Fantasy Netflix's Live-Action Avatar: The Last Airbender General Discussion Thread

[Lencho01]

 

[Lencho01]

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Silvermoth]

Can’t wait to see them in action. Especially sadistic Azula. Best newly created villain of the noughties plus period I reckon

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Lencho01]

 

[Detective Conan]

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Primal Slayer]

Why is King Bumi played by someone half the characters age?

 

[Pennywise]

 

[carrrnuttt]

Why is King Bumi played by someone half the characters age?

Easily fixed by makeup and prosthetics.

Won't be easy to make an age-appropriate looking actor (King Bumi was 112) have Bumi's agility.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Easily fixed by makeup and prosthetics.

Won't be easy to make an age-appropriate looking actor (King Bumi was 112) have Bumi's agility.

A 50/60 year old can still pull it off.

 

[carrrnuttt]

A 50/60 year old can still pull it off.

A) Have you seen how modern Hollywood 50/60 year olds look nowadays?

The guy on the right is 56. The guy on the left is 60:

B) They might *look* vital still, but they are certainly no spring chickens. They use body-doubles a LOT on their show for a reason.

So at that age range, you won't get the "aged" look you want, so you're still having to use prosthetics, and you won't get the agility of someone younger. It's a lose-lose.

 

[Primal Slayer]

A) Have you seen how modern Hollywood 50/60 year olds look nowadays?

The guy on the right is 56. The guy on the left is 60:

B) They might *look* vital still, but they are certainly no spring chickens. They use body-doubles a LOT on their show for a reason.

So at that age range, you won't get the "aged" look you want, so you're still having to use prosthetics, and you won't get the agility of someone younger. It's a lose-lose.

It's still better than Hollywood consistently casting younger for absolutely no reason just to age them up.

 

[carrrnuttt]

It's still better than Hollywood consistently casting younger for absolutely no reason just to age them up.

Depends on the role.

I already explained why that would be a lose-lose for Bumi's casting.

Also, sometimes the role requires flashbacks to when the character was young. Sometimes you'll find the right actors to play the young and old versions of the character, sometimes it's easier to age up a younger actor especially if said actor is a good one. We've seen it work or not work both ways.

I don't think I've ever seen "casting younger for absolutely no reason just to age them up" at least with anything important or something worth caring about.

Do you have any examples?

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Kaleb]

 

[Pennywise]

Create a New Reality to Enhance the Fantasy in Your Story Directing

On the show I am currently executive producing, directing and shooting for Netflix, Avatar: The Last Airbender, much of the show is shot on the largest virtual production stage in the world. The visual effects artists working on the volume images are the top in their field, and the reality that they can achieve is truly astounding. But I felt it was important to keep an element of unreality to make the results more organic. And so, for the very first shot on the first day of filming, which was a shot of a boat with two passengers getting swept into a massive ice cave on a wave of water and crashing into an ice shelf, I added a bit of magic: the ice cave walls were in virtual production, the ice shelf was a practical set piece, and the wave of water was a four-foot trough placed in the foreground of the camera with a split diopter filter in front of the lens. Two special effects technicians dumped buckets of water into the trough as grips and stunt riggers pulled the boat on cables across the floor. The resulting image combined the elements of different specialties to create a new reality that enhanced the fantasy of what was happening. In an early production meeting, I proposed doing the shot this way with the assurance that I had done it before. I had never done it before. It just seemed like it would work in theory. And it seemed like it would be fun.

 

[Detective Conan]

 

[Pennywise]

 

[flickchick85]

I'm...confused by this. Did they not originally part ways from this due to creative differences? Was that not the impetus for them forming Avatar Studios in the first place??

 

[Pennywise]

I'm...confused by this. Did they not originally part ways from this due to creative differences? Was that not the impetus for them forming Avatar Studios in the first place??

They did, this has me confused too.

 

[flickchick85]

They did, this has me confused too.

Kinda makes me wonder if the "creative differences" were more just a case of them wanting to tell new stories in the universe while Netflix wanted a direct adaptation or something.