Tag Archives: mandler

James Cameron Dreaming Up Technology ‘Wish List’ For ‘Avatar’ Sequels

‘We’re working on how to improve the system,’ he tells MTV News. By Kara Warner James Cameron Photo: MTV News With the re-release of the biggest film in movie history quickly approaching (“Avatar” hits theaters again in 3-D and IMAX on Friday), James Cameron has been out and about doing his due diligence with the media, dishing out news about the impending sequels , describing what scenes audiences will see within the nine extra minutes (i.e. the “alien kink” scene!) and much more. When MTV News caught up with Cameron to talk about the re-release, we took the opportunity to delve deep into the director’s technical, history-making mind and ask some very specific (read: nerdy) questions. First, given the film’s creation and development of the Virtual Camera system, we wanted to know what technological improvements are on Cameron’s “wish list” for the sequels. “We’re working on that wish list right now,” he said. “We’re working on how to improve the system. You’re working on kind of an old video game level of a reality; it’s not photo-real in the Virtual Camera, because the Virtual Camera has to render in real time. So you think of it as a game engine, really, a sophisticated input device to a game engine, and as you move it around, it reacts immediately, just like in a video game.” Cameron went on to say that one update they’re working on is the camera system’s inability to cast shadows. “As you give it inputs, it reacts immediately, but the level of reality isn’t very high,” he said. “For example, the characters don’t cast shadows on the ground, and sometimes shadows are a very important part of a scene; you compose the shot to the shadow. Next time, we’re going to have shadows, interactive volumetric lighting, all the kinds of things we didn’t have on ‘Avatar.’ ” Now to consult the dictionary for a definition of “interactive volumetric lighting” … “Avatar” hits theaters again, with nine extra minutes of footage, in 3-D and 3-D IMAX on Friday. Check out everything we’ve got on “Avatar.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: James Cameron

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James Cameron Dreaming Up Technology ‘Wish List’ For ‘Avatar’ Sequels

Drake’s ‘Miss Me’ Video Shoot Complicated By Lil Wayne’s Absence

‘It wasn’t shot the way I would have shot it,’ Anthony Mandler says of Lil Wayne footage shot before he came onboard as director. By Jayson Rodriguez, with reporting by Audrey Kim Lil Wayne and Drake Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images Drake’s “Miss Me” video is the third project between the rapper and director Anthony Mandler (Jay-Z, Rihanna, Mary J. Blige), following their work together on the Toronto star’s “Over” and “Find Your Love.” According to Mandler, he and Drake are establishing an aesthetic via their collaborations. Mandler said that “Over” was about reestablishing Drake visually and “Find Your Love” was intended to make Drake the lead in an anti-love story. With “Miss Me,” however, the director said the video was a particular challenge because co-star Lil Wayne’s footage was shot prior to Mandler coming onboard. “It wasn’t shot the way I would have shot it,” Mandler explained to MTV News. “So I had to come up with a world where I had ultimate control. I think with Drake, we’re always looking for overarching themes. We’re always looking for bigger themes to hang our hat on. With ‘Miss Me,’ what was interesting to me was not the idea of ‘miss me because Wayne was gong to jail.’ Because it was deeper than that. It was the attainability verses the unattainability. And how stars and people who are public figures are expected to sit on a platform and be grabbed and watched and photographed and controlled. “The idea for me was, what happens if it’s not that clear,” he added. The director said he incorporated a set where everything was slightly off. The set was built with a converging ceiling, in order to appear smaller. The lead actress in the video was never fully shown. The Young Money star appears but then quickly disappears. “Everything is a click off,” Mandler explained. “All these unrelated scenarios are related by a textual theme and trying to play that into that, rather than some straight narrative, because we didn’t have control … ’cause we didn’t have Wayne,” he said. Related Artists Drake Lil Wayne

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Drake’s ‘Miss Me’ Video Shoot Complicated By Lil Wayne’s Absence

Drake And Lil Wayne’s ‘Miss Me’ Video Premieres

The now-incarcerated Weezy appears projected on a wall throughout the clip. By Shaheem Reid Lil Wayne and Drake (file) Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images Drake’s “Miss Me” video featuring Lil Wayne debuted Thursday night (August 19) on MTV. The clip starts with a man in a hood standing in an alley. He’s lighting up a Molotov cocktail and throwing it at the wall. The music starts, and we see Drake performing against a white backdrop, but the shot is wide and reveals a black setting as well. The action cuts to a sexy woman dancing in a room alone, and later we see Drake in that same room, sitting on the floor as the woman shakes it for him. “Miss Me” has heavy performance scenes throughout Drizzy’s verse, and then we see a TV set in the alley. Lil Wayne appears on the wall in the alley rapping, and he again is shown on the wall in the room where Drake and the girl are, like a projection. The Birdman and most of Wayne and Drake’s Young Money family appear in the video as well. As the video comes to a close, it’s revealed that Drake was the man in the hood at the beginning of the clip. “Miss Me” was directed by Anthony Mandler, who has helmed all of Drake’s Thank Me Later videos. ” ‘Miss Me,’ it was something I was so excited to do,” Drake said recently on the set of another Mandler clip, for “Fancy.” “It was something not a lot of people expected me to do, especially with Wayne being in the situation he’s in. We did it as a team, held Wayne down. All the Young Money big dawgs came down — the men of Young Money — to show the muscle, to show we still in full effect. It’s a great piece. It’s darker than the feel of the song. It’s got very much like a youth-in-revolt, rebellious feel to it. I wanted to be aggressive, man. That was my chance to flex my little ‘We did it. We’re still here. Young Money is still in demand.’ And to deliver a message that I feel very strong about. I’m not trying to be the best in the world. I don’t think that’s possible. There’s always somebody better than you. I just hope they miss me, man. So this is it. ‘Miss Me.’ ” The next video Drake and Mandler will shoot is for “Show Me a Good Time.” What did you think of the “Miss Me” video? Does it make you miss Lil Wayne? Let us know in the comments! Related Artists Drake Lil Wayne

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Drake And Lil Wayne’s ‘Miss Me’ Video Premieres

Drake Was ‘Fearless’ In Making ‘Find Your Love’ Video, Director Says

‘It’s kind of like the anti-love love story,’ Anthony Mandler says. By Jayson Rodriguez Drake Photo: Young Money Entertainment As both a newcomer and budding superstar, Drake draws a high level of scrutiny toward himself with each new song or video he releases. That trend continued Tuesday (May 11) with the premiere of his latest clip, “Find Your Love,” directed by Anthony Mandler. “It’s unbelievable the amount of attention that he garners,” Mandler told MTV News. “Since the video dropped, I think I’ve received 200 e-mails, Facebook questions, tweets. There’s a fascination with him and there’s certainly been a void in music that he’s come to fill.” According to Mandler, Drake’s allure lies in his ability to fit in across various groups. That idea was at the heart of the two clips he’s helmed for Drake, “Over” and “Find Your Love.” For their collaboration, he explained, the two played against the convention of who Drake may or may not be. “I think part of that is the kind of way he works across genres, the way he works across tonalities: is he black, is he white, he’s aligned with Wayne and the streets, but he’s a nice guy from Toronto,” Mandler said. “And that really was the theme with ‘Over.’ Especially with the album and the dualities in the music to come, in one song he rhymes and another song he sings, the artists he working with — he’s very hard to pin down. Part of the objective of making this video was to do that same twist again, to give you something unexpected, not only tonality with the song but with the video thematically. It’s kind of like the anti-love love story.” In the video, Drake is advised to get out of dodge when he tries to woo the love interest of a local gang lord. He ignores the words of the elder Jamaican sage and instead ventures into the ghettos of “Gully Side” to see his leading lady once more. As Drake and the man speak, words run across the screen warning of the perils of unknowingly taking things too far. “It’s really about crossing lines, what was said in the first scene,” Mandler said about Drake’s chase for love. “It’s about really understanding what’s right and what’s wrong and it’s really easy to lose that when you’re the center of attention.” The director said the idea of “Find Your Love” was to serve as a follow-up to “Over,” which he felt helped to clear the slate of everything pre- Thank Me Later, Drake’s forthcoming debut album. The idea behind “Find You Love” was to feature visuals to begin a new story in the young rapper’s life. Mandler applauded Drake’s efforts in making the clip happen. “He did it fearlessly,” Mandler beamed. “He did it without any sign of hesitation. That was incredible. He wanted to do something that went further with the song, that took the essence of the song but communicated it with imagery that made people think, rather than go up the middle and make an obvious R&B video. That’s completely not who Drake is.” What do you think the story behind Drake’s video? Let us know in the comments! Related Videos Storyllne Videos: Drake, Lady Gaga, M.I.A

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Drake Was ‘Fearless’ In Making ‘Find Your Love’ Video, Director Says

Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye West Go To War In ‘Run This Town’ Video

Clip is for first official single from Jay’s long-awaited Blueprint 3 LP.

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Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye West Go To War In ‘Run This Town’ Video