17 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Avatar: Fire And Ash
by Crystal RoBuzzFeedBuzzFeed StaffHi, I’m Crystal, a Senior Editor based in Los Angeles and creator of BuzzFeed’s “That Got Dark” newsletter.
In case you missed it on the big screen (or can’t wait to dive back in), Avatar: Fire and Ash is officially available to watch at home on digital now. And if you thought the movie itself was intense, just wait until you hear what went into making it.
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With the digital release also comes more than three hours of never-before-seen bonus content that dives into everything from Na’vi culture and costume design to performance capture, visual effects, and the groundbreaking technology behind Pandora.
And at a recent press event, I got the chance to speak with producer Rae Sanchini, stars Oona Chaplin and Stephen Lang, and three-time Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Richard Baneham about some of the behind-the-scenes details you’ll actually see in that footage...along with a few things you might not. Here's what I learned:
1.
The Avatar franchise has actually been in the works since the '90s.
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Even though the first Avatar didn’t arrive until 2009, James Cameron had been thinking about this world for much, much longer. Producer Rae Sanchini said Cameron wrote the original treatment for Avatar back in the mid-'90s, when she was still at Lightstorm, but the technology simply wasn't advanced enough to make the movie the way he wanted to make it. So, they put the whole thing on the back burner.
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2.
Sanchini explained that the team even ran early tests comparing performance capture with traditional animation, and the results made it clear there was really only one option. Performance capture was the only way to “truly honor” the actors’ work. The problem was, the technology just wasn’t ready yet. So instead of making a compromised version, they waited.
Mark Fellman /© 20th Century Studios /Courtesy Everett Collection
3.
Interestingly, one of the franchise's biggest challenges wasn’t technical. According to Sanchini, it was perception. The filmmakers had to convince audiences that what they were watching wasn’t “just CGI,” but actual performances. So, the team worked very hard to make sure people understood that what they were seeing on screen was not some vague digital approximation, but the actual work of the actors and craftspeople involved.
Mark Fellman / © 20th Century Studios / courtesy Everett Collection
As Sanchini put it, “Every sigh, every glance, every smirk” you see was performed by the actors and translated with “complete fidelity” into the final characters.
Mark Fellman / © 20th Century Studios / courtesy Everett Collection
4.
During the capture process, the filmmakers used a network of cameras — sometimes as many as 16 at once — to track actors' performances from multiple angles simultaneously.
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But those cameras don’t represent the final shots you see in the movie. They provided the filmmakers with detailed references of actors’ movements and interactions, which were then translated and reshaped into the finished scenes.
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5.
Because of this unique process, the actors were able to perform more freely since the "camera work" came later.
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As VFX supervisor Richard Baneham explained, the entire process was built around separating performance from camera work — or, as he put it, “bifurcating” the two. In other words, the actors could do the scene first without being boxed in by a traditional camera setup, and the filmmaking team could shape the camera language afterward.
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6.
That also meant they could basically “reshoot” the scenes after the actors were done. Once the performance was captured, the filmmakers could adjust lenses, timing, and framing as many times as needed until it felt right. Basically, the acting gets locked in, but the filmmaking keeps evolving.
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On a traditional set, if a shot doesn’t work, rebuilding it can be expensive and time-consuming. This way, though, they could keep refining their shots until they found the version that "best serves the emotion of the scene."
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7.
Interestingly, the film's editors shaped the movie almost in real time.
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Baneham explained that the production had editorial support on stage at all times, which is a major difference from a more conventional process. As scenes were captured, the team was already building the rhythm of the edit and seeing how the story was playing out.
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That meant they weren't just collecting material and hoping it would work later. They were actively finding the emotional crux of a scene while the process was still unfolding. It also let them figure out what could be condensed, what needed more room to breathe, and where the story was really landing.
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8.
Early on, during Avatar, Cameron and the team experimented w