How was the film produced to appeal to the audience?

• Has been in production for fifteen years, starting with James Cameron writing a script of over 100 pages back in 1994.
• The film was a project that was originally intended for release after his blockbuster Titanic, the highest-grossing film of all time. The film was intended for release around 1999, but Cameron didn't believe the technology at the time would do the film justice, and decided to wait.
• A dream project of his in the back of his mind for years; he wanted to create a film with all aspects combined such as creature creation, performance capture and the outstanding 3D technology with the new 3D Fusion Camera System.
• The film was brought back into production in 2006, after Cameron saw the advancement in technology with iconic computer generated characters such as 'Gollum' in The Lord Of the Rings franchise, and 'Captain Davy Jones' in The Pirates Of the Carribean trilogy.
• He started work on the Na'vi language firstly, with linguist Paul Frommer creating a complete language for Cameron, and then helping teach the actors that would have to speak it in the film.
• The film was then in production for four and a half years, and went through many stages and procedures to create the masterpiece, including designing of some of their camera equipment themselves as the technology available to them didn't reach the high expectations Cameron had.

Technology

Performance Capture Technology - The film used the largest ever performance capture stage, six times bigger than anything ever used for Hollywood before, to capture the motion of the actors later to be depicted in their avatars. Over 70% of the footage was built with CGI technology, but Cameron stressed many times how this was no ordinary animation, and wanted to get the true movement into the characters, and so used performance capture which meant that around 95% of the actors motions were successfully transferred, literally channelling themselves to their avatar in the real world and in the narrative. Cameron also attempted to crank up the realism by improving the way the suits captured the actors' facial expressions, using a skull cap with a camera enhancement that closely monitored their eyes, mouth and other small movements.The volume was rigged with 120 camers making it possible to record all of the actors in the scene at once, in 3D.

3D Fusion - The film was to be an experience to normal viewers watching it in 2D screenings, but the 3D technology was truly captivating and was a major factor that appealed to the audience. The original 3D viewing meant red and blue tinted glasses, and objects jumping out of the screen at you. However, this has changed for the better and with Cameron's Fusion Camera System he could film in a revolutionary way. He also made it clear that he was not shooting a '3D film' with objects springing out at the audience without notice. He filmed the footage in his own style, and any moments that he felt needed adaptation for 3D were changed; this giving a much more realistic feel to the 3D and resulting in a stunning 3D experience in which the viewer submerges, forgetting everything else.

Narrative

Genre - The genre of the film was from the start not intended to be a Science fiction. James Cameron wanted his idea to be expressed as an Action/Adventure/Fantasy with a love story that entwined with all the others. This was one of the great things about the film - it didn't attract one specific genre loving type, but incorporated them all into one film to generate a much bigger audience to base the film for. The action/adventure attracted a lot of the male young generation, from teens to young adults, with the outstanding action sequences and the adventure of exploring the Na'vi colonies appealing to all kinds of cinema-goers. This combined with the fantasy and sci-fi aspect of the film with the abundance of technology shown in the futuristic narrative meant that no-one would go home unsatisfied.

Gender - Many thought of Avatar to be a male dominated film - the main character would be male, the film would be all about action and the people who would go to see it would all be men. This conception was shown to be totally wrong when Neyteri (lead woman in the film performed by Zoe Saldana) was shown to be a strong woman, an aspect very popular is James Cameron's films. Her strength and importance in the film appeals to a lot of women to go and see the film; she is the most important character after Jake Sully, and the impact that she has on him and the storyline is an attractive feature to all women, which makes this film for everyone, further increasing its appeal. The love story between Neyteri and Jake is also an appealing factor, along with the emotion shown throughout the film by her and the other women such as Grace and Mo'at.

- The current film poster to the film, compared to the old poster as shown at the start.