James Cameron

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James Cameron
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How he got started....

• James Cameron was born in Kapuskasing, Canada
• Later Camerons family moved to Fullerton,
  California when he was 17.
• He dropped out of college, married and a waitress
  and drove for the local school district.
• Has two daughters, a stepdaughter, and a
  stepson
• He was married five times in his life
• After the film Star Wars he discovered his love
  of filmmaking, he quit his job and followed his
  own course of study. In the library of the
  University of Southern California, reading up on
  the technology of special effects, and
  projection. He spent most of his time building
  his own dolly track and experimenting with beam
  splitters in the living room of his small
  suburban house.

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First Attempt

• When he saw Star Wars it occurred to him that the
  possibility of his interests in science and art
  could come together in a movie
• Cameron and two of his friends created a ten
  minute script together. They raised the money to
  shoot it in 35mm and rented a camera, lenses, the
  film stocks and a studio.
• To understand how to operate the camera they
  simply dismantled it and spent the first half-day
  of the shoot just trying to figure out how to get
  it running. 

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First Movie

• When it came to the special effects area, Cameron
  explains that he was "completely self taught in
  special effects. I'd go down to the USC library
  and pull any ideas that graduate students had
  written about optical printing, or front screen
  projection, or Id transfers, anything that
  related to film technologyif they'd let me
  photocopy it, I would. If not, I'd make notes."
• As the future filmmaker continued to educate
  himself in the techniques, he landed a job as a
  miniature model maker at the Roger Corman
  Studios. Making fast, low-budget productions,
  Cameron was able to pick up the pace efficiently
  and effectively, moving up his ranking within the
  studio, soon working as an art director in the
  sci-fi movie Battle Beyond the Stars (1980),
• Cameron finally got his big break in 1981 when he
  got his first shot at directing a film entitled
  Piranha II The Spawning

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Films He directed

• True Lies-1994
• The Terminator 2-1991
• - Judgment Day
• Abyss-1989
• Aliens-1986
• The Terminator-1984
• Piranha Part Two-1982
• -The Spawning

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Most recent films

• Aliens of the Deep (2005)
• Ghosts of the Abyss (2004)
• Most Famous Film
• Titanic (1997)
• Won best director for

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Style

• Strong female characters.
• Frequently casts Michael Biehn,Jenette Goldstein,
  Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Arnold
  Schwarzenegger
• His films frequently feature scenes filmed in
  deep blues.
• Likes to make nice/effective cuts
• Cameron's films tend to include broken, swinging
  flourescent lights, especially in fight scenes.

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Style

• Often works dreams or characters sleeping into
  the plot.
• Likes to show close-up shots of feet or wheels,
  often trampling things
• Tight/close-up tracking shots, especially during
  chase scenes.
• Most Known for his special effects, in the
  Titanic, The Terminator 2, and the Abyss

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Whats Next?

• "Im directing two movies back-to-back and Ive
  got two more lined up after that," The first will
  come out in the summer of 2007, the second in the
  summer of 2009. The budgets for the two films
  are likely to be huge, over half-a-billion
  dollars.
• Right now Cameron is the one of the owners of the
  visual effects company 'Digital Domain'.