Underwater photography, dressing up, transforming animation

Around the Lunar New Year this year, two Hollywood blockbusters were released, breaking box office records one after another. Gao Jun, vice president of the cinema of the New Film Association, said that "20 12" made at least 30% off the box office of Three Guns, October, Grave of Thorns and Fengyun 2. By the end of 65438+1October 27th, the box office of Avatar had exceeded 730 million, far exceeding the box office of domestic movies in the same period. For a time, Avatar became a nightmare for domestic movies.

Just four months before the release of Avatar, the WTO Dispute Settlement Panel once again asked China to liberalize the import policy of imported films. 13 The day before Avatar was released, China's appeal was rejected again. This means that if the US complaint is implemented, a year later, more and more Hollywood blockbusters will be introduced or distributed through more channels, and Hollywood film companies may even distribute their own films in China.

The panic caused by Avatar and the "wind" blown by WTO appear at the same time, which is thought-provoking. Will powerful imported blockbusters follow the footsteps of Avatar and be killed in batches like the army that invaded Pandora?

Less than two weeks after its release, Avatar has made $600 million at the global box office. In fact, the popularity of this movie is not only at the box office. How to make other new films imitate 3D in technology, how to realize pervasive marketing, and how to make cinemas around the world add hardware equipment to them have brought a series of changes, which have had a great impact on the whole film industry.

Avatar has launched a global publicity campaign before its release.

Although Avatar was released in North America on February 8th 18 (it was released in Chinese mainland on February 4th 18), in less than two weeks, it has taken away $600 million at the box office around the world. In fact, the popularity of Avatar is not only the box office of a movie. How to make other new films imitate 3D in technology, how to be versatile in marketing, and how to make cinemas around the world add hardware equipment to it have a great impact on the whole film industry, which actually started quietly before the film was released.

Impact 1: Marketing techniques are more creative. Virus implantation is everywhere.

Avatar has made great efforts in publicity and marketing, and the promotion cost alone has reached an unprecedented 654.38+0.5 billion. Whether it is viral marketing, implantation or high-tech freshness that has been brought to the extreme in Hollywood in recent years, this film has not fallen behind.

The first marketing: joint McDonald's to open a Nami appearance generation website.

"Avatar" and the Austrian McDonald's website jointly launched a quite amazing website at the beginning of its release-uploading your positive photos can synthesize a picture of becoming a Nami person, and it is a pseudo-3D dynamic effect. This move is really attractive, and many fans and websites have started activities such as "Your Nami Modeling", which makes the film's popularity infinitely enhanced. Of course, this interesting viral marketing still needs some technical strength.

The second kind of marketing: mix and match American dramas and play with implants.

This is an old routine, often substituting the effective logo of the propaganda object into some TV programs, plays and movies that are being broadcasted. Of course, Fox has abundant resources, and this time it's the turn of the hit crime drama Chasing the Bone. The episode aired on February 3rd, 65438 was entirely about Avatar: the actors repeatedly mentioned Avatar in their lines, the signs and posters that always appeared in the series, the mass actors wearing nano camouflage, and even joel moore, one of the actors of Avatar, made a guest appearance.

The third marketing method: the earth-shattering "Avatar Day"

As early as July at the San Diego Comic-Con, Cameron announced that he would show 65,438+05 minutes of footage for free in digital cinemas in many countries and regions around the world on August 265,438+0, and release a trailer online. Cameron said in the statement: "What we are going to do is unprecedented, and it will be an experiment in social marketing. We will show it in many IMAX 3D theaters and some 3D theaters around the world on August 2nd1day, and we want to let fans around the world watch this 15-minute clip of Avatar for free. This day will become' Avatar Day'. "

As a result, applying for tickets to watch Avatar online became the biggest job for fans in January, and I dare not say that it was at least enough to fight with swords and shadows. "Avatar" has also become the first movie in the history of movies to be shown in cinemas around the world. You have to watch it carefully with the voucher.

The fourth marketing method: mobile phone built-in movie preview.

South Korean mobile phone brand LG built a trailer of Avatar in its new chocolate mobile phone BL40, and combined with the biggest selling point of this mobile phone-the 4-inch 2 1:9 ultra-wide HD display, it perfectly showed the magnificent world and the magnificent picture displayed in the trailer. In addition, IPHNOE and ITOUCH also released Avatar.

The fifth marketing method: magic toys show high technology

This toy accessories, which looks like an ID card (its appearance is all from movies, the earth is RDA's ID card and Nami is a racial symbol), is called iTag, in which Mattel uses a technology called augmented reality (AR for short). Its principle of use is to put the chip or code into the corresponding object (attached object) in advance, then put it under the camera, project and decode it through the corresponding software, and then you can see the hidden multimedia files such as videos or pictures. When you buy Mattel's Avatar toy, you can get a card like this, log on to Avataritag.com's website, and experience the magic of this technology according to the previous practice!

Marketing Type 6: Coca-Cola Helps Virus Marketing

Coca-Cola specially produced a batch of empty cans for Avatar, and put them on EBAY for auction, each with a freight of $3 and $6.99. Through this jar, you can get more secrets from Project Avatar and Pandora through special advertisements of Coca-Cola and viral websites called AVTR.

The seventh form of marketing: stereoscopic advertisements appear on 3D TV.

One of the biggest selling points of Avatar is its unparalleled 3D technology and outstanding picture quality, and Panasonic's brand-new stereoscopic TV (you can watch 3D images without glasses) undoubtedly fits in with it. In September, the product advertisement launched by local TV stations in Japan was promoted with the help of the fragment of Avatar. When the 3D era of movies comes, no one wants to miss the 3D of TV platform.

Impact 2: Special effects technology has made great progress, and a large number of new films are 3D.

As we will see, everyone will be surprised by the exquisiteness, aestheticism, vividness and image of Avatar. Cameron once again promoted the effect and texture of CG technology to a new field, while most of the previous special effects films were still combined with live shooting and CG composition imaging. Cameron's approach is surprising. The entire Pandora planet is based entirely on CG imaging, from those "sacred mountains" floating in mid-air to magnificent ecosystems. Of course, there are countless Nami figures.

This project is extremely huge, and the expressions and actions of each virtual character are collected from the data of real-life performances, and then these data are transformed into CG character models. Most importantly, the effect must look exactly like a live performance. And those alien scenes that have also been created have also reached perfection in a subtle way. "Avatar is the most complicated film production ever," Cameron said. "The two and a half-hour movie has 1600 shots, and it's not like' (King Kong and' (Gollum, we have to play more than one CG role.

To complete such a huge and meticulous work, we naturally need excellent teams and a lot of financial support. In view of Cameron's famous "King of Burning Money" and his own influence, it is estimated that few people in Hollywood can use the best special effects production forces such as "Industrial Light Magic", Vita Studio, Winston Studio and D2 Company at one time. And the production cost of 340 million is by no means a conventional investment game that film company bosses are willing to play. Avatar is a special case, and this special case will continue for Cameron. If the film version of Gunn can start shooting as scheduled, then the film will definitely surpass Avatar. Of course, the corresponding human and financial support is the most critical.

But Cameron did a great thing: he perfected the shooting technology of 3D movies and prompted cinemas to replace 3D screens on a large scale. When the 3D virtual camera system began to help him shoot a series of underwater documentaries, he was ready for the future 3D era. Later, Cameron found robert rodriguez, hoping that he could use this equipment to shoot a 3D version of Spy Boy. The result is really surprising, and the lack of movie sales has also triggered a new round of 3D movie craze. Four-eyed Rooster, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and this year's Journey to the Flying House (see more film reviews) all make people realize that a new era of watching movies has arrived. Cameron's role in it is self-evident. 3D shooting equipment has been used by many production groups, and Spielberg's 3D film The Adventures of Tintin is one of them.

The popularity of Avatar once again set the tone for the era of 3D movies. A number of new films that are being planned to be released will be 3D, which is not only reflected in those big budget films, but also in many low-cost small productions (such as JACKASS3). On the other hand, many directors and companies plan to dig out old movies and make them into 3D movies, such as Terminator 2, Titanic and Star Wars. So many people in the industry and fans are exclaiming whether 20 10 will become the first year of new 3D movies. It's just that we're all ready.

Impact 3: The cinema hardware is in urgent need of upgrading, and the 3D viewing experience is infinitely improved.

When the 3d movie Spy Prodigy was released in 2003, red and blue paper glasses were still the only tools to watch 3d movies. Many investors were not optimistic about this technology at that time, and they didn't want to spend a lot of money to improve the hardware of cinemas. Two years later, after Disney's 3D movie Four-eyed Chicken was released, there were only over 200 digital movie screens in the United States. That year, Cameron attended the annual meeting of American cinema lines. At the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, Cameron told all the big bosses and insiders: "A new cinema era is coming!" And said in a threatening tone: "Whoever can't catch this express train will regret it."

Perhaps it was scared by the words of the Great God, or perhaps the theater bosses made a detailed analysis and investigation. In just four years, the number of digital screens in the United States rose wildly, reaching 5,000 by the end of June 5438+February 2008. The alliance of the largest cinemas in the United States is about to reach a deal of up to $654.38 billion, which will be used to convert 654.38+0.5 million screens into digital projection systems. This trend not only lingers in the United States, but also gradually affects the whole world. A German company invested 654.38+36 billion dollars to build a 3D cinema; Britain has opened 30 3D cinemas, added 144 3D screens and introduced 200 3D projectors. France is also preparing a new round of modification plan. European industry people estimate: "In the next four to five years, there will be 65,438+05,000 digital screens in Europe, many of which will show 3D movies." Japan and South Korea have extended their development focus to 3D TV platforms, and Sony and Panasonic have also spared no expense to develop a new generation of TVs that can play 3D stereoscopic images.

China followed suit this time. In September, 2008, when the 3D movie Journey to the Center of the Earth was released, only 86 halls in China were equipped with screening conditions due to the need to equip a set of 3D projection equipment with several hundred thousand yuan and a pair of 3D glasses with 700 yuan. But only one year later, the situation changed, which can be verified in an interview during Cameron's visit to China: "As far as I know, five weeks ago, in order to welcome the arrival of Avatar, China increased the number of 3D screens from 500 to 600, which is a very special change. I am very interested in observing the change of this trend, maybe it is a great leap forward, maybe it is just a small step. I really want to see if Avatar can make China audiences pay more attention to the development of 3D movies. " The construction of IMAX giant screen cinema is also being carried out step by step. Although there are only about 13 cinemas in China, with the release of Avatar and the increasing demand for viewing experience, IMAX will definitely expand its popularity and construction scale.

However, it may be that Cameron walked too fast, and some cinemas that had no time to make adjustments and adapt to new technologies could not keep up. Just two weeks ago, at the beginning of the release of Avatar, some fans and technicians pointed out that during the 3D screening of IMAX Cinema in Universal Studios USA, the pictures taken by the two projectors were not synchronized by half a frame, resulting in the three-dimensional inversion of the front and back scenes. However, the projectionist then adjusted the polarizer, resulting in the normal display of non-violent dynamic scenes during the projection. As soon as the fast-moving scene arrives, the 3D effect collapses and the film becomes "dull" until the action scene ends and returns to normal. After the incident, IMAX said that in fact, when all IMAX digital projection systems play 3D movies, about one-third of the pictures are out of sync, because the projectors are outdated and can't keep up with the development of film technology. Only the movie version of IMAX 3D can be fully synchronized. On the one hand, the new digital technology at the shooting level, on the other hand, the projection system of the cinema has once again exposed its shortcomings, which has to make people believe that the road of cinema transformation of IMAX 3D has just begun, and Cameron has once again surpassed everyone.