4 ms·

Kudos to James Cameron for his attention to detail - shows that Avatar was really a labor of love.

by Splines 17y ago

fjabre 17y ago
Yeah.. he's the Steve Jobs of film. No doubt about it.
- philwelch 17y ago
  I always thought Steve Jobs was the Steve Jobs of film. Or at least John Lasseter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar
  - fjabre 17y ago
    Sure technically speaking he would be =) I'd say that Cameron is just a 'tad' more involved in film making though.
philwelch 17y ago
Oh, please. This is just good marketing, and the natural result of releasing something not only in n languages but also in k formats. Turns out n by k versions is a lot, and it's easy to make n by k versions of a film when the film is already digital.
- dood 17y ago
  This was not marketing, easy, or common - this was exceptional attention to detail and focus on getting the highest quality experience to the customer, which Cameron should certainly be recognized for (whether you liked the film or not).
  - philwelch 17y ago
    It's hard work and it's innovative, but how is it not marketing?
    - pchristensen 17y ago
      Marketing is making people aware of a product. Product development is making the best product possible. This was the latter.
      - philwelch 17y ago
        You're talking about promotion. Equating "marketing" with "promotion" is a common misconception. Promotion is part of marketing, but so are place, pricing, and (at least some aspect of)[2] product development. [1] When you're talking about adapting a film to different languages and different screen formats, you're talking about product and place. You're still talking about marketing. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix#Four_Ps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix#Four_Ps [2] Obviously product development in most fields contains a lot of engineering, design, filmmaking, etc. It's pretty fuzzy, but the kind of stuff in this article--adapting to different screen sizes and languages--is definitely on the marketing side.
        pchristensen 17y ago
        Would you consider i18n marketing? That's how I see this 100 version effort.
        philwelch 17y ago
        Internationalizing software is an engineering effort to fulfill a marketing objective: namely, extending placement into foreign countries. When you internationalize a film, there's a bit of "filmmaking" (in that you have to have voice actors dubbing the original film, or you have to have translators rewriting your dialogue) but unless Cameron's more multilingual than I thought, I rather doubt directing all those voice actors and supervising those subtitle writers was any artistic effort on his part. His input was a marketing input: I want my film dubbed and subbed into dozens of languages and shown on half a dozen different screen types. (Cameron's not the first director to film with multiple aspect ratios in mind, nor is he the first to make the artistic call of having different aspect ratios, but I'm sure it affected the filmmaking.) I didn't mean to take away from his studio's technical chops. Avatar's raised the bar for special effects, distribution, and pioneering new screen formats. But it's not a "labor of love", it's just well executed business.

Kudos to James Cameron for his attention to detail - shows that Avatar was really a labor of love.

by Splines 17y ago

Kudos to James Cameron for his attention to detail - shows that Avatar was really a labor of love.

fjabre 17y ago

Yeah.. he's the Steve Jobs of film. No doubt about it.

philwelch 17y ago
I always thought Steve Jobs was the Steve Jobs of film. Or at least John Lasseter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar
- fjabre 17y ago
  Sure technically speaking he would be =) I'd say that Cameron is just a 'tad' more involved in film making though.

philwelch 17y ago

Oh, please. This is just good marketing, and the natural result of releasing something not only in n languages but also in k formats. Turns out n by k versions is a lot, and it's easy to make n by k versions of a film when the film is already digital.

dood 17y ago
This was not marketing, easy, or common - this was exceptional attention to detail and focus on getting the highest quality experience to the customer, which Cameron should certainly be recognized for (whether you liked the film or not).
- philwelch 17y ago
  It's hard work and it's innovative, but how is it not marketing?
  - pchristensen 17y ago
    Marketing is making people aware of a product. Product development is making the best product possible. This was the latter.
    - philwelch 17y ago
      You're talking about promotion. Equating "marketing" with "promotion" is a common misconception. Promotion is part of marketing, but so are place, pricing, and (at least some aspect of)[2] product development. [1] When you're talking about adapting a film to different languages and different screen formats, you're talking about product and place. You're still talking about marketing. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix#Four_Ps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix#Four_Ps [2] Obviously product development in most fields contains a lot of engineering, design, filmmaking, etc. It's pretty fuzzy, but the kind of stuff in this article--adapting to different screen sizes and languages--is definitely on the marketing side.
      - pchristensen 17y ago
        Would you consider i18n marketing? That's how I see this 100 version effort.
        philwelch 17y ago
        Internationalizing software is an engineering effort to fulfill a marketing objective: namely, extending placement into foreign countries. When you internationalize a film, there's a bit of "filmmaking" (in that you have to have voice actors dubbing the original film, or you have to have translators rewriting your dialogue) but unless Cameron's more multilingual than I thought, I rather doubt directing all those voice actors and supervising those subtitle writers was any artistic effort on his part. His input was a marketing input: I want my film dubbed and subbed into dozens of languages and shown on half a dozen different screen types. (Cameron's not the first director to film with multiple aspect ratios in mind, nor is he the first to make the artistic call of having different aspect ratios, but I'm sure it affected the filmmaking.) I didn't mean to take away from his studio's technical chops. Avatar's raised the bar for special effects, distribution, and pioneering new screen formats. But it's not a "labor of love", it's just well executed business.