Do you have 22 minutes free? If not, I suggest you make yourself available for the foreseeable future as Yahoo! has released a 22 minute behind the scenes featurette which shows us…how Avatar was made, basically.

We see James Cameron and the cast in an Hawaiian rainforest in order to get a better grasp at what it would be like to be on Pandora. We are taken through all the stages of the film making process, from Zoe Saldana training for her role as Neytiri, to James Horner crafting his score for the film. It’s definitely a must see for those who loved the film, and even for those who didn’t.

After watching that it just re-enforces why Avatar won the Golden Globe earlier this week for best film, and why it will hopefully win a bunch of Oscars in a few weeks time. While I love Inglourious Basterds and all those other contenders as much as the next guy, a lot more time and effort went into making Avatar. And while it didn’t have the best screenplay out of the bunch, it definitely made up for it in terms of visual effects and just generally setting a benchmark in terms of film making.

Read similar posts to How Avatar was made: A 22 minute behind the scenes look on Filmonic

Another week, another quote from someone who was involved with or has witnessed the greatness of Avatar. This time it comes from actor Laz Alonso, who will be playing an alien called Tsu’Tey in the film. Collider had the chance to interview him while he was on the rounds promoting Fast and Furious (which also features Avatar co-star Michelle Rodriguez).

My dream was to be in Star Wars and, unfortunately, I wasn’t big enough in my career at the time that Star Wars was casting and getting characters. To have the opportunity to be a part of this trilogy is the biggest gift I could have. Star Wars was the revolutionary sci-fi movie for the generation when I was a kid, growing up. And, I believe in my heart that Avatar is going to be the revolutionary sci-fi movie for this generation, in this era. I am always the guy who doesn’t like to oversell because, in this business, you can get so excited about something and, if it doesn’t pan out, you have egg on your face. But, this is one movie that I feel very, very confident selling, standing at the top of a mountain and screaming at the top of my lungs how great this movie is because I’ve seen it with my own two eyes.

We’ve heard similar praise from a number of different people now so we have no reason to doubt Alonso. Everything we have heard about Avatar suggests that it will be the revolutionary sci-fi movie for this generation (we just haven’t seen any proof yet). We have heard hints of Avatar becoming a trilogy so that isn’t exactly new, but still exciting to think about.

We were recently told that we should be getting a poster soon, which would be the first actual piece of marketing from the film. If we don’t get a trailer during the summer movie season then we will almost certainly get one soon after.

Read similar posts to Laz Alonso says “Avatar is going to be the revolutionary sci-fi movie for this generation” on Filmonic

Laz Alonso spoke to BlackRazzi.com about a few of his upcoming films, one of which included James Cameron’s Avatar. During the interview he revealed some mind blowing stuff about how many cameras he had filming him during his scenes.

“Technologically speaking, we are being filmed by 197 cameras simultaneously, every single take. It’s something you just can’t explain in words this man has created. At first it was intimidating because I’ve never worked in that environment before. You don’t know what to expect or how it works, or anything about it. But then you realize it’s actually very liberating because in film you have only one to three cameras max at one time. You usually have to save your energy cause you got to do your wide shot. You can’t let it all out in your wide shot because by the time you come to your close up you’re spent. So you have to save everything until you get to the close up and then unleash. Usually close ups are at the end of the day. Whereas here (Avatar filming), every single take is close up, every single take is wide shot, and every single take is a medium shot. And he goes in later to figure out which take he wants to use for which moment. It’s very liberating because you can give 100% every single take.”

We won’t actually be seeing Laz on screen (not that I know of anyway) as he will be playing one of the Na’vi, an alien race on the planet Pandora.

Update: Here’s a making of video:

Read similar posts to Avatar’s Laz Alonso says he was being filmed by 197 cameras simultaneously! on Filmonic