During the aquatic sequences of “Avatar 2”, when he had to film his actors underwater, James Cameron used thousands of small ping-pong balls. Here’s why.
In theaters since December 14, Avatar: The Way of the Water offers its viewers underwater sequences that are undoubtedly among the most impressive and realistic that we have ever seen on a screen.
But to achieve such a convincing result, James Cameron had to face a major problem. Before being able to recreate his actors virtually, he had to capture each of their movements and each of their expressions in real conditions, that is to say in water (or under water) most of the time.
As the director of Abyss and Titanic well knows, underwater filming is not an easy task, and often requires facing many difficulties. One of the main challenges encountered when engaging in such an exercise is to ensure that the refraction of the light from the searchlights, when it crosses the surface of the water, is not noticeable. .
Indeed, the light, when it passes from one transparent medium to another, is altered, and slightly deviated. To avoid such rendering on underwater shots, the Avatar 2 teams resorted to a disconcerting method, inspired by a process that had already been tested on the set of Abyss.
Indeed, as cinematographer Russell Carpenter said at the microphone of ScreenDaily last January, the technicians placed thousands of small translucent balls on the surface of the pool in which the scenes were shot. Similar to ping-pong balls, their function was to block the refraction effect while letting light through:
20th Century Fox
“Our light had to pass through this huge dimmed scattering, which made the ripple effects disappear. And if someone were to come to the surface, there was nothing to block them.”
As for the actors, they were also put to the test. Indeed, according to an article by Los Angeles Timesand to prevent the pool from filling up with bubbles during the takes, they did not use masks or snorkels, but all learned to snorkel for the purposes of the film.
(Re)discover our interview with James Cameron, who notably discusses the aquatic filming of “Avatar 2″…