Reuben Langdon & Motion Capture in Avatar

On January 14^th, 2010, 8:30 PM Eastern Standard Time, Reuben Langdon, the stunt man for Jake Sully, acted by Sam Worthington, agreed to an interview of his experience with Motion Capture, questions asked by Chris Soth.

Langdon first explains about his start with Motion Capture in video games, which led to being casted and working on stunts. In his early years, Langdon admits to learning as many Asian martial art styles as he could while working odd jobs, modeling, and doing commercials. He started with learning how to fall and not get hurt, and then moved onto the more action side of martial arts, mostly taught by Bruce Li. Langdon got his initial start in the industry, when he was 19, as a stunt man and actor for the Power Rangers show in Japan.

On the show, he learned the unique art of 'fighting-acting' in cinema that tied together timing, acting, and martial arts. Soth compares the art with the old Kabuki theaters and Peking Operas where the actors would learn certain postures that had a universal meaning that was ingrained in the culture, thus expressing an idea or trait of the character without being verbally made known.

From there, Langdon worked on stunts with Jackie Chan in Hong Kong, and returned to America as Motion Capture filtered into the Western World. With his back ground in Power Rangers, he learned how to be expressive by using only his body movement because his face was masked, which fit in perfectly with Motion Capture.

Initially, after hearing about "Avatar", Langdon was excited, having been a long time fan of James Cameron, but he didn't know how to recommend himself. Fortunately, a friend of his tossed up his name to the main stunt director and they brought him in with caution because, at that time, "Avatar" was kept quiet. Luckily enough, with his proper balance of acting and physical abilities, after 3-4 months of testing, the movie went into production and he was chosen as a stunt man for Jake Sully.

According to Langdon, what made Motion Capture so great was that, regardless of who the performer was, there were so many elements going on, things could be changed without changing others. Though, Langdon claimed that the majority of the action on screen was performed by Worthington, he did own up to some of the bigger stunts, adding that some stunts were a mixture of both him and Worthington. Langdon also mentioned that, most of the action in the movie was a mixture of all the different forms of martial arts he had learned in the past, though modified for the story and characters in the film.

Langdon describes Motion Capture as a system of capturing motion by having actors and stunt men and women wear suits with markers placed at joints to calculate where bones are. From there, using infrared cameras in a warehouse or stage, the cameras record the movement of the markers and send them to a computer, thus creating a 3-dimensional representation of where everything is in regards to character and space. To capture the facial expressions of the characters, green dots were painted onto the actor and captured by the camera. Unfortunately, Pandora is not a real world so; about 90% of the movie was created using computer generated graphics. The actors in the suits were able see their motions in 'real time' after calibrating the body to the computer. "It's like a regular movie, but different," Langdon chuckled.

With its advantages, the information can be spliced, thus one scene can be comprised of several different bodies, movements, and faces. From pool of information recorded, the directors can change different parts to get the best results. Langdon compares the idea with Legos. For example, when the scene required a lot of stunts and actions, Langdon would take the stage, but the visual face would still be Worthington's. For "Avatar", Cameron had Worthington perform each scene 3-4 times and choose from the recorded information, creating his own Frankenstein.

Soth wondered if the acting was difficult because everything was designed in the computers and Langdon assured him that there were objects placed on the stage to help the actors imagine what was in the scene. By using Motion Capture, Cameron really pushed the actors to their limits. To have so many CG characters on the set at the same time had never been done before. Adamant about getting everything, Cameron pushed for giant studios so that the actors could see, feel, and understand where they were, leaving less up to imagination, which enhanced their acting abilities. Cameron even had people with wings flapping around, down on all fours, using their body contortions to help create the environment. To Langdon, it was very much like acting on a stage, where the actors had to use their minds and props to get into the zone.

Motion Capturing has also created jobs to many talented people. Many artists are employed to enhance and create the world, as seen in the long lists of credits at the end of the movie. Also, many actors with different fields of expertise and abilities are employed to create one character. For Jake Sully, alone; four people were hired to make him more real.

Langdon also encouraged actors to learn all the basics so as to broaden their chances of being casted. Having specialized skills and understanding the technology, Soth admits, can take you a long way. The more physical you are able to be, the more roles you can fill and the less people will be needed to fill the role. Langdon added that, most productions would be lucky to cast one actor who is able to do everything. In this sense, Hollywood is going back to the old Hollywood, where most actors had to learn sword fighting and could sing and dance. Motion Capturing jobs are all about body expression. The more they hone their theatre, stunt, and TV skills, the more comfortable the actor is in their space.

Langdon confessed to loving his job because he was able to be so many random characters; it's amazing. He added that it's a very exciting time to be working in the industry. And that everyone should root for James Cameron; the writer-director with more creative control than any in his field. Langdon continued to answer Soth's questions about writers and stunts, but this marked the end of their discussion regarding Motion Capture.

For Reuben Langdon's information, please visit his personal website. Also, for more information about Langdon's activities, visit JUST CAUSE Productions, Inc.