James CameronDIRECTOR RESEARCH BY ERIKA ANDREJUSKINAITE

About James Cameron

Canadian director born August 16th 1954 First major success was ‘The Terminator’ in 1984 Director of the two highest grossing movies of all time –

‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ Early works include production assistant on the film ‘Rock

and Roll High School’ in 1979 and art director in the film ‘Battle Beyond the Stars’ in 1980

Cameron has received multiple awards including Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing

Most well know/successful films

Avatar (2009) $2.788 billion

Titanic (1997)$2.187 billion

Aliens (1986)$131.1–183.3 million

The Terminator (1984)$78.3 million

Often big production and large scale films, made to look impressive on the big screen

Slow motion is common to create intensity and action in scenes Often blue tinted and dramatic in scenes, used for either the sci-fi genre in films

such as Avatar and also Terminator, or for creating a melancholy feeling, such as in Titanic

A large amount of special effects eg: Avatar, which hugely revolutionised the use of special effects in the modern era of film

Visual Style

James Cameron Oscar winning Film MontageThis video shows the style and how it has developed over time, and what huge success the films by Cameron have had.

Terminator (1984) and Cameron’s old style

Cameron’s older style is typical sci-fi for it’s age Chrome and blues play a huge part in creating a robotic and computer based world The storylines are hugely villains vs heroes and technology plays a huge part, which

creates the visual aspect of futuristic/dystopian world Many scenes are very dramatic, used to either show the visual impressive aspects of

the world created or the action filled story

Avatar (2009) and new age works by Cameron

The style that Cameron uses has changed dramatically over time For example, huge amounts of CGI were used in Avatar to create a fantastical sci-fi world Detailing is very important and different scenes manage to impress an audience with the big-

production style, for example big wide-shots to show case the locations Cameron still sticks to the sci-fi genre and storylines of heroes vs villains in futuristic and developed

worlds Utopia vs dystopia still plays a huge part in stories

Influence & why an audience enjoys his work

Created two of the top grossing films of all time, iconic for the 20th and 21st century Established some of the classic features of the sci-fi genre which since have been

copied in more recent films The first to use CGI at such a major scale, changing the way it is used in cinema today Featured many strong female heroines, inspiration for the female youth and

encouraged other directors to follow up with their own To an audience, his work is impressive and iconic to watch because of it’s large scale

and creative visuals, which helps the audience escape and enjoy other worlds Many directors are inspired by his big and bold choices in style and audience can

enjoy the content of rich storylines with fascinating characters and locations