, wondered and just couldnt believe what they saw. [Cameron] is so proud of this movie and still handles it with great suave like he just folded a paper plane. I am just mindbaffled how a genius like that can contain himself with something like this.This movie will change the industry. It can now enable me to play a character in a studio, then to be transferred into something different on screen so an audience will believe I am that different character. This is not the Polar Express style 'change of character'. This will enable actors to act without them being cast on looks, but on bodylanguage from now on. Fifty years from now I'll tell my grandkids I was at this presentation and witnessed it 6 months before the movieworld was changed.Only shame: I won't be able to see the final product like we saw today. With Cine Expo the most advanced projectors and audio is installed which won't be rolled out to most cinema's til probably next year's summer. But IMAX 3D will make this movie shine like never before, I hope.I hope this gives you an impression of what we experienced. I had a hard time putting it to words. You just can't fully do it.
