3. Shooting It All Back-To-Back - The Avatar Sequel Trilogy
Oh yeah, in case you weren't caught up on Avatar (it stopped being a phenomenon a few months after release after all) there's going to be three films following on from James Cameron's epic remake of Dances With Wolves due in 2016, 2017 and 2018. And that quick turnaround is all going to be achieved by shooting the films all at the same time. The problem is, shooting movies back-to-back is rarely the best decision. It may keep costs of the individual movie down and makes the whole shooting process easier, but it can really hamper creativity; it's a big-budget equivalent of production-line film-making. Focus is pulled away from the individual films and once things have kicked off there's little room for manoeuvring. We're not saying it can't work, but success tends to only come from certain situations. For The Lord Of The Rings, which popularised this method, it was ideal because the whole story was mapped out in the books. When it's an idea straight out of the director's head, then any hope of adjusting the story is lost; if Star Wars had been shot back-to-back Darth Vader would never have even been Luke's father.
