5 movies that were so ahead of time that they lead to advancement in technology to help them achieve it.
#1 AVATAR: Fusion Camera System
To immerse audiences in the Pandora, James Cameron developed a hi-def 3D camera system that fused two Sony HDC-F950 HD cameras 2½ inches apart to mimic the stereoscopic separation of human eyes.
#2 THE LORD OF THE RINGS: Massive Software
The grand battle scenes in “The Lord of the Rings” films called for new technology. New Zealander Stephen Regelous created MASSIVE (Multiple Agent Simulatin System in Virtual Environment) to populate scenes with bigger, realistic and dynamic crowds.
#3 GRAVITY: Light Box
“Gravity,” no one had attempted to make an entire film that takes place in zero gravity. The authentic look of zero gravity in Earth’s orbit simulating the sun’s light that bounces off the dayside of Earth, so the filmmakers needed a way to rapidly move light sources. The film’s effects team created an LED light box that was 20 feet tall and 10 feet wide, and the interior walls were constructed of 196 panels, each containing 4,096 tiny LED lights.
#4 UPSIDE DOWN: Master an Slave Camera Technology
Sturgess and Timothy Spall would be on separate sets on one stage, with a monitor positioned about each actor’s head displaying their co-star. Both cameras on the twin sets remained in sync with new technology that had a “master” camera on a dolly linked to and controlling a “slave” camera on the other set, so the cameras could have identical movements in real-time.
#5 STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER : Previsualization
Digital previsualization is used throughout the film industry today to plan and visualize scenes before filming, much like storyboarding, though typically it's used for complex action and effects scenes. “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” was an early pre-viz pioneer.
