Hollywood Domination Chapter 342: On the premiere of Avatar

Adjusting the two pairs of glasses above the bridge of the nose with some discomfort, Todd McCarthy watched the huge countdown sign at the beginning of the imax film attacking him, and felt the familiar trembling feeling again: no matter how many times Seeing this promotional title, he would indeed applaud imax secretly - it may not be visible in 2D movies, but in some so-called 3D movies, the special effects of the whole movie may not be as good as This promo. And this promotional video has indeed endorsed the future of imax3d. At least for Todd, the shock brought by this promotional video has changed his view. Now he thinks that there is no discrimination against special effects movies. If it is done well, it is indeed a kind of enjoyment to watch it on a giant screen like imax. Now the problem facing the entire industry is nothing more than how to make special effects with a limited cost.

The whole film is 3D, and it is a combination of real-life CGI and original race. For an old Jianghu like Todd, there are countless minefields here. He also seriously doubts the effect of this kind of CGI characters on the big screen. How, while trailers seem to work well, trailers, like all commercials, are usually watery. Also, what is the effect of 3D? When watching "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" before, he discovered this problem. The 3D segment of this movie is about 10 minutes. After taking off the glasses, you will find that the movie The screen is much brighter, and the viewing effect is more enjoyable. This is an inevitable problem with 3D glasses. With it, the screen must be darker. If there are no corresponding special effects clips to reinforce it, the audience will definitely feel affected. Influence...

"Wow!"

After the short opening credits, Todd couldn't help but let out a low cry, his body shook, and he almost felt dizzy for a moment——"Avatar" used a fast-forward shot to do it outrageously and unreasonably. At the beginning, although this may not be the first movie to use flying shots, but with the addition of 3D effects and the huge imax screen, the kind seems to have been processed by CG, but it is very real when you look closely, and the beauty is a bit elegant and Fantastic, speeding shots with a strong sense of "another world", the kind that fills the entire screen, gradually accelerates down, and the whole scene seems to be coming towards you. In such a moment, it really makes people feel like the elevator is weightless and the car is speeding. Feeling, even the body instinctively had a stress response of nausea and dizziness. Todd is by no means the only one who called out—although there is no real ordinary audience here, and almost everyone is an industry insider who has seen the world, there are still murmurs of exclamation and admiration from the crowd and the slight creak of chairs moving.

Swooping down all the way over the tropical rainforest, flying towards the depths of the woods, accompanied by the narration of the protagonist Jack Sally, the camera flashed black, and then a section of colorful scenes appeared on the big screen. , The details are exceptionally clear, making people dizzying the future city. The protagonist, Jack, also slowly introduces his own life experience and several major characteristics of this era: This is a future city with some dystopian colors. Although the technology is advanced and digital products have become very cheap, the society is still chaotic and chaotic as before. Although Jack, a retired veteran, is disabled due to work, he has no money for spinal repair surgery, and he can't wait for unreliable national welfare, so he can only abandon himself like a walking dead.

"From the perspective of the plot, it's an old-fashioned opening, um, but Anthony Ryan chose well, and his acting skills can still hold up the scene..." As in the past, while watching a movie, you can analyze and skip in your heart The barrage is different. This time, Todd didn’t come back to his senses until Jack acted bravely in the bar, and there was a scene of fighting. Then he began to analyze habitually—he also felt a little dizzy: not only for the beginning The special effects shots showed Cameron the futuristic world, and the incomparably rich and interesting details on the big screen made him dizzy and deeply fascinated. "But the focus of this movie is not the actors and acting skills, but Cameron's understanding of imax and mastery of special effects, right? God, this man is completely king of the world, this movie is the same as "Titanic" , Responding to all the doubts... The initial flying shots completely surpassed this entire era... surpassed all the 3D and so-called special effects we have seen before-that kind of feeling that is both real and illusory, real aerial photography or before They must have used a new technology, or Cameron has played his talent again: making old technology look very cool."

"In terms of visual effects, this movie has already won." Derek, his colleague, came over and said in a low voice, "As long as this level is maintained, at least one Oscar will be won this year."

"Yeah," Todd said in a low, absent-minded voice, pushing back his glasses, "this is something we've never seen on screen..."

Now there are more than 100 imax screens in the United States, and many blockbuster films have been screened on imax screens, but of course most of them are post-transformation. As far as Todd's own viewing experience is concerned, "Star Trek" , "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", "Transformers 2", these are all blockbusters he has seen on imax this year, although the big screen is definitely more comfortable to watch, but the viewing experience of the small screen is different There is no fundamental difference, it is impossible, and because of the focus of the line of sight, sometimes he will feel that watching movies on the giant screen is not so natural and comfortable, and he needs to constantly correct his usual viewing habits—especially When it is a close-up of a character, the feeling of a big face appearing on the giant screen is very unpleasant. There are only a few films that use imax cameras during shooting, and films that are truly shot with new technologies do not have such problems, such as "The Polar Express" and "Beowulf", but both of them are pure CGI productions, As an adult, Todd will not feel "this is so beautiful" when watching animations. In fact, he has never been very appreciative of cartoons that try to explore esoteric issues for adult audiences, such as "Final Fantasy". Such cg movies are unacceptable to him.

However, "Avatar" does not have such a problem. Todd remembers that this movie was not shot with a 3D camera dedicated to imax. When shooting, Cameron took into account the feelings of the imax audience. He couldn't tell which shots were different, but Todd could feel that so far, he was very comfortable and enjoying watching. The ground has meaning, it is no longer simply zooming in, it seems that the form of the whole movie has changed, the details are clearer, and the way the camera is moved is more natural, you don’t need to zoom in to remind the audience They pay attention to information, such a big screen, they can't miss it. If a film is a dialogue between the director and the audience, then this time, the dialogue was carried out very comfortably and very innovatively. From the very beginning, the audience was very excited and felt that they had seen many new things. The tolerance for the plot and the characters will also increase accordingly. At least for Todd, he is not going to be too demanding about the plot. Like "Titanic", the main plot is actually not esoteric, and it can even be said to be very complicated. It's cliche, but as long as you can handle it well and make people immerse and be emotional, that doesn't prevent it from winning the best movie, because it also completely redefines disaster movies in terms of special effects, shooting techniques and scenes.

In this real .imax movie viewing experience, as well as the 3D of the whole film, from time to time some exquisite special effects shots are amazing, although the plot of "Avatar" cannot be said to be very exciting, but Todd Neither was boring, whether it was the long shot of the spaceship flying among the stars towards Pandora - which took a lot of people's breath away, and there was another admiration in the movie theater - or when Jack woke up in the space capsule and saw the weightlessness The scene of the fusion of raindrops in the state made him fascinated, and it felt like rediscovering the charm of movies: if film critics pay attention to the plot of the movie instead of the visual effects, then this impression is unavoidable. Some are too dull. The reason why all film critics become film critics instead of book critics is that they are attracted by the sound and light effects of movies, by the visual effects of movies, and are deeply fascinated by this way of telling stories. And it is precisely because Todd has seen too many movies that the brand-new stimulus of "Avatar" can make him so excited, even more excited than an ignorant audience, because he knows how amazing and great it is .

There was another low commotion in the movie theater when the title Avatar appeared on camera for the first time—the blue guy sleeping in the nutrition pod—seemed so real, you could even tell It is not known that it is the result of cg, under the 3D effect, it looks as if it really exists there, as if... as if there is such a kind of alien!

"Wow, that's...l." Hearing Eric's murmur of admiration beside him, Todd couldn't help swallowing, he couldn't bear to move his eyes, and took a sip of soda water , I took it in my hand, and planned to wait for a while to find the drink port on the armrest and put it back.

"Cameron really did it," he said the same thing to himself for the second time, "this **** really did it again..."

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When Jack entered the avatar and the avatar got up to interact with the people around him, Said had already forgotten his embarrassment, and now he regrets why he sat in such a remote corner—although in theory, as long as When you are in the theater, the viewing effect is almost the same, but in fact, of course, the viewing effect is the best in the middle and rear position. If he sat there, all this experience would definitely be more perfect and more shocking-so that he could endure it for at least a few weeks, and it would not be so difficult before he could re-watch it in a large-scale release.

"How did this happen..." Maybe it was because he started sweating, his glasses were foggy, Said quickly grabbed them off, wiped them with the wet wipes given by the staff just now, Putting it on again, I immediately plunged into the movie world again, "God, is this really happening? I'm not dreaming..."

Although he likes movies very much, considering the scarcity of imax screens in the world, as well as the troublesomeness of buying tickets and driving, Said has never been to an imax theater before. I haven't paid much attention to this concept. He has his own private cinema, so why go out to watch it? But now he has started to blame himself, if on the imax screen, every movie is like "Avatar"——

No, shaking his head, Said denied himself again. Although he couldn't say the reason, he was sure that those movies couldn't be the same as "Avatar". "Avatar" was just...really...

Seeing those avatar giants who should be clearly produced by CG, but are completely integrated with the surrounding scenery, and do not look fake at all in the 3D lens, Said shook his head - all he can say is, 3D makes everything different... Also, if I build an imax cinema privately, can I get a digital copy, and I won't be able to play it after the key expires...

"This is so luxurious..." Although at the beginning, there will be a kind of real and illusory feeling, I don't know if I saw such advanced visual technology in my dream, but Said is an adult after all. Yes, he quickly adjusted and confirmed that all this is just another cool technological revolution, but this does not mean that his admiration will weaken, because after confirming that all this is made by cg, he I immediately realized the second problem: so many and such realistic special effects shots, it must cost money...

A common misunderstanding is that although in many cases, the price of CG animation is almost the same, no matter whether it is made into a real-life alien like "Avatar" or a rather high-end animated character, as long as you use It is an engine. When the number of shots and accuracy are similar, the cost is the same regardless of whether it is realistic or not, but the audience will instinctively think that special effects that are more like real people are more expensive and more advanced. Of course, the special effects of "Avatar" are indeed subversive. The degree of exquisiteness makes it difficult to distinguish the dividing line between reality and special effects in terms of scenery, so this sense of expensiveness is even more obvious. Said is now a little I don't think Fox's promotion of "the most expensive movie in history" is bragging. He even doubts that $350 million can cover these expenses. There are enough special effects shots in "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" , but there are still some shots that only need real people and some sets, and "Avatar"...is there any place without special effects? Those trees, those flowers, those luminous plants - if such a place exists in the world, Said is sure that he will definitely spend money to see it, all of this is just - it's just really beautiful, not only visually beautiful , there is also a very refreshing feeling psychologically, especially when Jack is on a mission for the first time and the helicopter flies down the Great Falls, although you know that this is watching a movie, but if you watch it from Jack’s perspective, The feeling of a wonderful journey——

Because he was too involved in special effects, Saeed didn’t care much about the plot. He also appreciated the simplicity of the plot—so far he knew that the base was divided into two factions, and the hardliners seemed to be villains. The trend, the Na'vi who has not yet appeared should be a good helper for the protagonist-this is a routine that can be guessed, otherwise Jack's avatar incarnation will become very meaningless, and because of the simple plot, he can concentrate Appreciate the special effects, otherwise, for Said, although the viewing process is refreshing, but there are too many things to do, it will become too hard.

From the beginning to the present, "Avatar" has continuously attracted the audience with its visual spectacle. The natural wonders of the planet Pandora—seriously, the shot of the helicopter hovering among the giant trees and mountains is really beautiful—and this tropical rainforest-style natural environment full of novel creatures also made Saeed enjoy watching it, I even hope that the plot will not move forward so quickly, and there will be more natural wonders, but of course this is impossible. Soon, when the audience finds a concept for the natural environment of Pandora in their hearts, they understand that this is similar to After the tropical rain forest, the environment with a lot of humidity and ferns, the director came to a thrilling action scene. After the interesting local plants, he immediately followed a section of thrilling chase with twists and turns. The camera also made Saeed feel stiff—in this kind of action-packed scene, there were a few moments where Jack's CG characters, including the beast, were slightly unnatural.

"It's completely understandable," Said breathed a sigh of relief, "It's already very good, and this kind of defect is inevitable."

For CG movies, especially realistic movies related to human beings, the audience's sensitivity is very high. If the set of actions in cartoons is copied to people, the audience will immediately find out that something is wrong. Feeling uncomfortable may also be a manifestation of the uncanny valley effect. For example, when Said was watching "The Lord of the Rings", there were several scenes where he could clearly feel the stiffness of the human body, such as the scene where Legolas killed the giant elephant. The audience is also more tolerant, and it is even more reassuring to watch "Avatar"-there is still a limit to this technology, and it is not to the extent that I cannot understand it. It seems that I have not been abandoned by the times.

"Maybe with a little more money, even this bit of stiffness wouldn't be there... Cameron's films are so cool, and it feels great to burn the budget without being soft." , Saeed didn't feel too much tension, but was in high spirits. He knew that Jack would certainly not die, and this action scene must be an opportunity for him to leave the team, otherwise the plot would not develop. "Maybe I should invite Charles to come with me, he will definitely go crazy for this kind of special effects movie with a big budget..."

He didn't bring a female companion, and the people around him were unfamiliar. Although he had too many feelings to express, he could only hold them in his heart. At this time, Saeed really didn't care about Jennifer at all. He kept regretting that he didn't bring a friend. With his contacts, it was of course easy to get two invitation letters.

Jumping off a cliff and falling into a waterfall, getting lost in the primeval jungle, and spending the night alone, these old-fashioned plots are not boring at all under the beautiful scenery of Pandora. Beast, when he was also in danger, a tall and thin figure suddenly jumped to his side. He shot several times without fail, and soon relieved Jack's danger-judging from his figure, this Na'vi was obviously a woman Finally, he turned his head and exposed his face to the camera, and with a long "Oh—" from the audience, Said suddenly realized this——

It's almost 40 minutes since the opening, and I didn't think of Jennifer at all-the charm of a good movie, it turns out that it is really so great...