Avatar - James Cameron Returns! (Spoilers in thread, obviously!)

Are we not, as film-makers, always trying to elicit an emotional reaction though?

We want our audiences to laugh, cry, fear, love with our characters. The most memorable (and successful) films are those that make us feel something.


- Mikko
 
Jim Klatt said:
A study was released today: "Researchers found that each hour a day spent watching TV was linked with an 18% greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, an 11% greater risk of all causes of death, and a 9% increased risk of death from cancer. "
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I guess it's fortunate that the more TV I work on, the less I watch...

...I dunno. It's so obviously Bad For You that I tend to think of attrition due to tv-sloth as an evolutionary selection factor. Makes the gene pool collectively that much slimmer and that much smarter...
 
mikkowilson said:
Are we not, as film-makers, always trying to elicit an emotional reaction though?

We want our audiences to laugh, cry, fear, love with our characters. The most memorable (and successful) films are those that make us feel something.


- Mikko
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Feel something, sure! Send people to the psych ward, no. :smile: I was just addressing the people who experience the extreme effects of gaming and overly identifying with cinematic characterizations or themes. My daughter who is 21 yrs old now is EXTREMELY addicted to online gaming. She holds a job and pays her bills, but every free moment of her time is spent online (literally) playing either Left for Dead or WoW. Its become her entire social structure. No movies, no books, no tv, no conversations. She takes breaks to walk the dog for a few minutes. Her friends are exclusively the people in her guild, or whatever they are called. She literally cannot go any significant length of time without playing without getting severely depressed. People used to not understand the struggle I faced with her as a parent, but they've gotten a look firsthand and they get it now.

So I can relate sorta to the issues of the opiate effect of the gaming world on people. I dont really understand a movie like Avatar having the same effect because gaming I think does that to a person over time, extended exposure, I guess.

But yeah, certainly as filmmakers and storytellers, we want to move our audience emotionally. I personally just expect it to be a healthy experience for the audience, not a detrimental one. Avatar was a healthy and happy and awe-inspiring movie-going experience for me, and I had no trouble getting back to my own world when it was over. :smile:
 
It seems that the norm is more and more obsessive and addicted to screens as time goes on. What is normal now, would seem extremely abnormal only 20 years ago in regards to media viewing habits statistics.

As virtual realities become more real, they are becoming the norm, and the generations that are born into this are more and more saturated. The real world is losing its appeal because of the tremendous allure of these virtual worlds.

One interesting trend about TV viewing, is that the average person watches more and more TV every year that they are born starting from when they are less than a year old(there is even a station for Babies now!) til the day they die. The chart shows a steady climb with more and more TV as you get older. The only interruption in this ascension is the teenage years, who watch less TV than those that are 7 and over. After the teenage years, we hop right back on and watch more and more til we die.
 
World of Warcraft is one of the reason that gaming Rehab Centers have started popping up around the country. Most of the rehab centers focus on re-introducing the addict to nature and their bodies through exercise, yoga, etc. The deeper people get into gaming or screen watching, the more they become disconnected from their bodies and their health.

The rational and logical side of their brain basically flatlines when they are gaming/tv, so it is hard for them to turn it off and take care of themself.
 
The Chinese regard this as such a problem that video game-rehab facilities are popping up all over major cities.

Of course, the way *they* approach the problem means that some of their 'patients' don't survive the rehab.
 
Jim Klatt said:
The rational and logical side of their brain basically flatlines when they are gaming/tv, so it is hard for them to turn it off and take care of themself.
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But doesn't participation in these virtual worlds (including even watching TV) require both reasoning and logic? I'd think that the brain is far from "flatlined" at that time.



How about this hypothetical alternate ending to Avatar (Spoilers, duh) to discuss this topic in a fictional environment:

Jake can't get transferred through Eywa into his Na'vi body, but rather has to remain alive in his Human body.
Would it be reasonable for Jake to spend the rest of his waking hours in the link living as his Avatar (among the Na'vi & with Neytiri)?

- Mikko
 
mikkowilson said:
But doesn't participation in these virtual worlds (including even watching TV) require both reasoning and logic? I'd think that the brain is far from "flatlined" at that time.
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Eye-hand run/jump/shoot/dodge does not particularly engage reasoning or logical capabilities. I suppose that the puzzles built into some games might address that a bit.

mikkowilson said:
How about this hypothetical alternate ending to Avatar (Spoilers, duh) to discuss this topic in a fictional environment:

Jake can't get transferred through Eywa into his Na'vi body, but rather has to remain alive in his Human body.
Would it be reasonable for Jake to spend the rest of his waking hours in the link living as his Avatar (among the Na'vi & with Neytiri)?

- Mikko
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It was heavily implied in the screenplay (and I think to a degree in the actual movie) that hours and days and weeks and months spent in the link is bad for you (kind of like being bedridden for a prolonged span of time, with all the extra mental/emotional wobble that the link experience could introduce). Maintaining and repairing the link equipment (not to mention all the other gear that humans need to survive on Pandora) would eventually become a critical problem, too.
 
Jim Klatt said:
A study was released today: "Researchers found that each hour a day spent watching TV was linked with an 18% greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, an 11% greater risk of all causes of death, and a 9% increased risk of death from cancer. "

There is also greater likelihood of ADD, Diabetes, Obesity, and Autism.
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I’m by no means a promoter or an apologist for excessive TV-viewing or sedentary lifestyles in general… but this kind of unscientific scaremongering, and devious statistical trickery really p****s me off.

(Not you, Jim! – I’m talking about the paper’s leading author, his PR folk, and the scientifically-illiterate hacks who paraphrase such ‘findings’ for the masses.)

ScienceBlogs/CognitiveDaily’s response to the paper.


Ben Goldacre explains, in plain English, the important difference between relative and absolute values when communicating risk factors:
http://www.badscience.net/2005/06/risky-busines

DP
 
CallaghanFilms said:
Get the poo poo outta here. Really?!
I think the gene pool needs some spring cleaning if we are to survive...
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Yes, really. The tv show (ironically) was willing to put my daughter on Intervention when it was a new show, but I figured there were other ways I could get it done. Cut off internet (she rode her bike 15 miles a day to use the library computers to play) dismantled her pc and scattered the pieces (she pieced it together before I would get home, then cool her monitor back off by putting it in the freezer for a few minutes [doh!]), put the power cords in my trunk (she got more from friends at school).... Its a real problem in this world.

But back to Avatar and the progression/evolution of movies in the visual sense, I think the increased use of 3D is just going to expand that whole world and I look forward to seeing the new ways we're offered to see the filmmakers' vision of their stories. I don't believe it will take over exclusively, but there will be more of it, I hope.
 
mikkowilson said:
But doesn't participation in these virtual worlds (including even watching TV) require both reasoning and logic? I'd think that the brain is far from "flatlined" at that time.


It lessens creative reasoning, it even lessens reading abilities. Much of this can be attributed to the the drop in Beta waves in the brain. Also the right hemisphere continues to function normally(emotional) while the left side(analytical, reasoning) drops drastically.

It is actually rewiring children's brains in the way that they learn and their left brain language circuitry.
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That's a lot of wasted Ice Cream space there Terri.

Sad Max said:
It was heavily implied in the screenplay (and I think to a degree in the actual movie) that hours and days and weeks and months spent in the link is bad for you (kind of like being bedridden for a prolonged span of time, with all the extra mental/emotional wobble that the link experience could introduce).
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I've read the Scriptment, and I saw the same implications there too.

But who cares if Jake's body would whither in the link, if he was living as the Na'vi - which was clearly his calling at the end of the movie. His Avatar life was, for all intents & purposes, his life then.


- Mikko
 
Yeah, but withering unto incapacity or death still leaves you dead or incapacitated, even when it comes to operating your Na'vi avatar. Remember how Jake's connection to his Na'vi body was affected when the link shack was holed and the Pandoran air started leaking in...
 
In practical terms,

A)You are gaming, you are in the jungle and using your reason to get through the game, etc.

B)You are in the real world and in the jungle and using your reason to get through...well, the jungle.

You cannot even begin to compare the development that happens in the real world versus the virtual world. This is a more extreme example, but you can apply it to something more simple
and the same thing happens.

Life is hard. Virtual worlds are escaping this hard world for respite, or refuge in many cases.
 
Jim Klatt said:
...Life is hard. Virtual worlds are escaping this hard world for respite, or refuge in many cases.
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smallest-violin.jpg
 
Sad Max said:
Yeah, but withering unto incapacity or death still leaves you dead or incapacitated, even when it comes to operating your Na'vi avatar. Remember how Jake's connection to his Na'vi body was affected when the link shack was holed and the Pandoran air started leaking in...
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Ok, ignoring all the boring practicalities - which wasn't the focus of my question - , on a purely philosophical level: If Jake could live the rest of his normal natural lifespan in his Avatar, would that be acceptable or should he do it in his human form if he couldn't become fully Na'vi via Eywa?


- Mikko
 
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