This interview with “Avatar: The Way of Water” cinematographer Russell Carpenter first appeared in a special section of the Below-the-Line issue of awards magazine TheWrap.
The best solution to a difficult problem can sometimes come from an unexpectedly practical place. Just ask cinematographer Russell Carpenter, who had previously worked with James Cameron. He served as the cinematographer on 1994’s “True Lies” and 1997’s “Titanic” (where he came in as a replacement and ended up winning an Oscar for his work), and this time his work spanned live-action photography, film work, motion capture. and advise visual effects teams on virtual lighting conditions.
And while there really isn’t any other movie quite like “Avatar: The Way of Water,” photographically or otherwise, that doesn’t mean you can’t rely on the old tricks of the trade. Like, for example, mirrors.
In the sequence shown on this page, our main characters, captured by actors and replaced by computer-generated Na’vi, are perilously surrounded by fire. (We’re hesitant to give too much away but, this being a James Cameron movie, something definitely pops.)
“That’s a perfectly good example of how live action can be used to benefit what Weta FX is doing,” Carpenter said. The production was never able to use LED screens the way that, say, “The Mandalorian” does, because “Avatar: The Way of Water” was being shot in native 3D. “You can’t use the image that’s on that LED because it looks like a billboard. But they work great when you hang them around a pool as reflections because now all of a sudden it’s basically hell in the ocean.”
The reaction of fire on water is a notoriously difficult thing to reproduce on the computer. Carpenter and his team surrounded the massive water tank where they filmed “Avatar: The Way of Water” and played footage of the fire. “And that’s what you’ll see, just those reflections,” Carpenter said. But how do you get the reflection right, especially where fire meets water? That’s where mirrors come in.
“We brainstormed and the system we came up with was, we’ll just hang these LED monitors upside down and have a mirror at a 45-degree angle,” Carpenter said. “The mirror will go down into the water a foot and a half and now that reflection meets the water completely. We had several of those panels. It’s totally old school!”
And this wasn’t even the oldest trick they used. Recreating a jungle landscape on the blue screen stage, Carpenter and the electricians hung chiffon, macramé and camouflage fabrics so that when lit through them, it would replicate the look of a rainforest canopy.
“You could be on a set in the 1940s and see the same thing,” Carpenter said. “That’s what I love. And Jim is just as happy to come up with an old-school solution to a problem as he is to come up with something that’s totally awesome. He is very familiar with everything that has been done.
Read more of the issue below the line here.
