On February 16th, filmmaker James Cameron visited the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank for a screening of “Avatar: The Way of Water” where a bunch of fans of the film were in attendance.
However, Cameron and his longtime producing partner Jon Landau weren’t there just for show. The pair had a specific mission in mind – to get feedback directly from an audience in an effort to help shape the rest of the franchise.
Cameron said at the start of the event: “This is something we’ve never done, which is [ask], ‘How do we make the next film even better for the fans?’ Go talk to them, find out what’s on your mind.”
He added: “You guys can be totally honest with us, this is not just about telling us stuff we want to hear. It’s about telling us the stuff we…. need to work on more.”
Cameron and Landau stood in front of the crowd for more than an hour with Cameron handing the microphone to audience members as they tackled specific questions regarding story points, shots, frame rates, character development, emotional reactions, and how overly ‘video gamey’ the film could look.
Star Track Tours owner Jeff Napshin attended and tells THR: “[I’ve] never seen a director ask for this kind of audience feedback that he clearly took seriously… as Cameron said, let’s get together in two years and see if our ideas and feedback made the film.”
Cameron adds that he intends to keep track of everyone in the room so that they can regroup after the third film, telling them: “[I] assure you guys that you have made a measurable improvement to Avatar 3 and beyond with your effort here tonight.”
The full audio track of the session is up at YouTube.
Source: THR
