No Film School
It’s the most hotly anticipated sequel in Hollywood and also
its biggest gamble. James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi spectacle grossed $2.78 billion
at the box office for Fox but will be twelve years since the original release
when Avatar 2 premiers in December 2021. With a billion dollars spent on
production spanning all four planned sequels, Disney will be fingers crossed
that there’s audience appetite for more tales from Pandora.
You would be a fool to bet against it. If anyone can
shepherd a franchise into profit and longevity it’s the Marvel-Lucasfilm-Mouse
House. Naysayers at the time of Avatar’s debut were quickly silenced by
the astonishing traction that the film’s fusion of 3D cinema and high concept
storytelling galvanised.
The sequels are equally anticipated in tech circles for
their approach to production. The original was a bone fide ground breaker in
pushing forward virtual production techniques such as the use of a virtual
camera for the director to visualise CG characters and backgrounds in realtime
on a live action set. Only in the last few years, with the advance of game
engine renders and LED screens as backdrops, has this become standard on films
like The Jungle Book or shows like The Mandalorian.
The secrecy surrounding not just plot but production
technology is all part of building a sense of excitement ahead of release, as
producer Jon Landau knows only too well when posting behind the scenes shots on
Instagram. Recently more information has been revealed.
Cameron committed to shooting the sequels in high frame
rates almost as soon as Avatar released but has never committed publicly
to the new film’s exact specification.
Until now. In an exclusive interview https://www.ibc.org/trends/behind-the-scenes-avatar-2-and-3/6007.article
with IBC, the European counterpart to broadcast and film trade show NAB,
Cameron’s production company Lightstorm Entertainment goes on the record to
state that Avatar 2 and 3 (which are being shot and produced in
parallel) are captured in 3D 4K at 48 frames a second and in High Dynamic
Range.
“Massive amounts of data is being pushed around
live every minute,” says Geoff Burdick, senior vice president of
Production Services & Technology, Lightstorm Entertainment. “We
needed HFR and high res and everything had to be in 3D. This may not be
not the science experiment it was when shooting the
first Avatar but the sync for 3D at those higher frames and
resolutions is still an issue. Alerting camera to issues is a big part of our
job.”
Burdick goes on to explain that the issues he is on particular
look out for during the live action shoot surround stereo capture such as
ensuring parity between left and right eye lenses (on up to three stereo pairs
shooting simultaneously), whether an iris is mismatched, if the zoom is
offset or there are rotational axis issues.
“There are critical camera adjacent monitors for our DP and
focus pullers who are working in convergence and dialling in interocular and
can look perfect but my small team and I see the same feed live and I can radio
to Jim that we have an issue. Nobody would have seen that without this set
up.”
The set-up he refers to is a mobile screening room that
simulates the theatrical environment right at the point of capture. The ‘pod’
houses a Christie Digital 3D projector capable of projecting DCI compliant
dailies to large screen. While it’s not unusual for high end shows to
screen dailies in this way, it is probably the most state of the art example
since this is being projected in 3D.
The 3D rigs are comprised of multiple 6K-capable Sony Venice
cameras, with the optical blocks disconnected from camera body by a cable at
distances of up to 20 feet. By lowering the weight and improving
ergonomics, Cameron and DP Russell Carpenter can wield the cameras with greater
flexibility and freedom.
Burdick also describes the workflow enabling the data to be
transported around set. The glue is a series of Blackmagic Design boxes which
take the signal direct from the Sony Venice cameras and convert it into
multiple combinations for thorough on-set reviews. These include 3D 48fps in 2K
and 4K, 3D 24fps in 2K and 4K, and 3D 24fps in HD plus SDR and HDR variants.
While the film’s final theatrical release format has not
been announced, it is my understanding that Avatar will only have
certain select scenes shown at high frame rate. Instead, and unlike experiments
by Ang Lee (Billy Lynn’s, Gemini Man) which were given a 120fps full
picture release, Cameron intends to master only sequences of his film at HFR
48fps.
This would chime with his recent commentary to Collider that
HFR is of primary use to smooth motion blur of action sequences or fast pans
caused when playing back stereoscopically at 24fps.
“I have a personal philosophy around high frame rate, which
is that it is a specific solution to specific problems having to do with 3D,”
Cameron said. “When
you get the strobing and the jitter of certain shots that pan or certain
lateral movement across frame, it’s distracting in 3D. To me, [HFR is] just a
solution for those shots. I don’t think it’s a format. I think it’s a
tool to be used to solve problems in 3D projection.”
The one plot point which has been widely shared is that
significant scenes will take place underwater. Not just CG water, but with the
actors trained to hold their breath for up to four minutes, while wearing
performance capture suits and no scuba breathing gear.
The problem with filming this is not the underwater part, of
which Cameron has extensive experience not least shooting the actual Titanic in
the 3D documentary Ghosts of the Abyss, but the interface between the
air and the water, “which forms a moving mirror,” he explained to The
Independent newspaper.
“That moving mirror reflects all the dots and markers, and
it creates a bunch of false markers. It’s a little bit like a fighter
plane dumping a bunch of chaff to confuse the radar system of a missile.
We’ve thrown a lot of horsepower, innovation, imagination and new
technology at the problem, and it’s taken us about a year and a half now to
work out how we’re going to do it.”
Part of the solution involved covering the surface of the
tank in small white balls that prevent overhead studio lights from
contaminating the performance capture system below… while still allowing anyone
below to surface safely through them should the need arise.
The interview with Burdick just pertains to the live action
shoot on stages at Wellington, New Zealand. There are two other major stage of Avatar
production; a performance capture of all the principals which was filmed first
and finished for actors including Kate Winslet as long as two years ago; and a
virtual production (at Manhattan Beach Studios near LAX) in which performance
capture assets animated at Weta Digital are used by Cameron and his editorial
team (including five lead editors) to shape the narrative.
This aspect of production, including use of games engine
tech, is still being kept behind closed doors.
Also worth noting that, should Avatar 2 take a bath
at the box office, sequels 4 and 5 may not be greenlit by Disney.
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