The buzz surrounding the movie AVATAR, seems unaware that Jar-Jar Binks debuted on screens a decade ago. When George Lucas went down this same path, he was championed as revolutionary in the year 1999. Now in 2009, using digital capture is no longer new nor ground-breaking. Hence my confusion over why exactly James Cameron is being lauded solely for embracing digital production?

Cameron boasted on 60 Minutes recently of his unprecedented achievement in creating everything, “every character, every blade of grass, every cloud…” using digital effects. Yet this has been done before. It’s called a “cartoon.” Bewildering then, that the boomer media didn’t go into overdrive applauding Shrek 3.

On that note, enjoy this Thanksgiving themed parody of CGI from Tim and Eric, that’s on par with the above titles and says all that’s necessary to say.

We applaud any effort AVATAR makes in dispelling the tired “digital = innovation” myth. From the agency standpoint, a year or so it was imperative that spots try shooting on the RED One camera. Digital prosumer cameras were  being heralded as “the new thing” and not using one seemed a detriment. But that was last year’s news. Now with the collateral fall-out over the fact it’s not really 4K capture, the focus has shifted to the newest “new.” Currently the Canon 5D Mark II is the “must try” format, say industry players such as spot director / cinematographer Lance Accord (Park Pictures). The camera is toted for its shallow depth of field, which more readily emulates the look film than just a higher resolution. However with anything that’s “new” today, it’s set to be replaced by virtue of being released.

The field of production companies and so-called “professionals” has now expanded, with $1,000 dollar video cameras becoming acceptable for use on campaigns. In that regard, we have seen the dumbing down of production values combine with the downsizing of media concepts to accommodate iPhones. In embracing lower quality, the actual content has become smaller, cheaper and more disposable.  All to the chagrin of David Lynch…

Though he is speaking directly about long-form being distributed on mobile devices, the same holds true for short-form.

Stay tuned after the Thanksgiving break, as we have more to say on AVATAR and how everything today has gone cyber-emo. Todays concepts of virtual reality, connectivity and the digital frontier seem absolutely vacant when compared to the hellish phantasmagoria of early 90′s VR movies such as Lawnmower Man, The Cell, Strange Days, The Thirteenth Floor and many more insane movies -- hopefully not involving bad Vincent D’Onofrio roles (3 of the 4 above do).

What’s AVATAR got? Using virtual reality to further indigenous rights and the environment. It’ll be like Maya Angelou in cyberspace. Yawn…

Tags: AVATAR, Digital Capture, Postboomer, RED
Posted in: General