Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1544153
PROPERTYMASTERSGUILD.ORG 19 her flamethrower prop as you might for live action. Even though it would be used only for capture, the paint and age were camera-ready. This was then scanned and its exact copy was used in the virtual. It was one of several cases where we built a capture prop to exactly define the virtual version, but also to give as much reality to the stage performance as possible. Neytiri's saddle and tack were also fully realized in this way. The final version on screen is an exact scan of our stage model. I was grateful that the scan happened at the end of capture so that we could take advantage of the natural wear and polish that the leather got over the years of capture work. And then we got to the puzzle of Neytiri's war bow. This is the bow infused with the heart of the Omatakaya people. It was passed from Netyri's father to her with the mandate to protect her people. In her grief and rage, she broke it toward the end of the second film, The Way of Water. In Fire and Ash, Neteyam, her son, fixes it. We started our process by deconstructing it. We had to figure out how it was made before we could figure out how to rebuild it. We laminated hardwoods with natural glues and then broke them to see what the breaks would look like and how the wood would behave. We experimented with how these glues would hold up in seawater over a period of three days. Then we decided what on the bow would be salvageable and what would have to be replaced. We designed reef tools, jigs, resins, varnishes, brushes, and string fibers all based on naturally occurring versions of those from what is real to maintain the authenticity. In all, we offered more than 20 steps for the repair montage. We knew we would never use that many, but this was an important sequence for Jim, so we came prepared. I even made sure that the Wind Traders had some of those blue feather flight vanes at the market in the beginning of the film to explain how they could have sourced new ones. Sadly, that part of the market did not make the final cut. More than seven years passed in the time I first started this sequence's exploration to the day the final shots were approved. After we had cracked the puzzle, I got a very rare high-five from Jim. Late in the process, Jim decided that we were going to use real firing machine guns in the volume. The designs for the RDA weapons had long been approved, and we did not want to change those designs to fit existing guns, so we altered the geometry of the rental guns. With help from the ISS gun room, we found that we could adapt the Magpul ACR rifles for the RDA AR and the Tavor-21 for the bullpup variants. By adding custom-built foregrips and other adjustments, we were able to pivot to blank fire without compromising approved designs. This kept the hand placement on the weapons true to the virtual designs and brought the visceral experience of blank gunfire to the volume. The recoil from the guns can be seen influencing the motion of the performers. The use