The Biology of Avatar - James Cameron @ CalTech

Taken by aaldere1 on 28th April, 2010 © 2010

I was simply reading my morning twitter feeds, and Film_Lover posted something about the 'Science Behind Avatar' - some event at CalTech that evening. James Cameron talking about the science behind the visuals? With a panel of top scientists from CalTech? You bet I'm there. Tanya and I spent the evening in Pasadena, and I was able to take some great photos of the event.

Hearing Cameron speak was no less amazing than how I thought he would be - he knows his stuff, and was really inspired by his love for deep sea navigation and exploration. Starting with a 'cool image', he then researched the science behind his vision so that it could make sense biologically.

One thing that I loved hearing him say was how Hollywood always gave scientists a bad name, and that's exactly what he didn't want to do.

'There is something fundamental and enigmatic when discovering new things,' he said. 'I just wanted to bring that experience back to people. That fundamental feeling that we all had as kids.'

You said it, J. Cameron - and the fact that people have been going back to the theater to see it 2, 3, even 4 times suggests that your vision is a success.

Now, in terms of some inside tid-bits - the flux vortex actually has to do with the unabtanium, which actually causes the floating mountains - a result of extreme electromagnetism. Another interesting fact is that he had to finish 6000 shots in the last 6 weeks of production, and the biological backstory of Pandora is a book over 400 pages long.

Everything you see biologically in Avatar has a biological basis - and the existence of it has a purpose based on the ecological biosystem of Pandora. Incredible.