1 / 13

James Cameron’s Avatar

James Cameron’s Avatar. A formula for success: Narrative. A US army officer, injured in battle, is stationed to a remote post where primitive natives live all around He falls in love with a native girl and is accepted into the tribe after helping them find a group of buffalo

hanley
Download Presentation

James Cameron’s Avatar

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. James Cameron’s Avatar

  2. A formula for success: Narrative • A US army officer, injured in battle, is stationed to a remote post where primitive natives live all around • He falls in love with a native girl and is accepted into the tribe after helping them find a group of buffalo • The US army comes to check on the outpost & attacks the tribe, claiming the land is theirs • The tribe fight back, but lose

  3. A formula for success: Narrative • A US marine, injured in battle, is stationed to a remote post where primitive natives live all around • He falls in love with a native girl and is accepted into the tribe after helping them tame a group of ikran (mountain banshee) • The US marines come in to take the natives’ land • The tribe fights back, and with the marine’s help, wins…

  4. A formula for success: The Release • Titanic was originally scheduled for release in the summer of 1997, but it was pushed back to the winter because of post-editing delays • It was eventually released in the US on 17th December 1997 • It went on to make $1.8bn

  5. A formula for success: The Release • Avatar was originally scheduled for a summer released • It was pushed back to 16th-18th December, 2009 • It made $2.7bn worldwide • Why? • Legacy of Titanic’s success… • Main competition for Avatar: • Alvin & the Chipmunks: the Squeakuel • The Spy Next Door • Did You Hear About the Morgans?

  6. The Re-release The movie was re-released on 27th August 2010 with 9 additional minutes of footage (all CGI) • The movie played again for 12 weeks in cinemas, bringing in a further $780m worldwide The footage cost just over $9m

  7. Audience Positioning: The look of the Na’vi

  8. Audience Positioning: The look of the Na’vi

  9. Audience Positioning: A 1D experience • Na’vi as a cutesy race makes them more likeable to audiences • Idea that primitive = innocent (no money; no concept of land ownership; etc.)

  10. Audience Positioning: A 1D experience Peaceful (kill to survive) Low tech Respect land/planet – no concept of economics Innocent = THE GOOD GUYS Violent Lots of tech Imperialist/Colonialist (want everything to belong to them) Sadistic = THE BAD GUYS

  11. Audience Responses • “It was an absolute marvel and I am left in awe after seeing it,” James Howard – audience member at premiere • “It's all about the quality of the 3D for me. I'd never seen a 3D film before and this is amazing.” Lucy Beswick – audience member at premiere • Some fans... “have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.” source=CNN

  12. Some questions about the film? • Does the film’s status as a 3D experience is limit the film past its cinematic release (think about DVD & Digital download)? • 1.6m 3D TVs shipped in the US by the end of 2010 (roughly 18 months after they were first mass produced) • 53% of US homes had HD TVs in May 2004 (roughly 3 years after they were first mass produced) • The US population was c.293m in 2004 • A US census puts the average people per home at 2.59 • At 2.59 people per home, that’s roughly 113m HD TVs... • ...3D has got some serious catching up to do!

  13. Some questions about the film? • Does James Cameron give audience members enough credit with his film? • Simplistic presentation of characters • Unsubtle uses of words like ‘Pandora’ & ‘unobtanium’ • Supply-led plugging of film’s 3D status

More Related