The Canadian director needed twelve years for preparation and shooting Avatar: The Way of Water, the second installment in one of cinema’s most ambitious franchises. And as for avatarJames Cameron’s team not only had to develop the narrative and visual universe, but also the necessary technology.

Avatar: The Way of Water was a titanic job. In February 2010, James Cameron and producer Jon Landau decided to hold a mini technology summit with the “Avatar” teams to review the feature film’s technical elements and identify strengths and weaknesses. “I do not think so The way of the water would have seen the light of day if we hadn’t participated in this exercise,” said the filmmaker, who began to think about the rest after the meeting ended.

note pages

As soon as James Cameron comes to work, he fills notebooks. The director and producer fills a total of 1500 pages, which also contain possible plots. And that’s when he realizes it’s going to take a lot more than two movies to tell the story of Pandora, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). In The way of the waterThe couple now have children, Neteyam (James Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), an adopted teenager.

But people come back. Besides mining Unobtainium, they also want to colonize Pandora to settle there since Earth is on the verge of becoming uninhabitable. The Sullys and the Omatikaya tribe flee to the mountains to join the Metkayina, a clan that lives on the water and whose leaders Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) have no choice but to help them. But that doesn’t stop Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) from pursuing her.

The time spent refining the story for this and subsequent parts has enabled the team The way of the water to develop the technological tools essential to this film, in other words, to find a way to capture underwater performances, a first in cinematic history. “The key is to really shoot underwater, but only on the surface so the actors can swim properly, get out of the water properly, and dive properly. And it feels real because the movements were real and the emotions were real,” said the filmmaker.

An extraordinary shoot

Stephen Lang is therefore back as the villain – thanks to a technology consisting of the transfer of DNA and memories – even if his character died in the previous part. Asked about his preparation for this by the QMI agency Avatar: The Way of Waterthe actor said the months leading up to James Cameron’s first oar had been intense.

“It was very physical. I had to work on my flexibility, my energy and my strength. I did a lot of parkour, a lot of archery, a lot of martial arts. For fights I studied knife fights, stick fights and of course automatic weapons. I also had to work on everything that happens in water, it’s no secret that this “avatar” takes place in phenomenal amounts of water.

“With Jim Cameron and avatarYou never know when shooting will start or even when it will end, said Stephen Lang, laughing, when asked how long he had been immersed in the feature film. Jim can always call and say he needs us.”

“If I remember correctly, it took a few years to shoot. We started filming in 2017 and started preparing in 2015. We took breaks before coming back and starting over. From 2017 to 2019 things got really serious. The schedule was very intense, I don’t even know how long I spent on set, between 100 and 200 days. I admit I’ve lost count. I showed up and worked.”

The resurrection of cinema in the cinema

That’s where performance capture technology comes in – Peter Jackson’s “Motion/Performance Capture”. Lord of the Ringsthen by Andy Serkis for his remarkable trilogy The Planet of the Apes -, the Academy of Oscars strives to recognize this type of game as an actor’s game in its own right, and systematically snubs the actors who use it.

“Capturing performance is a more present reality in cinema today. How people adapt and how they are recognized is beyond our control. I knew it as soon as I saw the first one avatar that Zoe Saldana’s performance is one of the most impressive in the history of cinema. Capturing a service is a standalone service. I don’t know how to explain that anymore.”

“It’s a game that, with its minimalism, comes very close to that of a theatrical stage. It is a technology that requires the full use of all the tools available to the actors. Is it harder? no Playing is basically simple, but it’s a difficult art,” said Stephen Lang.

Another serious issue is cinema attendance, which has declined significantly in the United States and Europe since the pandemic. The first avatar had not only sparked a rush for 3D technology and boosted box office receipts, but also smashed all records as moviegoers flocked to theaters to see the feature film. Avatar: The Way of Water Will he be able to convince the masses to reconnect with the dark spaces?

“It’s hard to say, but I tend to answer yes. It is difficult to predict what the public reaction will be. Because of the nature of the film, its importance and the expectations of moviegoers, I believe so The way of the water is the perfect feature film to bring people back to theaters and convince new moviegoers.”

“I believe that cinema will never be the same again. But cinema is constantly evolving. If we compare what the movies of the 1930s were to what they became in the 1960s, we find that it was radically different, particularly because of the democratization of television. The important thing is that cinema is back. It’s impossible to transmit the cinematic experience anywhere but in a theater – on the big screen, sitting with strangers and communicating in front of a screen.”

• Avatar: The Way of Water opened on December 16th.