According to the original plan, Duke was supposed to go on vacation to Australia with Scarlett, but the day before departure, Marvel Studios sent news that Captain Arica needed to shoot so additional scenes in Louisiana, many involving Natasha Romanoff, so Scarlett had to report to the crew first.
Duke went alone to Wellington. He wasn’t just there to vacation; he also wanted to visit Jas Caron’s crew.
Earlier this year, Jas Caron’s new project, code-nad Project 880, officially entered pre-production. Although, with his style, filming and casting were still far off, important early preparation had already started.
After landing, Duke went straight to Weta Workshop, where in the professional studio he t Jas Caron.
Though the two had no real friendship, Duke was a film investor holding one-third of the project’s shares, and he was credited as a producer with the right to inquire about matters.
However, Duke knew how to deal with Caron: unless it involved funding, he wouldn’t interfere with his work.
Caron received Duke and gave an introduction to the project.
He also knew well that to gain more control, he needed to build strong confidence with investors and producers.
Walking through the busy studio, Caron introduced so set designs and equipnt layout while explaining his plans: "The film will be shot using 3D technology, with so scenes shot on IMAX caras. I’ve spoken with 20th Century Fox about releasing three versions in theaters: regular 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D."
Duke nodded, "The number of 3D screens is increasing rapidly, and higher ticket prices guarantee the box office."
Talking about other things was aningless. Both he and Caron knew this investnt was all about making money.
Stopping at a brand-new piece of filming equipnt, Duke circled it. This cara was different from traditional 3D and IMAX caras.
"Jas, is this the new equipnt you developed?" Duke asked with curiosity.
"That’s right," Caron said proudly. "This will be the main cara used for shooting."
Duke only asked and didn’t say much more. Compared with all directors worldwide, Caron was truly a pioneer of film technology.
As an investor, Duke had done plenty of research.
Back in 2000, Caron and his partner Vince Pace, with support from Sony Electronics, began developing a new filming system using two Sony HDCF950 HD caras. The goal was to create an environnt with stereoscopic realism, which later beca the 3-D virtual image capture system.
In 2003, this technology was first applied in their IMAX docuntary Ghosts of the Abyss.
Afterwards, Caron had colleagues test the system; famous director Robert Rodriguez tried it in Spy Kids 3-D and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Since then, most 3-D movies have used this thod.
Over the past few years, Caron has continuously improved the technology to achieve stronger, more dynamic 3D effects without causing dizziness. Through repeated experints and applications, the technology matured and was ultimately used in Avatar.
One could say without those years of experints and improvents, Avatar wouldn’t exist.
This was also why Duke had never considered Avatar as sothing to just copy and shoot. That was more absurd than a fairy tale.
Not only that, Caron introduced Duke to several new devices, all developed or improved by the "king of the world" for the new film.
Since most of Avatar’s visuals relied on CGI, live-action and final CGI had to perfectly match.
To achieve this, Caron developed a virtual cara to preview the virtual world during live-action filming. This cara allowed the director to instantly adjust and guide every scene while watching actors interact with the virtual environnt in real ti.
As actors perford, Caron could see on an LCD screen the effect of a nearly 3-ter-tall blue Na’vi walking on Pandora.
According to Caron, this new technology offers more intuitive and visible rendering, letting producers instantly see the virtual backgrounds in the live shot to precisely determine if it matched the desired final image.
He told Duke, "It’s like a powerful ga engine. If I want to fly or change the perspective, I can do it imdiately. I can also shrink the entire set into a 50:1 model to move around inside."
Besides this, unlike the Lord of the Rings trilogy or Iron Man motion capture filming, Caron innovated the motion capture technology.
Besides actors wearing suits covered with tracking points during filming, the studio was equipped with a "collaborative work cara" system.
This system consisted of hundreds of digital caras installed on the ceiling, forming a capture stage.
The caras tracked near-infrared light reflected by LED lights in the studio, transmitted the data to a system, then combined the light reflections with the actor’s movents to create a 3D model of the shot.
Later, this data was mapped in post-production computer processing to produce highly realistic CGI scenes.
From a purely technical perspective, every director in the world had to admit Caron was unmatched.
In Duke’s eyes, this "set tyrant" was the real cinematic genius. Even if those winning Golden Lion, Golden Bear, Pal d’Or, or even Oscar directors dissented, even if critics belittled the big studio, no one could change the fact that Caron’s contributions to the film industry far surpassed theirs.
After a simple walk around the studio, Duke didn’t stay long. As he was about to leave, he said, "Jas, if you need anything, just call directly."
"You have a lot of confidence in ?" Jas Caron blurted out.
Duke shrugged, "We had a pleasant and successful collaboration on Titanic."
Thinking back to how Duke fully supported him on Titanic, Jas Caron sighed softly and said, "The success of Titanic was indeed very satisfying. After that, I made several docuntaries and basically stepped away from the original circle. I needed to change my way of working and living. Making films like that is really grueling."
He made a few gestures, saying, "I was away for nearly ten years, now I’m back. I know many people are expecting, and even more are doubting whether I can still make movies. It’s completely normal for people to think that way."
Duke just looked at him. This director, who had distanced himself from the mainstream film world, seed sowhat emotional.
"The box office of Titanic? It was indeed excellent," Jas Caron shook his head and said seriously, "I don’t think Avatar will break Titanic’s box office record. My purpose for making this film isn’t to break any records, and I don’t think any movie in the coming years will surpass that record. As long as Avatar can make investors like you money, I will be very happy."
It seed that even Jas Caron himself wasn’t confident.
Of course, if it weren’t for the rapid developnt of 3D and IMAX, Duke wouldn’t believe that Avatar could definitely overco the "Titanic" hurdle.
The rise in ticket prices is an unavoidable factor.
News of Jas Caron preparing a new film in Wellington had long been leaked by Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox. When Duke was leaving, he was surrounded by so dia reporters.
"Director Rosenberg..."
A North Arican reporter pushed the microphone through the guards and Duke’s bodyguards, struggling to reach him, "It’s said that the investors, including you, offered Caron a budget far exceeding Titanic. Caron has been away from the mainstream film industry for so long. Are you still confident in him?"
"I’m confident in Jas’s new project," Duke only said, "Jas Caron’s artistic charm is universally recognized. I don’t think anyone doubts his comrcial value for movies."
After saying that, he got into the car with his bodyguards and ignored the reporters surrounding him. To the driver, he said, "Go to Victoria Hill."
At the foot of Victoria Hill, he still had a vacation estate, purchased during the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Occasionally, he and Ivanka Trump would co here to vacation, but after they drifted apart, Duke rarely ca here and entrusted the estate to a housekeeping company for maintenance.
So ti ago, Tom Cruise had called him. He and Nicole Kidman bought a large farm in Australia and invited him to take a look. If interested, he could also buy a residence nearby and beco neighbors.
Duke was sowhat interested in Australia’s vast and relatively inexpensive land. Many wild animals there lacked natural predators. If he established a hunting ground, he could co every year to hunt and relax.
Duke ca to Victoria Hill because soone had asked to et him.
They hadn’t t for several years. The other party arranged to et him in New Zealand, the place where it all began. Perhaps it had so special aning to remind him of those beautiful past mories and soften his heart about certain matters.
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