Recently, James Cameron talked at Vivid Sydney, where the filmmaker does what he does best – sell 3D.
As the rest of the film industry starts to move away from the technology, Cameron is not only a big proponent of 3D, he’s banking the future of his film career on it. He’s currently in production on not one, not two, not three, but four sequels to the biggest film of all-time “Avatar.” And while the storyline might be a selling point enough for the sequels, the real reason people are anticipating the next films from Cameron is because of what he can do with technology.
And judging by what he said in Sydney, the filmmaker thinks his sequels are going to be just as cutting-edge and revolutionary as the original “Avatar” was a decade ago. “They will be, to the best of my ability, the best 3D that’s possible to make. That includes collaborating with the people at Dolby Cinema, who have developed high dynamic range projection that could put 16 foot-lamberts of light on a 3D screen through the glasses, which is revolutionary. Normally, you’re looking at about three foot-lamberts. Sixteen is what you should be seeing. That’s what movies should look like,” said Cameron (via VFX blog).
“I guarantee one thing: Avatar 2, 3, 4, and 5 are all going to be in 3D and they will look sumptuous.”
The conversation then turned to artificial intelligence. While you may wonder why Cameron has become a pseudo-expert on the subject, it’s all because the filmmaker has done plenty of research since he’s co-producing “The Terminator” reboot, which is scheduled to be released next year. And in his research, Cameron realized one thing – A.I. isn’t as harmless as you might think.
“There are a lot of researchers at the very cutting edge of artificial general A.I. research that will say, ‘We are trying to create a person.’ They mean ‘a person.’ A consciousness and identity, something with an ego, something with its own life, and goals and emotions. I say okay, ‘So, this ‘person’ that you’re creating, how will you control this person?’ ‘Oh, well it’s very easy, we just set out the goals that we want the AI to pursue,’” explained the director.
“How long do you think something smarter than you will ever be, is going to want to be your slave? About forty-fifth of seconds,” continued Cameron.
It seems as if the man behind Skynet is most definitely worried about his post-apocalyptic reality coming true. Let’s just hope that he’s more of a 3D expert than a robot expert because otherwise, we’re screwed.