Film analysis Avatar (sound+editing)

Editing:-

Avatar wasn’t just a theatrical release in 2009, it was a full blown force of nature. The biggest box office hit of all time, Avatar also revolutionized motion capture and 3D in Hollywood and picked up several Oscar nods and wins, including a nomination for best Picture. Avatar is nearly seventy percent computer generated, in some respects practically an animated film, and Fiore had only been behind the camera for less than a third of the movie’s running time. Avatar bears the marks of a Mauro Fiore-shot film, and despite its abundance of digital effects, is a superbly photographed movie worthy of its award.
The film’s digital and live action elements are inseparable, however, and it’s impossible to talk about the look of Avatar without understanding its technical foundation. Director James Cameron famously spent fifteen years developing the technology and the world of Avatar, waiting until it was physically possible to bring his vision of a distant alien world to life. Much of the film was shot with the Fusion Camera System, a digital 3D apparatus co-developed by Cameron and since used with several other films. The Fusion allowed Cameron, Furio and the crew to shoot in 3D with a revolutionary quieter, smaller setup. It used stereoscopic lenses—two separate lenses on the same horizontal plane—to mimic the vision of two human eyes. By capturing two images slightly adjacent to one another, it created the same three-dimensional depth people see with their eyes. By adjusting the intraocular distance between the two lenses, the filmmakers had control over how much depth was in a given shot.
The Fusion was able to reduce the distance between lenses to an incredibly small amount while also incorporating ten other types of motion that gave the filmmakers an unprecedented amount of control to compose a three-dimensional image. It could do all this and still be stripped down to even perform handheld and Steadicam work, which was crucial to Cameron’s intense direction. The Fusion also allowed for several types of cameras to work with it. In Avatar, Fiore shot with three different HD Sony models. Cameron, a famously hands-on filmmaker, would often operate the camera himself while Fiore blocked the scene.
Fiore, obviously new to this system, took several weeks to get acquainted with the equipment before he felt confident enough to shoot with it. This included getting familiar with how the Fusion would handle light, something any DP needs as much control over as possible. During this testing period, Fiore found the Fusion created a ghosting effect that would blur images with especially bright and especially dark objects within the same frame. Fiore was able to block his set to account for this, keeping certain objects apart, lighting them appropriately, and even using smoke to temper the effects of the contrast and ghosting.
Another technical innovation Avatar introduced to Hollywood was its virtual cinematography. For shooting in the animated world of Pandora, Cameron and his team could use a handheld controller similar to the one used in video games. Using a monitor that would show the motion-capture actors in their pre-rendered animated states, the team had full control over the scale and motion of the virtual camera. By switching the scale, the camera could tower over the digital figures as if atop a 100 foot crane. The controller could also operate the camera as if it were on dolly tracks, or a Steadicam rig, or even handheld. In effect, it was total cinematic control over the digital image.
Light was also Fiore’s key to seamlessly merging Avatar’s digital effects with its live action. Had the filmmakers fail to blend the two into a coherent movie, Avatar might have been remembered as a optically-jarring flop as opposed to the visual masterpiece its now known as. Fiore realized early on in the production that he could use reflective paint and reflective material on certain objects that would react to UV light in a way that differentiated them in post-production, allowing the green screen around them to feel invisible.
Many exterior scenes were also shot indoors with green screen, Fiore also had to block with light sources that weren’t physically there. In each shot he had to be aware of where the sun would be digitally added and theoretically light the scene. For one major sequence involving an army of soldiers, Cameron actually chose to shoot outside, night-for-day. At first, Fiore thought faking night for day was ludicrous but eventually saw Cameron’s reasoning. By lighting with their own equipment as opposed to the actual sun, they had total control over illumination and shadows. And if there was one thing Cameron cherished on his set, it was total control, even over the heavens.

Sound:-

The sound devices used in Avatar are diagetic meaning it comes from within the world of the movie, all you hear are the sounds of their feet on the leaves or during the battle scenes the calls from the warriors and the roar of the helicopter blades. The dialogue is very clear and important to getting the story across and there is even a fictional language that the Na’vi speak that needs to be captioned that is scrolled across the screen when they are speaking it. The sound effects are not overplayed and done riddiculously like some films it is realistic even to the fictional characters like the birds that they fly on, to the flapping of their wings and the roar and hissing sounds they make. There are many different moods through out the film and the music that is played helps set the mood, during the battle scene the heavy drums and quick beat gets the heart racing and you can feel the adrenaline that the characters feel.

During the love scenes the music is soft and almost romantic helping the viewers feel the connection between the two. With out the music that is played the movie would still be powerful but you might not be as drawn into the film as you are with the music. As for the sound effects if any if them were removed the world of Pandora might not feel as realistic as it does with them. In the clip “Making the bond” you hear subtle sound effects like the swinging of the vine, and the tumbling of rocks and they scatter across the ground making the scene that much more real and dramatic.