Quint: But you saw AVATAR, or you saw some pieces, so will that be the game-changer you think?
Jon Favreau: Look, I went and saw a digital 3-D projection of BEOWULF when that first came out. And thats one of those films where in 3-D
I dont know if I would recommend the film on its own merits, but in the a CG environment I was recommending it to people because the experience was so different it was so dream-like in the way that you perceive it and I think it hits you it hits your brain in a different way. It makes the experience a different experience, it feels more like a dream than a movie, and I thought it was extremely effective in that.
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Jon Favreau: And in watching the way that James Cameron is approaching AVATAR
hes really pushing the boundaries on motion capture, hes integrating live action with motion capture and CGI. It takes a painstaking and technical approach to that. And he really wants to make it a very visceral, emotional experience and hes
hes a bit of a P.T. Barnum in the sense that he likes to put on a big show.
Hes sort of tireless in how much he invests into it as far as his time and effort. You know, he doesnt make a lot of movies, so a lot of thought and effort goes into each one. And I think that hes trying to present this format in a way where it is a game-changer and in seeing it I think its the future. I dont think its a flash in the pan. I think its going to open up a whole new door and I think more so than the glasses it becomes about how many screens could actually present it in its pristine form.
The amount of screens is just growing at a very, very fast rate in the states and I think in Europe as well and I think AVATAR is going to be the kind of movie thats an event that you have to go see and you want to see again just to understand what youre looking at. And then you still have his very effective storytelling. He really creates an adventure and draws you into it in the heros journey sense of storytelling, the Joseph Campbell sense of storytelling. I really liked the bits that I saw and I saw all the various stages of finished, but hes a purist in the way he approaches things, and hes very meticulous.
Jon Favreau: Youre moving back and forth as far as what media youre creating. You really value mentors and people you can learn from when youre in my line of work. Because everybodys breaking new ground and there arent that many people who are at the top of their field. Fortunately people like Jim are very generous with their time and with wanting to share what theyve discovered with other filmmakers, so I learned a great deal about motion capture, a great deal about cgi, a great deal about 3-d and digital photography, from spending some time with him. And I also have learned a lot just from watching his movies. So Im glad he does what he does and Im glad that hes been so generous with his time and knowledge.
And a lot of what hes using were exploring using similar techniques in IRON MAN 2 because it is a game-changer from a production standpoint certainly in the way hes using motion capture and operating a camera within a volume and the way that the pipeline works now is
the line between animation and live action is blurring in many ways and I think that we could borrow a lot from what people have learned through animation as far as making a movie and not just storyboard, animatic, pre-viz, shoot plates, cut it together with post-viz, deliver it to the vendor and then hope you get the shot there in time for the movies release.
And youre crossing your fingers all the way till the sound mix. The way that Jims doing it, its a much more organic process where post-production, production, and pre-production all sort of roll into one another and youre moving back and forth between those media.
That's such a long wait.
