As the saying goes, success is often reserved for those who are prepared.

It can be said that no matter how much time passes, this sentence will still be a wise saying.

After all, when the opportunity comes, if you are not prepared, you will probably waste it.

The reason why James Cameron's previous work "Avatar" became a masterpiece that will remain in the history of cinema is definitely not something that only took one or two years to achieve.

In 1994, not long after Cameron had finished filming "Terminator 2," the "science fiction inspiration" in his brain had not faded.

So, he quickly wrote it down, which turned out to be an 80-page script.

Yes, this is the first draft of "Avatar".

According to Cameron, the inspiration for "Avatar" came from every science fiction novel he has ever read.

From his point of view, this film is his masterpiece in the field of science fiction.

In 1996, Cameron claimed that after completing "Titanic", he would start making "Avatar".

The film is expected to cost $100 million and will feature six actors playing the protagonists who are "real enough to look like people who really exist in the real world."

According to normal time, filming of "Avatar" should have started around mid-1997.

However, Cameron soon discovered a big problem.

Although he actively communicated with many special effects companies at the time, in the end he found that no company could produce the effects he wanted.

Should we strike while the iron is hot or put aside our plans first? Cameron chose the latter.

From the perspective of hindsight, Cameron's approach was quite wise. If he had forced the filming of "Avatar" at that time, I am afraid that the final result would have been just a "sci-fi film with very good visual effects." .

After "Titanic" in 1997, Cameron did not make any movies for 12 years.

Obviously, he was doing it for Avatar.

However, Cameron is not just waiting. During this period, he has been making preparations.

For example, he knew that if the filming of "Avatar" really started, it would require a huge amount of funds, so he had been communicating with Fox executives for a long time.

In the end, Fox executives agreed to give him 10 million US dollars to produce a concept short film to watch.

But in fact, despite the good effect of the short film, Fox executives are still very worried.

The reason is very simple. "Titanic" was basically a film that was guaranteed to hit the streets at the beginning, but it made a miraculous trend and made a direct counterattack.

But generally speaking, miracles don’t happen so many times. You want more money for "Avatar" this time than before, and you don’t know if it will be like last time. The budget was burned out and came back asking for more.

Just when Fox was wavering, external assists came.

At that time, Disney was looking for IP to acquire. They learned that the man who created miracles had a new project, and he planned to make it into a series of movies, so they planned to take over " Avatar".

As a result, it was Fox's turn to panic.

When they were filming "Titanic", Fox also co-produced it with Paramount because they didn't believe in Cameron. As a result, they ended up losing a lot of money at the box office.

So, Fox finally agreed to the "Avatar" project, but the requirement was that the budget was too high and should be reduced.

After thinking about it, Cameron finally compromised, so the production cost of "Avatar" was set at US$237 million (of course, this was initially set, and later the total cost was still more than this number)

At that time, a Fox executive said to Cameron:

"I don't know if it's crazy to agree to you making this movie."

The project is official Since the beginning, Cameron has applied many of the latest technologies to this movie.

For example, in order to enhance the sense of reality, he designed a new miniature camera called skull caps, which is a facial expression capture headset.

Because of the adoption of the latest technology, the performance of capturing actors’ facial expressions in terms of clarity, angle, and sensitivity is more than 6 times higher than that of traditional technology.

Why do the blue-skinned Na'vi people in "Avatar" look so real? There are almost no traces of CG processing on their expressions?

It’s because of this device.

In addition, Cameron's team also independently developed the latest 3D digital photography system (Fusion 3-D Camera System).

The functions of this system are mainly for sports shooting, with dual-lens synchronized zoom, follow focus, aperture control, motion control, mirror control, baseline control, and independent convergence control between the two cameras in the channel. The functions and so on all exceed the traditional technology.

In addition, F950, HDC1500 and F23 cameras were also connected during the shooting.

It is precisely because this powerful system is coupled with these cameras that it can capture all the far, near and high-speed motion shots, making the visual effects of "Avatar" extremely amazing.

In addition to these, Cameron's team also specially developed a virtual camera (Virtual Production Studio)

This virtual camera mainly allows the director to observe and direct the actors' movements in real time.

For example, the actors themselves are in a mobile cabinet in an open space, but what you see from the camera is that they are performing in a virtual CG environment.

As a result, Cameron can simulate the shots in the movie from the lens, and can choose the shooting angle at will, control and coordinate the movement or arrangement of various CG objects, and see them immediately. The visual effect of combining real-life performances with virtual scenes.

In addition to virtual cameras, there is also something called Simulcam.

To put it bluntly, this system is to place more than 130 digital cameras on the top of the entire studio, thereby building a technical platform dedicated to capturing performances.

During the movement of the actors, the camera will track the reflection of near-infrared light emitted by the LED lights on site and transmit all captured data to the system.

After that, the system combines and analyzes the actor's movement with the reflection of the spectrum to obtain a three-dimensional model of the entire shot.

There are many, many more... All these technologies can be said to be at the forefront of the times.

Of course, these technologies cannot be built with only 237 million U.S. dollars. According to some foreign media reports, the actual budget of "Avatar" should exceed 300 million U.S. dollars, and may even reach 500 million U.S. dollars.

The final result did not disappoint Cameron. The visual effects of "Avatar" shocked the whole world, and it was hard to get a ticket all over the world.

It was also the first movie to gross more than 2 billion US dollars at the box office, and finally took over the top spot in film history from "Titanic".

The senior executives of Fox, the production company, probably had no idea how this man could once again create a miracle.

Although "Avatar" has now been taken away from the No. 1 film history by "Avengers 4", its status in film history is still recognized.

After all, as a film that leads the times, its significance is not just a science fiction film.