Ben Murphy, Film Editor for Avatar, Presents at University of Tennessee
Ben Murphy, Cinema Studies alumni from 2015, is Assistant Editor in the Avatar mega-franchise. The School of Art hosted Murphy for a presentation at the Hodges Library auditorium on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. He shared the excitement he feels in working with individuals who have recently captured some of the most prestigious awards in filmmaking.
A recording of this Q & A sessions available at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_f72Xb2LjJdlZC1oByeb0_N1BhkfMOf6/view?usp=sharing
The crew of Avatar: the Way of Water was delighted to celebrate the with the VFX team who won an Oscar for Visual Effects. Below, Murphy is pictured with Richard Baneham and the Oscar statue. The leaders of the Visual Effects crew, who actually won the Avatar Oscar, were Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett. This group has also won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for Best Special Visual Effects.
Work on the film is a long and arduous process. When asked, Murphy described some of what he does as a film editor and how it all fits into the success of the movie, especially with the visual effects.
“Everything is based on the actors’ performances and making sure what ends up in the final film is honoring their performances. This is putting it VERY simply, but the film is, you could say, edited twice. Once for performance, and once for virtual camera work. The editors and our director Jim Cameron (who is an editor himself) select the best performance capture takes with the actors for each scene. Those performances then get turned over to our internal VFX house at Lightstorm, and get processed into basically a virtual stage play. From there, our director, our VFX supervisor, and Sequence Supervisors shoot virtual cameras that become ‘traditional dailies.’ And those virtual cameras and virtual edits by the editors and Jim are what we turn over to Weta FX to create the images the audience sees in the final film. But again, no Na’vi characters are based solely on animation – it’s all based on an actor’s performance.”
Murphy continued, “I started on the film in 2017 and began on our volume stages as one of the assistant editors bringing in the performance capture dailies as they were being shot. In 2019, I traveled down to New Zealand and worked on set assisting with the live action photography portion of Avatar 2 and 3. In 2022, I returned to LA full time and helped our team cross the finish line for movie 2. Our editorial team finished our portion of delivering the film over the Thanksgiving weekend. It’s been a long process but I am so excited to share our work with audiences around the world. I am beyond fortunate to get to work with the most talented technological geniuses. Every day I pinch myself, so my arm is very bruised.”
For more information about Murphy and his work visit: https://art.utk.edu/cinema-studies-alum-ben-murphy-succeeds-in-work-with-avatar-sequels/