Cameron/Jackson talk

The latest issue of Newsweek just hit a couple of days ago and it’s The Interview Issue, and in it there’s a cool back-and-forth between two of the most talked about directors of the moment, James Cameron and Peter Jackson. The two are basically interviewing themselves and talking primarily about technology, their uses of technology, and its perception both in the marketplace and in the mainstream. Good stuff.

Below is an excerpt I thought was rather interesting when you consider some of the things being said regarding sfx and story in both Cameron’s AVATAR and Jackson’s THE LOVELY BONES. CLICK HERE to head on over to Newsweek.com to read the whole thing.

JACKSON: There are all great tools that people haven’t quite gotten their heads around yet. But one of the things that has happened [is that] people focus on technology. Probably the film industry has been guilty; there’s more attention spent on the technical aspects than the story. That’s led to a self-fulfilling prophecy. People regard CGI as a gimmick, they almost blame CGI for a bad story or a bad script. They talk about CGI as if it’s responsible for a drop in standards. We’ve gotten to a point now where there isn’t nothing else we haven’t seen. We’ve seen dinosaurs, we’ve seen aliens; with Avatar we’ve seen realistic creatures. I think we’re going to enter a phase where there’s less interest in the CGI and there’s a demand for story again. I think we’ve dropped the ball a little bit on stories for the sake of the amazing toys that we’ve played with.

CAMERON: I think you’re right. What’s interesting in the marketing evolution of Avatar is that we put out a teaser trailer that was all about the imagery, and people were less than satisfied, because they weren’t learning enough about the story. We put out a story trailer that set the stage and told you what the main character was, and all of a sudden people were wildly excited about the movie. There’s the proof within the marketing evolution of a single film.