West Post Digital Press
Delivering on Deliverables: How Avatar Raised the Bar
According to The Hollywood Reporter, just before Avatar was released, director James Cameron was working on a tight deadline. It wasn't enough that he had advanced the industry with innovative stereoscopic 3D and trailblazing motion capture techniques. He was also prepping more than 100 different delivery versions of Avatar.
Why?
When the entertainment world was all about film and film only, prepping deliverables meant preparing film prints. Those days however, are long over. With digital cinema the norm, and a wide variety of television formats in play, you might find yourself, like Cameron, supervising film prints, 2D versions of your project, 3D versions, and maybe a few other things you hadn't thought about. High quality presentation means pushing the boundaries in new ways.
The Hollywood Reporter quoted Ted Gagliano, president of postproduction at Fox as saying, "Jim wanted the best, most immersive experience possible. So he pushed us to have a multiple-version inventory."
Few directors have the clout of James Cameron, but he generally gets what he wants. Cameron supervised the creation of about 100 delivery versions of Avatar, The Hollywood Reporter wrote. There were 18 different versions for the domestic market, 92 more for international markets. There were 52 subtitled and 18 dubbed versions in film, 58 subtitled and 36 dubbed versions on digital 3D, nine subtitled and eight dubbed versions in digital 2D, and 23 subtitled and 15 dubbed versions for Imax. Whew. Cameron also chose three different aspect ratios to accommodate different theater experiences and even created some versions that would project a little brighter or a little darker, depending on the theater venue.
Pretty extreme? Yes. But it does prove a point. Simply prepping for different aspect ratios (wide screen or old-school TV versions for example) can call for multiple versions of your project. You might need a high-resolution version for a certain exhibition venue and a low-resolution version if your client wants to stream the project online. Audio mixes, also, can vary, depending on whether your project will be heard in 5.1 Surround Sound or on an iPhone.
Delivering on deliverables has become a very specialized game, so it's best to seek some advice, starting with asking your post production house how to handle client requests.
Even before you start shooting, it's a good idea these days to ask your client how the final product will be shown and used. The answer may surprise you, and you'll want to budget for the best quality capture you can. That's because even if you project is going to a smaller screen, it will look better if captured at the highest resolution possible. If your client isn't sure what format you might be mastering to, it's always better to err on the side of caution. Remember, you can "down-rez" but never go up.
With Avatar, James Cameron not only changed the way we see movies, he also changed the way we deliver projects to our clients.