(Paris) Crazy about digital and special effects, James Cameron is a legend who has revolutionized cinema several times, with terminator, titanicWhere Avatar. Technology is at the heart of his work, but is not everything, he assures AFP.
At a time when special effects engines are accessible to all productions and when hundreds of millions of dollars can be invested in a blockbuster, it is the “artistic talent” that makes the difference, believes this king of the box -office.
“Anyone can buy a brush. But not everyone can paint a work”, illustrates the director, during an interview in Paris before the release on December 14 of Avatar 2: The Way of Water.
The production of this film, which comes out thirteen years after the first part, required colossal technical means, including many shootings under water, in apnea. “I’m a kind of central filter for everything, but I have many artists working for me, drawing the characters, the architecture, the world, the plants, the costumes…”, he summarizes.
“I like to think that (the production of the film) is like a big hippie community with a bunch of great artists,” he continues. “Technology does not create art. It is the artists who create the art”.
” Stay focused ”
A movie like Avatarwhere the actors are filmed against a blue screen before all the sets, textures and props are added by computer, owes everything to the performance of the performers, he points out, although they are often unrecognizable to the screen, after digital processing.
“The heart, the emotion, the creativity… All of this happens first”, during the shooting of the “live” scenes, the first stage in the construction of the film, even before the camera angles and shots are defined. “It is only then that the technical work begins”, he develops.
As for the artificial intelligence, which was used to process the images, it is not there to “take the place of the actors, but to be even more faithful to their performance”, he assures.
Man of all records, with the most expensive films, but also the most profitable in the world, from titanic at first Avatar, the filmmaker acknowledges “carrying a heavy responsibility”. “I can’t be capricious, whimsical, or impulsive. I have to stay very focused to create something that both pleases me, appeals to the public and is commercial enough to make money”.
“I can’t be too intellectual, but I can make it satisfying by adding second or third levels of understanding, whether people will grasp it or not,” he continues.
“Angry” for nature
Like a modern-day Commander Cousteau, fascinated by the sea and its depths, to the point of being one of the only humans to have dived in a submarine in the Mariana Trough, the deepest on the planet, Cameron hammers home new in Avatar: The Way of the Water the environmentalist message that had contributed to the success of the first part.
“I don’t think the purpose of a film Avatar either to tell you what to do”, specifies the director. “I think anyone who has studied environmental issues can tell what to do. You know you need to reduce your carbon footprint in every way possible, not vote for assholes, buy an electric car, eat less meat and dairy…”
“But you can influence people’s feelings,” he continues. “The film asks you to feel something for nature, not just to cry at the end or to feel emotion towards the characters. It’s about feeling outrage, […] let people be angry” for nature.
“It awakens that connection to nature within us. About ten minutes after the end of the film, you see the world a little differently”.