The ambition of the first

While Ackes was deeply struck by the film's visual effects, an in-depth discussion about the film's connotations was raging in Cameron's office.

Re-examining "Avatar" with the eyes of future generations, the powerful visual effects have been left behind by Lin Mingyang. He knows very well that a film with only technological progress can only stop in the textbooks of film schools, but it cannot stay in the hearts of fans. A Hollywood movie like "Transformers", no matter how much technical investment, no matter how dazzling the visual effects, no matter how complex the fight scenes, it is just a gimmick that lacks real feelings, and fans have no other impression after watching it except for enjoyment.

And Cameron's "Avatar" is great not only because of its unprecedented 3D technology, not only because of its unparalleled visual effects, not only because it took 4 and a half years to spend 500 million carefully forged, but most importantly, it has a conscience, it tells the truth, it stands on the opposite side of capital and power, and it makes human beings re-examine themselves.

Re-examining the visual feast of "Avatar" with the mentality of a reborn, although the gorgeousness created by scientific and technological progress amazed Lin Mingyang, it did not move him. "Avatar" is undoubtedly at the pinnacle of technology, but in terms of the film itself, it is lackluster – one could even say lacking originality. Putting aside the similarity between the whole idea and "Pocahonta", the shadow of "Castle in the Sky" can be found in many scenes; The healing ritual under the Tree of Souls is the same as the scene by the lake in Princess Mononoke; The humanoid robot armor cannot be traced back to Gundam, but it can at least be said to be partially similar to Wachowski's "The Matrix", and the half-suspended Hallelujah Mountain in the film is similar to Tsui Hark's "New Shu Mountain".

But at the same time, this film also reveals the cruel shadow of many historical bloody cases and real problems in human society such as "enclosure movement", "colonial expansion", "Vietnam War", "demolition", "deforestation", etc., this sense of social responsibility is what Lin Mingyang admires most in addition to Cameron's unparalleled film technology. In particular, the movie specifically mentions the barbaric cruelty of human beings in "countering terrorism with terrorism" and "pre-military strikes", and the spearhead is directed at the current US government.

This independent film spirit makes the connotation of the whole film suddenly elevated, and the film's clever metaphor reveals a sense of introspection, which is very valuable in Hollywood movies.

At the end of the script, the male protagonist Jack said: "They will come back, like the rain that never stops"

In his previous life, when Lin Mingyang saw this scene, he still had some small slanders in his heart. At that time, he thought to himself that Americans are too capable of, isn't it just to make a sequel, and he has to install such a righteous and awe-inspiring excuse. And with the realization of rebirth, when Lin Mingyang saw this familiar sentence again, he had a completely different emotion in his heart.

This phrase reminded him of the famous speech of an Indian chief, who, in his "Reply to the U.S. Government," said: "The white chief says that the great chief of Washington greets us in good faith... His people are numerous, like grass covering a vast field, and my people are scarce, like the sparse trees of the plain after the wind and rain... They are willing to buy our land, and at the same time, they are willing to leave the right amount of land for us to live comfortably. This does seem fair, even generous, because the red man has no power that he can respect. ”

If the chieftain had lived in modern times, he would have been able to guess the end of the Avatar story: the Indians could no longer hold on to their ancestral lands, and the white colonists appeared on the horizon in waves with their rifles.

The Indian chieftain was called Seattle, and the largest city in the northwestern United States was named after him. After writing this letter, he eventually led his tribe to move into a government-designated protected area, forever losing the land on which his ancestors had depended.

As the "natives" of the United States, the native people live below the poverty line, the violent crime rate is more than 20 times the national average, and the rate of college education in the population is 1/2 of the average.

In the wisp of the curling aroma of coffee, Lin Mingyang began his own statement, and Cameron, who has always been leaky in the crew, consciously acted as a listener quietly at this time.

"In the plot of Avatar, I think the planet Pandora is a very obvious metaphor, rich but dangerous, beautiful and deadly, attracting countless self-conscious and brave explorers, for whom it is just a game. 500 years ago, explorers were tempted by the lure of the "Golden Empire" and driven by hormones; And for the marauders of Pandora, the appearance of the "Avatar Incarnation" allows life, the lowest bargaining chip for this kind of adventure, to be paid unpaid. ”

"It's a role-playing game for whites and other races that don't have a skin ache: you can travel to the New World, ride a six-legged horse, and soak your native sister along the way. But for the Na'vi, for the Indians, for the indigenous Africans, for those who have lived in their 'own land' for generations in the face of muskets and cannons, this 500-year-long 'game' is as cruel as a nightmare."

In the short period since the opening of new shipping routes at the end of the 15th century, the population has plummeted from 40 million to the number of natives, and Lin Mingyang's rhetorical metaphor of nightmare is not too much.

"It's enough for entertainment, but I think there's a lot more you want to say. "Avatar" can be regarded as a 3D version of the apology letter 500 years late, but it is not sincere enough. Until the end, you don't want to let the people who should repent repent well, and you fail to be cruel when you should be cruel. ”

After a soft sigh, Lin Mingyang continued: "In fact, in my opinion, this 'game' of hunting should have ended at the moment when the helicopter fell and the female pilot died - all those who resisted would die, and the surviving Na'vi people would never regain their spiritual traditions. No powerful bow can shoot through bulletproof glass, no great hunter can fight a steel behemoth, and no lucky aboriginal can have a grenade. For the sake of entertainment, you have forced people to give people a perfect ending in the plot of the movie, and in my opinion, true perfection is inherently flawed, like Venus with a broken arm. ”

Cameron shrugged regretfully: "Movies are movies after all, and consumers will always have the right to demand a happy ending, and they will always have the right to walk out of the cinema with a smile and go to the Christmas party." Such a heavy subject matter is not only difficult for consumers to accept, but even you, as investors, and Mr. Murdoch probably don't want to see the film turn into a documentary that satirizes reality. ”

Lin Mingyang nodded, it is unique for a commercial sci-fi blockbuster to be able to shoot at this level, as the so-called flaws are not concealed, the problems he just mentioned will not strictly prevent "Avatar" from becoming the pinnacle in film history.

The discussion between the two did not go any further, and when the staff walked into Cameron's office with Ax, his face still had the shock that had not yet dissipated after watching the movie. Under the influence of this emotion, even Cameron, who had previously "cheated" $300 million from Lin Mingyang, became cute in the eyes of Acks at this time, and from the close conversations with each other, Ex had clearly shown his willingness to befriend Cameron.

After seeing Lin Mingyang's boldness and unique insights, Cameron also gave birth to the idea of further cooperation with MGM, of course, it will take a long time for this idea to become a reality, but this does not prevent Cameron from taking this opportunity to show Lin Mingyang and Ex those powerful shooting techniques he invented during the filming of "Avatar".

The biggest difference between "Avatar" and previous film shooting is the use of a 3D photography system independently developed by Cameron's team. This is what Cameron is most proud of, and under his leadership, Lin Mingyang and Exx first visited the operation of this shooting system.

Under Cameron's demonstration, Lin Mingyang basically figured out the principle of this system. It is shot with two high-definition cameras, and the lenses of these two cameras are similar to human eyes, which can provide different angles of view, because they are equipped with different filters, so when the subject enters the lens, different parts of the image will be removed, passing on a parallax illusion to the brain, and establishing a three-dimensional perspective of the final senses.

In the case of Avatar, the improved camera will have more depth on the screen, with the foreground and background appearing on different levels, rather than the moving flat images of the past. The advantage of this is that not only can you get better and more dynamic stereoscopic visuals, but also make the audience no longer dizzy due to the deep jitter and fast frame progression, and this equipment also makes direct shooting of 3D movies a reality.

Lin Mingyang couldn't put it down with this set of equipment, and even took a video in person with Cameron's acquiescence, which was a small addiction. Because he still had to visit the studio, when he finally left, Lin Mingyang had a feeling of unfinished business in his eyes.

Such an expression was seen by Cameron and Ex, and there were indeed completely different reactions in their hearts: Cameron had an outstanding sense of accomplishment in his heart, although Lin Mingyang was young, he was also a top figure in Hollywood, and this set of equipment could be favored by him, at least it could prove that the path Cameron chose was not wrong; And Ex's feeling at this time was a little strange, he knew that every time Lin Mingyang had such an expression, it meant that he already had a different idea in his heart, as for what Lin Mingyang had in his heart this time, Ex didn't know.

During the following tour, Cameron showed them a virtual studio where live-action performances and CG footage were complementary. It's actually an empty space in itself, but when you look at it from a monitor, you can see that there are already various virtual scenes. The director can direct the actors' performances through a virtual camera. The actor is placed in a virtual space full of CG objects, and through this system, the director can choose various camera angles at will, control and coordinate the activities of CG objects, and see the visual effects of the combination of live performance and virtual scene for the first time.

About this system, Ex had already learned a rough idea from the staff member who was in charge of receiving him, and Cameron, who was in charge of explaining it next to Lin Mingyang, directly explained the working principle of the entire system. He started with the 140 digital cameras on top of the studio, and based on this, he built a platform for performance capture technology.

"The camera tracks the reflection of the near-infrared spectrum from the LED lights on the scene, transmits the captured data to a system, and then combines the reflection of the spectrum with the movement of the actors to obtain a three-dimensional model of the entire lens. This data is then mapped to post-production computer processing to give the CG scene a highly realistic look. ”

It's not hard to hear from the words that Cameron is quite complacent about the system he invented, and the traditional practice in the past was to first capture the actors' performance motion captures and add them to the database, and then match them with virtual sets. Cameron makes this much more intuitive and faster, allowing actors to interact with the digital environment simultaneously and making it easier for directors to direct and deploy effectively.

"It's like a powerful game engine, and if I want to fly in the air or change my perspective, I can do it right away. I can also turn the whole scene into a 50:1 model set and weave through it. ”

In the process of Cameron's explanation, Lin Mingyang seemed to be thinking about other issues, so Lin Mingyang did not have any reaction after he finished speaking, but fortunately, Ex was accustomed to Lin Mingyang's frequent "distraction". Lin Mingyang was silent, and he immediately gave high praise to Cameron's invention. Although these compliments had an obvious polite tone, the affirmation from the president of MGM still made Cameron a little vain, so he didn't care too much why Lin Mingyang suddenly became silent.

Until he left the crew, Lin Mingyang kept that strange silence, and after getting in the car, Ex asked directly: "After seeing those things invented by Cameron, you are moved?" ”

Lin Mingyang nodded, acquiescing to Ex's statement.

Ex tried to ask, "So you're going to make a movie like that, too?" ”

Lin Mingyang didn't speak, but from the figure released from his eyes, Ex clearly saw a strong desire.

After shaking his head slightly, Ex continued: "I admit that this idea of yours is indeed very popular, but have you thought about the limitations of this type of film? In fact, when I watched the clip of "Avatar" just now, I kept thinking that such a film can only really feel that kind of shocking visual effect in an IMAX theater. The ultimate audio-visual effect requires the support of high-end hardware equipment, but the time is not yet ripe. ”

It should be said that the development of 3D film as a new form of expression should be relatively smooth, but in fact, its experience in Hollywood can be described as tortuous. Although 3D technology has been used in movies as early as the 50s of the last century, it has always stayed in the gimmick of competing with simple visual effects and soliciting customers. In the 80s, 3D was widely used in some genre films, but because the artistic standards of these films themselves were not high, the lack of blockbuster films that could hold the table, and the technical limitations, after coming to the 90s, 3D movies were rarely talked about for a long time and gradually faded out of people's field of vision.

One of the most important reasons is that the IMAX giant screen that can provide the ultimate experience support for the audio-visual enjoyment of the film at which stage is really pitiful and cannot provide the audience with an immersive 3D experience. Even in the United States, the number of screens and the number of screens were not optimistic, although there were a large number of drive-in theaters and other similar screening venues in the form of giant screens, but in terms of hardware conditions and cost performance, it was difficult to be satisfied.

"For a long time, the construction of cinemas has basically been in some places such as exhibition halls, science and technology museums, theme parks, etc., and the screening of science and education films is also painless, purely to give people the most basic audio-visual shock. If this is true for the United States, what about other countries? I guess it's only going to get worse, not better. Ex's analysis is meticulous, he is not trying to dispel Lin Mingyang's thoughts, but to state a basic fact.

Lin Mingyang replied in a strange tone that was half reminiscing and half affirming: "What you said was a few years ago, just like "Titanic", Cameron's new film will completely bring a Hollywood movie **, and in the near future, it will be an era of 3D movies."

Ex shook his head: "Your thoughts are almost exactly what Cameron swore to me just now, and what I need is proof"

After the launch of Disney's 3D movie "Four Eyes Chicken", there were only a total of more than 200 digital movie screens in the United States, and so far, this number has been reached, and a consortium of the largest movie theater chains in the United States is about to reach a deal of up to $1 billion, which will be used to convert 15,000 screens into digital projection systems. ”

Lin Mingyang began to state his findings in an orderly manner: "This 3D trend has not only had an impact in the United States, but has gradually affected the whole world. As far as I know, a German company has invested $136 million to build a 3D cinema, and the UK is preparing to open 30 3D cinemas, increase the screen and introduce projectors. France is also preparing for a new round of modifications. In Asia,Japan and South Korea have extended their development focus to 3D TV platforms,Sony and Panasonic are sparing no expense in developing a new generation of TVs that can play 3D stereoscopic pictures.

Ex spread his hands: "Even if the hardware conditions for the broadcast of this kind of film are already in place, I think it is really difficult for other films to surpass "Avatar""

"Yes," Lin Mingyang looked at the scenery flying by outside the car window, "So I plan to make a film to test the water first, which can't be completely compared with "Avatar", at least on a technical level... In the future, I will definitely be able to make a movie that completely surpasses Avatar."

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Uh, I'm sorry for this, but the title of the previous chapter has an extra word, which has caused everyone to read the inconvenience, and I apologize for the inconvenience

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