the elevator pitch

Not sure if anyone out there was aware, but last evening was the 82nd annual Academy Awards on ABC. As Oscar parties gathered throughout North America, the biggest one rolled out the red carpet in Hollywood and played host to some of the world’s biggest movie stars. With films like Avatar and the Hurt Locker up for the year’s biggest prizes, first timers like Christoph Waltz really stole the show. Here’s the breakdown of some of the noteworthy awards:

Best Picture – The Hurt Locker

Best Actor in a Leading Role – Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart

Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Cristohp Waltz for Inglorious Basterds

Best Actress in a Leading Role – Sandra Bullock for The Blindside

Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Mo-Nique for Precious

Best Animated Feature – Up!

Best Art Direction – Avatar

Best Director – Kathryn Bigalow for The Hurt Locker

Best Adapted Screenplay – Precious

Best Original Screenplay – The Hurt Locker

Avatar actually took quite a few technical awards throughout the evening (to no surprise), but there is no question that Oscar’s biggest winner was Kathryn Bigalow and her entire cast and crew for The Hurt Locker. Judging from the warm reception she received along with the night’s final award, Bigalow became the first female director to win Best Director. For a full recap of all of the winners, you can also check out Oscar.com.

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James Cameron has done it, but really, did anyone actually doubt him? The Titanic and Terminator 2 director recently premiered his decade-long movie experience Avatar to the world and has been getting a resounding positive response – and huge ticket sales . To date, it has been documented that Avatar is now owns the biggest opening for a 3D IMAX film ever, the second best December premier of all time and has grossed over 232 million dollars globally.

Avatar was one of the most anticipated films of recent memory and throughout the opening weekend, fans have been showing their support for Cameron and his IMAX experience.

Avatar costs upwards to 300 million dollars to make, although an exact number has not yet been officially released, but after an opening weekend like it just had, Cameron should have no problems explaining to people that the money put into the production was money well spent. The film has only been available to the public for one weekend and it is already becoming one of the highest grossing in such a short period of time.

From a marketing standpoint fans can look back to Comicon 2009, various trailers and behind the scenes footage released throughout the year and the huge press junkets Cameron has been giving around the world. With all of the exposure this film has been getting over the past year, it would be difficult to sit back and just read about the film – from Cameron’s point of view, this is something that should be experienced in it’s true form, 3D IMAX.

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In recent years the technological capabilities of feature films has sky rocketed. We all know of the advancements in animation and visual effects (compare this year’s UP and Star Trek to almost any film produced in the past), but the next stage in all of this is the use of IMAX technology. IMAX used to be reserved for nature-based documentaries where large cameras would be used to capture as much of a landscape or experience as possible, then be able to project the huge image onto a gigantic screen for all to view. Well, people like Chris Nolan and most recently James Cameron saw huge potential with IMAX and have started to use the special cameras and lenses with their own projects.

If you think back a couple of years ago, Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight made one of the largest splashes on a movie screen in recent memory. But he didn’t stop there as he decided to shoot a few select scenes using IMAX technology. This was probably half experiment and half intentional, but if you managed to catch the Dark Knight on IMAX then you might have noticed a few scenes where the picture was significantly larger. Nolan felt as though he could take advantage of the technology by showcasing some huge important scenes using the IMAX cameras – the only problem was the budget. It costs significantly more to shoot anything on IMAX.

By next week you’ll probably hear of a little film called Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. Director Michael Bay has chosen the same route as Nolan for his followup smash hit and has already shot a few scenes in IMAX. This doesn’t mean that the entire film will be different on a regular screen, but like Dark Knight, there will be a few scenes where Bay takes advantage of the larger palette.

Finally, later on this summer I’m sure a lot of people will be talking about James Cameron’s latest project – Avatar. Avatar will be (to my knowledge) the first feature film to be shot and produced entirely on IMAX, meaning if your local theatre does not have an IMAX screen, you probably won’t be able to see it. I’m not sure if this is going to take off as much as Cameron hopes, especially since auidences will have to dish out some extra cash just to see it, but from what I’ve seen so far in IMAX, this could be HUGE (pun intended).

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