Avatar: Paving The Way For The Future Of Filmmaking?

James Cameron, the self-proclaimed ‘King of the World’ has been busy of late. His latest film Avatar (which was dreamt up fourteen years ago) is due for release this December, and the significance of this film is being furiously speculated due to its innovations in cinematic technology.

Cameron has developed the ‘motion-capture’ technology that uses an actor’s performance to create computer-animated characters that are photo-real. Think Gollum but, well, better. He has also rendered the film in 3-D in order to create and capture a believable setting for Avatar, a film that takes place 100 years into the future on a planet where an alien race co-exists with humans.

In order to fully visualise this world, scenes for Avatar were filmed in a performance-capture set, enabling the director to view post-production effects whilst the live action was being filmed.
So has Cameron completely altered the art of filmmaking forever? With such heavyweights as Spielberg and Jackson jumping on the ‘mo-cap’ bandwagon, it’s safe to assume that cinematic trend has started. Yet I can’t help but wonder whether this labour of love has taken too long to hit the cinema screens.

With a plethora of 3-D films becoming widely available to audiences, I fear Avatar may be lost in the sea of novelty and frivolity that encompasses the current 3-D trend. I hope that current marketing campaign for the film is successful, by building anticipation and excitement through the online community who eagerly wait this visual masterpiece.

Do you think Avatar will set a new trend in filmmaking? Is it going to be another commercial smash for Cameron like Titanic?