James Cameron: features of creativity and the best films of the director

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Every film by James Cameron is a breakthrough and revolution in cinema. Here are some of the principles of filmmaking and his best films.

Almost all of Cameron's films are the result of hard and painstaking work, in which the author himself invests to the maximum. Pictures can be of different genres, of different scale and budget, but they always show maximalism and a desire to bring the creation to the ideal. Despite his first setbacks with Piranha 2: Spawning, he stubbornly pushed his way into big cinema. As a result, James Cameron has become not only one of the most famous directors, but also the person who sets a new quality bar every time. Several features can be distinguished in the director's approach to his work.

Full passion for projects

For James Cameron, each of his films is more than just a film. He himself writes scripts for all his projects, in the process he comes up with new ways and technologies to achieve a result, and after that he often does the editing himself. In a word, he does everything to make the film exactly as he intended. Often for this, the director had to take risky steps for himself.

He sold the script for "The Terminator" for one dollar to get permission to shoot the film himself, and not give it to another director.

In order for the studio to agree to sponsor the production of Avatar, Cameron waived some of his royalties in the event of a film failure.

In acting and creating surroundings, James Cameron strives for complete realism. For this, the actors both love and hate him. On the set of The Abyss, the entire film crew really spent a lot of time underwater, taking a professional diving course. While working on "Aliens", those artists who played the paratroopers were sent to a military camp for training.

What to see

Terminator

• Fantastic thriller.
• USA, 1984.
• 108 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 0.

From a future where machines have taken over humanity, a killer robot is sent to 1984. His task is to destroy Sarah Connor, the future mother of the leader of the Human Resistance. The machine is opposed by a man from the future - Kyle Reese, who was sent to the past to protect the girl.

The production of "The Terminator" is a real victory for the then still novice director James Cameron. For very little money, he managed to make a film that became a legend for many years. Due to budget constraints, most of the special effects were created by hand. For example, a robot model is made of foil, and the press that crushes it is made of foam. To reduce the cost of filming, the operator moved not on a special cart with a camera, but in an ordinary wheelchair.

Despite all the problems, Cameron managed to create a stunningly dark atmosphere and plot, which marked the beginning of many sequels and copies.

Exploring the underwater world

Interest in the underwater world is manifested not only in some of the director's films. This hobby runs through his whole life.

The Abyss is based on the UFO chronicles in the Bermuda region, which he studied for a long time. But really Cameron plunged into the abyss, literally and figuratively, on the set of the legendary "Titanic". Starting work on the film, he personally made 12 bathyscaphe dives to the sunken liner. The underwater camera system, developed by James Cameron's brother specifically for this shoot, could only record 15 minutes due to the small amount of tape. Therefore, the material was filmed in parts, each time moving deeper and deeper.

But after the release of Titanic, Cameron continued to develop his interest in the underwater world. In 2003, a documentary film "Ghosts of the Abyss" was released, also dedicated to the sinking of the "Titanic", but already completely consisting of underwater filming and historical facts. And in 2005, the director released another documentary film "Aliens from the Abyss", which tells about the most unusual representatives of the deep-sea fauna.

James Cameron doesn't stop there either. In 2012, he makes the longest solo dive in history into the Challenger Abyss, the deepest point in the Mariana Trench. Of course, the specially created Deepsea Challenger bathyscaphe was equipped with 3D cameras and the whole process was recorded. In addition, Cameron sent a message from the deepest point of the ocean to his Twitter.

Just reached the deepest point in the ocean. Reaching the bottom has never been so pleasant. I can't wait to share what I saw with you.

James Cameron Director

What to see

Abyss

• Science fiction, adventure, thriller.
• USA, 1989.
• 146 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 6.

Workers of the underwater oil platform, together with special forces, must find out the reasons for the crash of the nuclear submarine and neutralize the warheads in it. However, underwater, they encounter an unknown and dangerous creature.

Titanic

• A disaster film, melodrama, drama.
• USA, 1997.
• 195 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 7.

Jack and Rose belong to completely different walks of life. But they meet and fall in love aboard a luxurious liner, not yet knowing that the ship and most of the passengers are doomed to perish in the cold ocean waters.

The film was a real triumph for James Cameron. The film won 11 out of 14 nominations for the Oscar, including Best Film and Best Director. In addition, the film received BAFTA, Golden Globe, Cesar and many others - more than a hundred nominations and 87 wins in total. And also the title of the most profitable film of all time, beaten later only by "Avatar" of the same Cameron.

In 2012, the film was re-released in 3D.

Strong women

Whatever the plot, almost all of Cameron's films have one thing in common - strong and daring female characters. It is extremely rare, except in the purely comedy film True Lies, that women can “get lost” in the frame against the background of men.

The frightened and weak waitress Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from the first "Terminator" to the second film turns into a brave and determined woman, ready to fight even with people, even with robots. And in the interval between the two parts, "Aliens" is released - the sequel to the famous film by Ridley Scott. And here Lieutenant Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) becomes sharper and bolder than in the first picture. In addition, Janette Vasquez (Janette Goldstein) is added to it - an ordinary special forces, in courage and dexterity, giving a hundred points ahead to many men.

The trend will continue in the future. In Avatar, most of the smartest and most daring characters are women. Sigourney Weaver plays the director of the entire program, Zoe Saldana plays the brave Na'vi, and Michelle Rodriguez plays the daring pilot.

What to see

Aliens

• Fantastic thriller, horror.
• USA, 1986.
• 137 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 4.

The second film from the famous franchise about the xenomorph race. Lieutenant Ellen Ripley returns to the planet, where once the crew of her ship first met the Alien. Many years have passed, the planet has been colonized for a long time, but suddenly communication with the settlers is interrupted. Ripley, accompanied by a group of special forces, discovers not one, but a whole colony of Aliens on the planet.

Creation and development of technologies for filming

Talking about the work of James Cameron, it is simply impossible not to mention his contribution to the development of cinema technology. Almost every major film of his divides filmmaking into "before" and "after", setting new standards for filming.

The Abyss was the first to use CGI technology on a fully 3D character. In "Terminator 2: Doomsday" a lot of computer animation and morphing technology (scenes where one object smoothly "flows" into another) was added to these developments.

Equally important, Cameron's innovations not only influence the entertainment industry, but also help in life. So, for example, to record the voices of actors during underwater filming in "The Abyss", they came up with a way to clear the voice of extraneous noise. This development was picked up with pleasure by submariners. And when diving to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, 68 new species of living organisms were discovered.

Avatar, of course, has become a real breakthrough in 3D animation. The fact that this particular film brought technology to a fundamentally new level is recognized by almost everyone. Luc Besson, talking about the film "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets", explains that previously there was simply no technical opportunity to release such a picture.

And then Avatar appeared. And everything became possible, thanks to Jim.

Luc Besson director

For the filming of this film, a 3D camera system was modernized, previously invented by the same Cameron together with cameraman Vince Pace. But most importantly, a technology was created that allows you to apply visual effects right on the set during filming. During the work, the director could see how the picture would look as a result.

In addition, a helmet was made for each actor exactly in the shape of the head, and small cameras were hung in front of the faces in order to accurately convey the facial expressions of the characters. Microsoft has released a new cloud-based system, Gaia, specifically for this movie, so that New Zealand specialists can quickly process footage.

Just as Terminator 2 sparked an explosion of interest in the use of computer graphics in big movies, so Avatar influenced the development of 3D films and motion capture technology.

What to see

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

• Fantastic thriller.
• USA, 1991.
• 137 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 5.

This time, a robot is sent back to the past, capable of changing its appearance and copying any person it meets. He must destroy Sarah Connor's son. But the old model of the Terminator, familiar to the audience from the first part, stands up to his defense.

On August 24, 2017, an updated version of the classic film is released. The picture was converted to 3D format, color correction was carried out, almost every frame was cleaned and processed. Also updated special effects and re-recorded sound. For James Cameron, this is not so much an opportunity to make more money (he once refused to shoot the sequels of The Terminator, although this promised significant benefits), but rather an opportunity to show viewers what the picture might look like if more advanced technologies existed at the time of filming. …

Avatar

• Science fiction, action, drama.
• USA, 2009.
• 162 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 8.

A former marine, confined to a wheelchair, becomes a participant in the Avatar project on the planet Pandora, where earthlings extract a rare and very valuable mineral. As part of the project, he can transfer his consciousness into an artificially created avatar - a creature that looks like the local residents of Na'vi. But the activity of mankind turns into a catastrophe for both the population and the planet itself.

The picture has three sequels announced at once, but the release of even the first of them has not been postponed for the first time, although work on the film has been going on for a long time. Cameron has already stated that he is raising the bar for filming quality again. It is planned to release a 3D film that can be watched without special glasses.