Avatar

[M S]

"I don't see any new ways of expression coming in any of the media he listed
so far."

It also means, there's no difference between medias; it's all images. What
matters isn't to find out where some ideas come from, but what they try to
achieve, on an emotional level.

Michael
http://wildgrounds.com


On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 8:42 PM, Mark Mays <tetsuwan at comcast.net> wrote:

> Usually when talking about a production of this magnitude there will be
> several sets of influences. CGI designers in LA work on games and movies so
> it shouldn't be remarkable to find similarities in shot selection and look.
>
> That's where Kojima's merging of technologies plays out; I don't see any
> new ways of expression coming in any of the media he listed so far.
>
> The idea of merging w/ technology is pretty analog -- how long has
> Cronenberg been at it?
>
> We're certainly at a point in anime's cultural saturation (in the
> West)where its influence can be spotted in many places . . . Especially if
> we squint real hard :)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: drainer at mpinet.net
> Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 5:49 AM
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Re: Avatar
>
>
> I think you bring up two good points here: I'd argue that the "natural"
> itself is based on conventions that span beyond merely Miyazaki''s work.
> One
> could make the case that the film is based on disparate conventions drawn
> up
> from anime (Cameron is a self confessed nerd, though press material
> suggests
> his influences would come from more "serious" technology based anime,
> something beyond the scope of Miyazaki), video games (as you mentioned,
> online RPGs--World of Warcraft came immediately to mind while I
> watched--not
> just the art, but also certain camera angles, especially during flying
> scenes. At times the influence was almost blatant, and drastically
> different
> from anime), and the broader genre of sci-fi, which Cameron has played an
> important role in, again, usually focusing on technology.
>
> The film has a multitude of influences, which is why I feel it is
> problematic to say "...this is Miyazaki's world," or to peg the style to
> any
> specific auteur, really. If anything, we have to analyze it from a
> postmodern framework and recognize its decentered influences, conventions,
> queues.
>
> The second point regarding the ideological celebration of nature is spot
> on,
> and I think the lack of depth there is fairly evident, not by accident, but
> perhaps even on purpose, given the target audience. "How can we provide a
> political message about the environment without making the audience think?"
> It's almost that the producers wanted general audiences to dismiss what you
> described as the incorporation of new technology in order to glorify the
> premodern "noble" society, world, etc...
>
> I won't go into the arguments about colonialism/Orientalism and fantasy,
> though that's the discussion people should have about this film...
>
> By the way did you watch it in 3-D?
> I watched it at Toho cinemas and aside from the seating (I like empty
> cinemas) everything else was perfect.
>
> Did you notice the audience reaction? This is something I am particularly
> interested in, as it seems that Japanese audiences are reacting differently
> than American audiences. As I mentioned earlier, the majority of theater
> patrons left immediately at the beginning of the credits. I also did not
> hear too much praise, and, again, unusual to Japan, I noticed quite a few
> people talking during the screening. I wonder if the movie about the dog
> (forgot the name) would have been better. Though of course, the 3D here was
> great, it was Captain EO on steroids.
>
>
>
> -daniel
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Aaron Gerow" <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
> To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 11:38 PM
> Subject: Re: Avatar
>
>
> > Just a quick response:
> >
> > When you look at it, the similarities with Miyazaki are there: the  image
> > of the forest, the non-human world, of flying, etc. But I do  wonder if
> > this film doesn't have a very different vision of nature.  Miyazaki's
> > paean to natural forces is not unrelated to his insistence  on sticking
> to
> > some analog animation techniques, but Cameron's film  falls into the
> > contradiction that many cinematic celebrations of  nature do: they praise
> > the premodern, pre-technological world using  the most advanced
> technology
> > there is. Avatar, I think, tries to avoid  this, but only by radically
> > re-defining nature in a way I doubt  Miyazaki would approve. Many can of
> > course see that the narrative  situation of Avatar is essentially that of
> > video games, especially  online RPG where you, immobile at your station,
> > get to roam the world,  kill people, and get the girl via your avatar.
> > Avatar plays off the  discontent with modern technological reality by
> > offering the fantasy  of really abandoning one's body for the game world.
> > But the trick here  is that the Avatar planet, with its database of souls
> > and memories, of  creatures with Firewire plugs, of trees that allow one
> > access to the  network, is essentially the Internet rendered into a
> > Gaia-like deity.  In other words, I think Avatar tries to have its
> > ideological cake and  eat it too by spouting a critique of industrial
> > technological  capitalism (mining and machines) and praising a natural,
> > premodern  society, while all the while defining that society as
> precisely
> > the  new media technological capitalism that we have today. I very much
> > doubt Miyazaki, regardless of all his own ideological ambiguities,  would
> > buy this.
> >
> > That was my initial reaction upon seeing the film (albeit at a theater
>  in
> > Japan with a bunch of technological glitches--quite appropriate, I  might
> > add!).
> >
> > Aaron Gerow
> > Associate Professor
> > Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
> > Yale University
> > 53 Wall Street, Room 316
> > PO Box 208363
> > New Haven, CT 06520-8363
> > USA
> > Phone: 1-203-432-7082
> > Fax: 1-203-432-6764
> > e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
> > site: www.aarongerow.com
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20100120/c0e6db01/attachment.html