Ever since the theatrical trailer I’ve said I’m on an Avatar blackout. I’ve snuck in a few videos here and there; I’m incredibly picky, limiting myself to the occasional TV spot and not touching any character/creature/vehicle profiles or even listening to the James Horner score cuz I read somewhere that the music titles are spoiler-tastic. Jake’s Avatar Kills Quaritch By Punching Him in the Chest (Piano version).
Yet there is one video I watched that further reinforces my erection for all things James Cameron. It’s a video I watched carefully – which pretty much means that I skipped the first few minutes when the actors started talking (not that they automatically have nothing interesting to say, I’m just wary they might give away story/character bits I’d rather see for myself) and then praying to Christ I don’t see anything that spoils. It talks about the technology behind the movie; the Volume where the actors perform and the director chooses his shots from wherever angles. And even though Cameron, as usual, praises the technology he had to create to make the film, he always says something that proves why he is more than just a technical director.
“What we were most worried about was this [Cameron frames his face from the eyes to the mouth] because this is where movies live and breathe, in the tight close-up.”
Performances are usually what excite me about a movie, but I never realized how much I’m enamored with close-ups. Quickly going through my favorite movie scenes/shots, the majority are close-ups; Hicks shining the light across the crawl space; Ripley tilting her head and having enough when she meets the Queen; Eli’s final shot in Let The Right One In; Murray and Johansson hugging at the end of Lost in Translation; the T-1000 reshaping its head after the Pescadero elevator doors close.
Only 17 more days till opening day.
I’m having trouble embedding, so here’s the link.
