More Crazy Filmmaking Stuff from Cameron’s Avatar

James Cameron’s “Avatar” is, bar none, the most anticipated sci-fi movie of the decade, not least of which because the man just doesn’t make that many movies, and it seems like it’s been ages since he last directed the mega hit “Titanic”. Every day, new details about the filmmaking process that Cameron is utilizing for “Avatar” is coming out, and now here’s a whopper: they are shooting this thing with 197 cameras simultaneously!

That’s according to actor Laz Alonso, who will be playing one of the Na’vi aliens in the movie. He told BlackRazzi.com the following (via):

“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.”

197 cameras simultaneously? That’s crazy, man, just crazy. The stuff Cameron is trying to do with this movie just boggles the mind.