Location and Style

The Boat That Rocked

-> Portland

-> Brighton Beach

-> Trafalgar Square

-> Shepperton Studios

-> Pinewood Studios

Iconic british locations are used in TBTR so that british audiences can instantly recognise them and their significance within the film. The use of british studios is important, as it strengthens the british identity of the film; something that has helped promote many films from national production companies.                                                        

Avatar

-> Digital Pandora

-> Los Angeles

-> Wellington

Avatar is set in a digital landscape that was mainly created in America, so british audiences have no connection to the location. James Cameron therefore found it very important that the use of CGI did not interfere with the audience's connection to the characters, as they were already having to adjust to an entirely new setting.


Overcoming Problems with Digital Setting


In the video Cameron discusses the issues with using CGI characters, as the audiences often don't respond or connect to them enough in order to believe in the reality of the film. The face-sensors were designed to make the characters have real human emotion so that designers didn't need to attempt to replicate human emotions themselves. Also, most of the actors appear in human form throughout the film, meaning that viewers can grasp their true appearance and make judgements according to them, for example, only the human Jake Sully uses a wheelchair, and this is an important aspect for the the audience to absorb at the beginning of the film, as this affects his personality.

In TBTR much of the footage was shot on a boat in Portland, giving the film a more authentic feel, in comparision to setting up the entire location in a studio. This helps build the 'real life event' theme that the film exhibits.