James Cameron's Avatar: The Movie Scrapbook Review

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James Cameron's Avatar: The Movie Scrapbook ReviewSo far there are two books out there for Avatar that give details on the world of Pandora. Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora (James Cameron's Avatar) and this one. The first is loaded with scientific theory and jargon, and while that's great for the people who are interested in knowing the super technical stuff Avatar: The Movie Scrapbook is also a great resource for those who want to know more yet not enough to write a science journal on the movie. The scrapbook is essentially a light technical manual that covers a lot of the animals, plants, and vehicles seen in Avatar along with details on the Na'vi and their culture.
The pros of this book as opposed to the survival guide come firstly in the easy to read information of the world of Pandora. It's the kind of writing that is easy enough for grade schoolers to read while at the same time not too simple the young adult reader can't appreciate it. Granted your high school student may find the writing simplistic, but that is made up with the second pro: the information. The book has dozens of entries on various subjects from the movie from the gunships and gear the humans used to the musical instruments used by the Na'vi. It seems to cover much of the info in the survival guide (almost in the same order as well), but condenses the details into simple descriptions. Keep in mind it's basic details. If you want a true technical manual then you should go for the survival guide. Interestingly enough there are a few entries in this Scrapbook that aren't touched on in the survival guide like the giant excavator, the tree of voices and woodsprites (those little floating seed things that seem to be omens for the Na'vi).
While the survival guide has more detailed information it lacks something this book has in spades. Large detailed images. The Movie Scrapbook is actually a larger sized book than the survival guide (about twice the size in fact), even though it's thinner in pages (1/4 the thickness of the guide). In that larger size you get bigger, more detailed pictures. While you will find a few pictures in both books the scrapbook touts some really nice images not seen in the survival guide, or even the movie for that matter. The larger size of the scrapbook also make it easier to thumb through and read comfortably compared to the significantly smaller survival guide.
So if you like the movie and want to know a little more about the world James Cameron put together then this book may be right up your alley. If you are a tech freak and are looking for lots of details then pass this up. If you are the uber-fan then maybe get both if you can get the scrapbook for a good price. The images on the book would make it worth it.James Cameron's Avatar: The Movie Scrapbook OverviewIn the futuristic world of Avatar, Jake, a wounded ex-marine is thrust into an elaborate scheme to mine an exotic planet for its rare and valuable natural resources. Scientists have created Avatars -- bodies designed to look like the planet′s alien inhabitants that have to be operated by a human consciousness. Walking in his Avatar body, Jake finds himself drawn to the planet′s way of life. But as the threat of war grows ever closer, Jake finds himself torn between his human roots and the new friends he wants to protect. Ages:3 - 7

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The Making of Avatar Review

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The Making of Avatar ReviewFirst off let me tell you this book is thick and heavy. When the delivery driver handed it to me I was amazed at the weight of it. Big hardcover, dust-jacket, and over 270 pages...you definitely feel like your getting your money's worth on that fact alone.
The authors Lisa Fitzpatrick and Jody Duncan did a perfect job with this book. Jody Duncan writes for 'Cinefex' magazine and I was impressed with her technical article of 'Avatar' when I purchased the magazine issue back in December, so I was naturally excited to see she would be involved with this book as well. She went above and beyond with this one though in my opinion.
Like I said, this isn't a small book by any means, you get high-quality bindings with nice huge pages which feature enormous amounts of details that go into the making of this movie. It goes into every aspect of this film's production including; pre-production, principle photography, art-direction, music, editing, and the post-production process. Also found within the book are pictures of concept art and hi-res production stills from the film, behind the scenes pictures of the filming sets, equipment, virtual-camera system, 3D Fusion camera system, the actors, motion-capture systems, etc...I could keep going on but I'll just say there is all kinds of stuff in it. Not to mention, it also covers the elaborate techniques taken by the production team responsible for the state of the art visual effects used for the film.
Careful attention to detail was taken, every page has something interesting about it and thats what I liked most about it. Even the pictures have very detailed captions to explain exactly what you are seeing and how it relates to the words you are reading next to it. Some of the pictures for example are an actual film still from the film, and next to it will be a picture of the exact same shot of the actor in the motion capture suit on the sound-stage, which in turn shows you how well the visual-effects team transformed it into what we saw.
Overall, I am really impressed with this book as a whole and would highly recommend it to fans and non-fans alike because of its interesting reading and excellent pictures. I have several movie-production books for other films in my collection and this one is now easily the best one.
'Avatar' was a film production process that broke new ground in the industry, and if you're curious as to how it all came together to create a $2.7 billion grossing movie, look no further...5-stars.
The Making of Avatar OverviewIn 1995, James Cameron began work on a story that would, more than a decade later, evolve into Avatar, the blockbuster of 2009 and no less than the movie event of the decade. Opening to international critical acclaim (including nine Academy Award® nominations) and unprecedented box-office success, Avatar quickly, within a few short weeks, became the highest-grossing film on record. An epic for our times, this next-generation spectacle blends action, adventure, and romance with a timely message of ecological responsibility while using, and inventing, cutting-edge technologies to transport audiences to a lush, fully realized alien world. No less epic, however, was the groundbreaking and exhaustive process of bringing the film to life. Early brainstorming sessions in Malibu jumpstarted a vast production effort that ultimately spanned several years and multiple continents. The Making of Avatar reveals never-before-seen illustrations and photographs, with a text that charts the technical challenges, innovations, and discoveries that made the film's breakthroughs possible. Working in tandem, artists and technicians created new tools and processes to realize the film's vision, including those for performance capture, which allows the nuances of the actors' performances to be translated faithfully to their digital characters; a virtual camera system, which empowered Cameron to direct within a virtual world with unprecedented range, generate real-time composites, and blend live action and special effects more naturally and intuitively than ever before; and stereoscopic photography, which produced the most immersive 3-D experience to date. Here is the behind-the-scenes celebration of this monumental undertaking, the official record of how Cameron, the actors, and the crew made a film, and made history.

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Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora (James Cameron's Avatar) Review

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Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora (James Cameron's Avatar) ReviewSomeone from the Resources Development Administration (RDA) labs has leaked this confidential report. Not only that, he/she has successfully sold this online (where I bought mine) and at major bookstores! That's one smart, profiteering, mole.
This is the fact book on Pandora, the kind of book issued to soldiers who are about to invade that planet for its precious resources. It has all the information on the ecosystem, resources, flora, fauna and the native population called Na'vi, complete with all their culture and behaviour. There are classified information on the weapon systems used by RDA, including the Avatar project. And everything is accompanied by CG images.
I had some hesitation before buying this survival guide and it's not because I'm afraid that James Cameron might send Avatars to get me. I like art books and books on movie production, this book is neither of those. This is really a visual companion to all the stuff that's shown in the movie. It's for the ultimate fans, those who need to know every little detail, from the ferns on the ground to the mating habits of the Na'vi.
It's an interesting book but recommended more to the hard core fans of the movie.
(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora (James Cameron's Avatar) Overview
A field guide to Pandora-the mesmerizing world of James Cameron's Avatar.

Four years in the making-and 15 years since its conception-Avatar is a live action film with a new generation of special effects, delivering a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.

In Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora we are introduced to Pandora-a pristine and beautiful moon in a distant solar system-its exotic ecosystems, and the indigenous race called the Na'vi. By piecing together photographs, scientific field notes, and research data, citizens on Earth have collected the information in this field guide as a way to highlight the lessons Pandora can teach the people of Earth, who have struggled to survive as their planet's critical resources are depleted.

Though Pandora has proven to be an exceedingly profitable source of natural resources, the environment-from its gravity-defying floating mountains to the small but venomous hellfire wasps and the gigantic carnivorous thanator-poses continual dangers to RDA. Catalogued with unparalleled precision and access, this field guide provides highly detailed descriptions of the unique creatures and plants found on Pandora, the culture, language, and physiology of the native population, as well as RDA technology and weapons.

Eager to save the Earth, the activists have culled this information in hopes to expose the corporate greed and disregard for the native inhabitants and their environment that governs RDA's presence on the foreign moon.

This is the evidence in their case to save Pandora-and themselves.


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