Trust And The Artist: 3D In ‘Avatar The Way Of Water’
I saw ‘Avatar: The Way Of Water‘ this weekend.
It’s a film that has fostered many opinions. For me, it’s a cinematic masterpiece, that creates a brand new way of telling stories for the big screen. The story itself is not as rich written down, but on-screen it’s more about themes and feelings rather than prose and demonstrations. I want to talk about the 3D version. Specifically James Cameron and 3D.
I’m not a fan of the rise of 3D in the cinema. It’s always felt a bit gimmicky and a good director can make me feel depth on the screen without needing the clunky glasses. Given the choice of a 2D screening or a 3D screening, I?m going to the 2D. Yet when sorting out the tickets for the family trip to Avatar, I was in no doubt I wanted to see it in 3D. Why?
Because I trust Cameron.
There’s been a lot of quick and dirty 3D films out there and very few of them added to the experience. It’s easier to list why 3D in general does not work; using post-production to try and retrofit 3D to an existing film, over-use of the effect such as the classic hand reaching out of the screen, having to compensate for the light and contrast needed to make 3D visible, and so on. The cynic in me would think that studios were just hacking something into 3D so the ticket price could be set higher.
What brought about the rush to 3D? The first Avatar film. More likely Avatar’s 2 billion dollar box office. Everyone wanted some of that pie, but the vast majority soured the experience. I’d highlight ‘Gravity‘ and perhaps ‘Dredd’ as the two exceptions.
With Avatar The Way Of Water coming to the screen, Cameron again brought it out in 3D. Given how seamless and successful the auteur was in the first film, I trusted Cameron to deliver the best 3D experience possible. Which he did.
That’s what happens when you trust someone to ‘make good stuff.’
There’s a lesson in there for anyone who makes stuff, especially stuff online.
As a bit of an experiment, I’ve narrated this blog post on YouTube,
