My Thoughts on James Cameron's Avatar

I went to go see Avatar with low expectations. I had heard everyone complaining about how 'terrible' the storyline was, and how it was all hype with little follow-through. However, I left the theatre confused about why everyone seems to think it was such a bad movie.

Movies are made for a variety of different reasons. Some of them are made to tell a story, promote a cause, entertain, create a movement... and on and on. Personally, I feel that Avatar was made to do two things: entertain & tell a story. Yes, it was a basic story. Yes, it had few (if any) twists and turns. Yes, James Cameron could have done with a better of a script. However, what was said was hardly the point of the movie.

Anyone can be a film critic. My problem with critics is they do not actually make the movies. How can you critique something you do not understand the process of? Everyone seems to expect all movies to be these huge psychological masterpieces. There was a ton of hype around Avatar, but the hype was not about it's compelling storyline; it was all about the technology that went into the movie. There IS a story in Avatar, and that story is in the mind-blowing beauty and detail of everything in every scene of the movie. Sure, I felt like this was a grown up version of Pocahontas at heart, but all that was forgiven when I found myself engrossed in the story of the world James Cameron created. This film was a sort of experiment and a platform upon which others can further develop and expand.

Avatar was about being entertained. It was about being transported to another world. The 3D element of the film was used not to throw things in your face and shock the audience; it was used to pull you into the world of Pandora. At times it was hardly used except to emphasize depth of field. Other times you simply felt like the world was not simply in front of you on a screen, but that you were somehow there with the characters in the foreign place. Considering the struggle to create a 3D environment within a 2D artform that in itself should be enough to make Avatar an advancement and not just another gimmick movie. James Cameron did not just use 3D technology; he used it correctly.

It is easy to hate James Cameron because he took a mediocre story and made loads of money off of that story. However, I hardly think this man is overrated. For that matter, the movie itself was not overrated. Honestly, hate the man because he is smart, not because his movie 'sucks'. Avatar does not suck. I am fairly positive that if the Lord of the Rings trilogy had not been a respected set of books before the movie was made it would have received the same set of criticism. Peter Jackson distracted the audience with cutting edge technology from the weak spots in his scripts, and no one seemed to really mind then. So then why is this any different?

James Cameron took the technology that was used to create creatures like Gollum in LotR and expanded upon that to make the Na'vi incredibly believable as another species. There was motion capture, and layers and layers of work in order to create the finished product. James Cameron was able to actually direct all of the CGI work by a camera that allowed him to see his world in a low-resolution real time rendering of the environment his characters would actually be seen in on the screen. This was all done with his actors on green screen. He was able to generate the shots in a more organic way as any other director might. He could move the camera how he wanted and get the shots he wanted instead of trying to convey this to someone who would then have to generate it solely on a computer.

In my opinion, James Cameron was not tackling the challenges of story-telling. He was focused on an entirely different aspect of filmmaking. There are plenty movies that have compelling story lines that keep you on the edge of your seat, but they were not dabbling in experimental filmmaking either. Eventually, someone will take this technology and move it to the next level, but I hardly feel this movie fell short of where it should have been. It is amazing for what it is, not what it is not.

I generally try to avoid reviews and hype about a movie before I go see it. I am starting to find that most people are more willing to tear something apart before they are willing to look at it for what it is. Furthermore, I would like to see all these nay-sayers in James Cameron's position. Take on a project that huge and tread in waters that may or may not swallow you. Then it is okay to throw stones. Everyone needs criticism, but criticism without considering all factors of a project is not really useful for anyone. This is especially true if the criticism is coming from someone who has not even seen the movie. Just because you want to sound like you are some sort of film connoisseur does not mean you have the foresight to hate something before you have even set eyes on it. (This is a general 'you' of course. I have heard this from many different sources.) There are many different genres of movies in the world. There is a reason I rarely give my opinion about horror movies: I tend to not enjoy them regardless of how well made they are. Therefore, I feel like I could contribute little in the way of constructive criticism. Avatar is a 'western' of sorts. It is an 'epic'. The story is going to be predictable. It is supposed to be predictable. If viewed in this light, Avatar far surpassed anything I could have hoped for, and I am excited to see the avenues it has opened for filmmakers of any genre.

Beauty in Light

The first few of these look pretty rough because my scanner didn't really do them justice.

I am fascinated by Geisha and their art. The way this is lit and silhouettes the dancers is beautiful. It really outlines their shape and form.

This looked much, much better in the book it came from, but I love how orange the sky is and how that natural beauty mixes with the modern street lights coming from the stores. It is a mix of man-made and nature.

Yet another that was scanned in and sadly downgraded in the process. I love the spotlight and intensity of the sun coming in through the windows. It creates almost an unearthly feel.

This is a picture my boyfriend took. How the sun still shines through the flag and almost makes it transparent is quite striking. The tree completely in shadow in the foreground is nice as well to contrast the brightness behind it.

I really like fashion photography for how highly stylized it can be. I just love how white and soft this picture is. It gives a very pure emotion to it and the model looks like porcelain. (Of course this is probably due to photoshop as well.) The bright spot in the top left that spills over her face a bit gives this a dreamlike quality as well.

I love this man and he is such an interesting subject to photograph. I really like portraits of people, and he does them so well. Especially in the second photograph the light is hitting him stronger on one side of the face so it creates these wonderful shadows around his nose, eyes and forehead wrinkles. His face really comes alive like this and shows expression. Even his hand has a lot of texture and depth to it.

I chose this picture because I love how the neon lights in the background cast this hazy glow over Beale Street. I absolutely hate bad flash pictures because it ruins the ambiance of a place and this was definitely the feeling of the night.

This is a picture I took New Years awhile back. The way their faces are a little over exposed and the corners gradually get darker gives the feeling of a fading memory.

This was the result of me playing with my camera and the Christmas lights on the tree. I love suggesting movement with light in still photos, and often this is seen in night time shots of cities where cameras are left on long exposures and captures the cars moving through the streets. This is the same thing except I was moving the camera instead of the lights. I came up with a lot of crazy patterns, but I am particularly fond of the circular patterns. This might not be 'beautiful' lighting, but it most certainly is funky, and I tend to be drawn to the whimsical.

These are two pictures I took of my cat, Mozart, when he was still a (big) kitten. I suppose it's fairly clear I have a thing for windows and natural light coming in from them. The first I like because of the red tint cast because of the curtains. The second, I love how the sunlight falls on his face outlining him. He looks really angelic (looks are deceiving!). With the dark curtain and wall on the edges of the frame it really feels like you are looking in on him.

Puppy Love

Puppy Love from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.

Pups & Portraits

This project made me realize how incredibly frustrating any sort of documentary type filmmaking can be. I am the type of person that likes to formulate a clear picture of something in my head, and then plan it out in detail. I quickly found out that when filming something as unpredictable as puppies (the subject of my piece), everything you had in mind can quickly go out the window. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do for my portrait; when it came to actually creating that image in my head it was a completely different story.

I could not tell Ramona (my DP) to frame up a MCU of someone's face or what not. I had to think about how to communicate with her the feeling of what I wanted to come across. Most of my direction to her came in the form of sentences like: "I want this to feel rough but at the same time cuddly." No tripod shots. Everything needed to feel organic. I could not really tell her specifics. Instead, I just put my trust in her judgment of what would look good in respect to my overall vision. Since we could never predict exactly what the puppies would be doing, it was all reaction. There were moments when I would look at Ramona and say: "Hey get this shot of my face getting puppy kisses." I also discusses broad ideas like making sure everything was shot low from the level of the puppies. I did not want many shots looking down on them, instead I wanted it to be more from their level. We took a TON of footage. We were out there for hours, and most of it was simply us running around trying to coax the puppies into doing something at the right time with the camera in the right place. Now I've got tons of footage to shift through to find out those moments where everything worked out the way I had imagined. For the most part we just left the camera rolling so we wouldn't miss anything.

However, in all of this documentary style footage, there were a few shots that we spent quite a bit of time trying to get just right. For the most part, however, I wanted the moments I captured to be spontaneous and void of and sort of contrived interaction. Ironically, creating something in a controlled environment that is make-believe is easier than pulling from the real world.

Run & Gun

The "run & gun" exercise was a huge frustration for me. I am still 'clumsy' when it comes to dealing with the cameras. I tend to get so caught up into worrying over making sure I white balanced correctly or what quality or format I'm recording in that I lose focus on what is actually going on in front of the camera. Most of this will go away once I get my hands on cameras enough to feel comfortable knowing exactly what I am doing. I am not the type to learn from a book; I am a full hands-on/visual learner. I feel fairly confident in understanding the various concepts of different shots and how to compose them, but once again it is fluid application of those concepts that trips me up. I love challenges like this a lot, but I found myself more worried about how I was doing something rather than what I was doing.

Child's Play

As children we are encouraged to explore our imaginations through activities such as dress-up and make-believe play. When I think back to my childhood I am still amazed at the complexity of the pretend worlds that I made up with my friends. It really is amazing just how far a child's imagination can go if it is set free.

However, as we grow older we are discouraged from the world of fantasy and told to focus on the reality of our futures. Eventually our childhood memories fade, and we grow up and grow serious. Every single one of us starts out as storytellers, but few of us actually hold on to that child-like fascination with the world around us.

I am one of those children that never grew up at heart. For a long time I was not sure what exactly I wanted to do with my life, but I was certain that I would be a storyteller of some sort. I thought that theatre would be my career at one point, but I was never fully satisfied with what the stage had to offer. Filmmaking, however, combines the art of theatre with photography and satisfies a growing fascination I hold with technology.

My main goal in filmmaking is to be a master storyteller of sorts; I want to direct. Yet I want to have a broader understanding of the process of filmmaking that reaches far beyond just directing. I believe in order to truly master something one has to understand the individual parts that make up the whole. For this reason, I do not want to just be a director, but also an editor, DP, special effects artist, writer, and any other job that might fall in the vast world of filmmaking. This course is part of the learning process for me. I want to take as much as I can out of learning the basics and moving on to more complex ideas. These are the building blocks I can use to carry with me throughout the rest of my career to build upon.

My Childhood as Art

This is kind of an afterthought to my previous post about visual references.

My favorite part about working in community theatre was having to do huge musicals that required an enormous amount of props, set pieces, and costumes, but we had a budget that hardly covered half of list. Of course it would be awesome to work somewhere with an unlimited budget where you are afforded the opportunity to have the best of the best equipment, but working on small budgets forces out a new level of creativity in people. A lot of the time directors or designers would come to me with these crazy ideas. It never was a question of "Can you do this for me?"; instead, it was more of "I don't care how you do it, but this is what I want and when I want it." I was extremely intimidated by this at first, but eventually I trained myself to see things in a different light.

Figuring this all out was trial and error. I had people I could go to for help if I absolutely needed it, but everyone was busy trying to get their 'to-dos' finished. I started out on the show literally reading the props list and then looking for those items, and at the end of the show, my mindset had completely changed: I would read the list and then brainstorm on ways to create that prop out of less expensive and easier to find materials. In theatre, it is easier to get away with less-than-perfect matches than in film where everything can be seen in detail, but the idea carries over. In film, a lot can be created in creative editing & composition of shots.

Thinking creatively is not something you can really be taught. It is more of an experience. In classes on design, students are always shown the proper equipment and ways of doing things. This is incredibly important to know, but from my experience it's also important to know how to do the same things without the same resources. This 'creative thinking' isn't really even an artistic ability or a talent. Instead, it is an awareness of everything around you and an effort to look at something not for what it is, but for what it could be. For individuals like me, this becomes much more than just a necessity of a small budget or limited resources; it becomes a challenge, a puzzle, or even an art form.

I have been fascinated with light for awhile now. Working in theatre, I had a love/hate relationship with it. I often found myself in very high places dealing with very hot instruments, or tangled up in a disaster of cables someone didn't take the time to run properly. (During one show I was focusing a light in one of the booms on the sides of the theatre. It was the light on the very bottom, and I had to wiggle my way out to the light around the others. In the process of doing this and trying to avoid the other hot lights, I managed to wrap my legs and feet up in the cable around me. I had to have someone come and pull me out.) Beyond theatre, there is so much to do with light. I am a huge technology nerd, and light is one of those things that only gets more interesting as people figure out new ways to manipulate it. Sometimes though, people find new ways to manipulate old technology, and the results can be great. Maybe it's pointless, or excessive, but art doesn't always have to have a point beyond being really, really awesome.

I'm including this in my visual references for several reasons: it utilizes one of my favorite childhood toys, it's incredibly nerdy, it's incredibly whimsical, but also very thought-out, and it has unicorns and pink lions. Awesome.

If you haven't figured out what this is yet, click on the picture. I stumbled on it browsing through Gizmodo .