Director Research- James cameroon

1. James Cameron
Cameron was born in Kapuskasing Ontario in 1954. Cameron grew up
in Chippawa, Ontario. He attended Stamford Collegiate School in Niagara Falls
Ontario. His family moved to Brea , California when he was 17 years old. Over
there he attended Brea Olindia High school for his further secondary education.
After studying he did several jobs, including as a truck driver,. Then after some
time Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry after
watching the original star wars film in 1977. When Cameron read Syd field's
book Screenplay, it occurred to him that integrating science and art was possible,
and he wrote a 10-minute science-fiction script with two friends,
titled Xenogenesis. They raised money, rented camera, lenses, film stock and
studio then shot it in 35mm. They dismantled the camera to understand how to
operate it and spent the first half-day of the shoot trying to figure out how to get it
running.

2. Early career
Cameron first film was named Xenogenesis. He was the director, writer, producer,
and production designer for Xenogenesis. He then became a production assistant
on a film Rock and Roll High School in 1979. Cameron started working as a
miniature-model maker at Roger Corman Studios. He was soon employed as an
art director in sci-fi movie Battle Beyond The Stars. Cameron was hired as the
special effects director for the sequel to Piranha in 1981. The original director,
Miller Drake, left the project due to creative differences with producer Oviedo
Assonates , who then gave Cameron his first job as overall director. The movie
was produced in Jamaica but the production slowed down due to several
problems such as adverse weather. Soon Cameroon was fired after failing to take
close ups of Carole Davies. After getting Fired Oviedo invited Cameron to stay and
help in shooting but un fortunately he got a food poison and he got ill, he had a
nightmare about an invincible robot hit-man sent from the future to kill him,
giving him the idea for The Terminator, which later catapulted his film career.

3. Major films
TERMINATOR (1984):-
As Cameroon completed the screen play for The terminator he decided to sell it to sell it so
he could direct a movie .However the production companies he contacted were unwilling
to work with him on the project because he was largely inexperienced feature film director
to make movie. Finally he found a company called Hemdale pictures. Gale Anne Hurd who
had started her own production company, Pacific Western Productions had previously
worked with Cameron in Roger Corman's company and agreed to buy Cameron's
screenplay for one dollar, on the condition that Cameron direct the film. Hurd was signed
on as producer, and Cameron finally got his first break as
director. OrionPictures distributed the film. For the role of the Terminator, Cameron
envisioned a man who was not exceptionally muscular, who could "blend into" a
crowd. Lance Henriksen who had starred in Piranha II: The Spawning, was considered for
the title role, but when Arnold Schwarzenegger and Cameron first met over lunch to
discuss Schwarzenegger's playing the role of Kyle Reese both came to the conclusion that
the cyborg villain would be the more compelling role for the Austrian body builder
Henriksen got the smaller part of LAPD detective Hal Vukovich and the role of Kyle Reese
went to Michael n Biennia addition, Linda Hamilton first appeared in this film in her iconic
role of Sarah Connor

4. The Terminator was a box-office hit, breaking expectations by
Orion Pictures executives that the film would be regarded as
no more than a sci-fi film and only last a week in theatres. It
was a low-budget film which cost $6.5 million to make,
cutting expenses in such ways as recording the audio track in
mono. However, The Terminator eventually earned over
$78 million worldwide

5. The Abyss
Cameron next project stemmed from an idea that had come up from biology class.
The story of oil-rig workers who discover otherworldly underwater creatures
became the basis of Cameron's screenplay for The Abyss, which cast Ed
Harris, Mary Elizebeth Mastrantonino and Michael Biehn. Initially budgeted at
$41 million U.S. though the production ran considerably over budget, it was
considered to be one of the most expensive films of its time and required cutting-edge
effects technology. This was because most of the film was made under water
and the technology wasn’t vast enouh to digitally make under water
enviourment. For creation of the sets, the containment building of an unfinished
nuclear power plant was converted, and two huge tanks were used. The main
tank was filled with 7,500,000 US gallons (28,000,000 L) of water and the second
with 2,500,000 US gallons (9,500,000 L). The cast and crew resided there for
much of the filming.

6. Terminator2 (1991)
After the success of The Terminator, there had been talk about a sequel to continue the
story of Sarah Connor and her struggle against machines from the future. Although
Cameron had come up with a core idea for the sequel and Schwarzenegger expressed
interest in continuing the story, there were still problems regarding who had the rights to
the story, as well as the logistics of the special effects needed to make the sequel. Finally,
in late-1980s, Mario Kassar of Carolos Pictures secured the rights to the sequel, allowing
Cameron to greenlight production of the film, now called Terminator 2 Judgment Day. For
the film, Linda Hamilton reprised her iconic role of Sarah Connor. In addition,
Schwarzenegger also returned in his role as The Terminator, but this time as a protector.
Unlike Schwarzenegger's character—the T-800 Terminator which is made of a metal
endoskeleton—the new villain of the sequel, called the T-1000, is a more-advanced
Terminator made of liquid metal, and with polymorphic abilities. The T-1000 would also
be much less bulky than the T-800. For the role, Cameron cast Robert Patrick , a sharp
contrast to Schwarzenegger. Cameron explained, "I wanted someone who was extremely
fast and agile. If the T-800 is a human Panzer tank, then the T-1000 is a Porsche.

7. TriStar Pictures agreed to distribute the film, but under a locked
release date only about one year after the start of shooting. The
movie, co-written by Cameron and his long time friend, William
Wisher, Jr., had to go from screenplay to finished film in just that
amount of time. Like Cameron's previous film, it was one of the
most expensive films of its era, with a budget of about $100 million.
The biggest challenge of the movie was the special effects used in
creating the T-1000. Nevertheless, the film was finished on time and
released to theatres on July 3, 1991.Terminator2 as it was
abbreviated, broke box-office records (including the opening
weekend record for an R-rated film), earning over $200 million in
the United States and Canada, and over $300 million in other
territories, and became the highest-grossing film of that year. It won
four Academy Awards Best Makeup, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects
Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It was also nominated for Best
Cinematography and Best Film Editing.

8. Titanic 1997
Cameron expressed interest in the famous sinking of the ship Titanic. He decided to film
his project in this event. The movie revolved around a romance story between two young
lovers who were from different social class and met each other on ship. Cameroon casted
Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria
Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci David Warner, Suzy Amis,
and Bill Paxton as the film's principal cast. Cameron's budget for the film reached about
$200 million, making it the most expensive movie ever made at the time.
AS it was released on 19 December 1997 titanic earned 28.7 million dollars in less than a
week and in second week 35.4 million dollars . This was especially noteworthy,
considering that the film's running time of more than three hours limited the number of
showings each theatre could schedule. It held the No. 1 spot on the box-office charts for
months, eventually grossing a total of $600.8 million in the United States and Canada and
more than $1.84 billion worldwide. Titanic became the highest-grossing film of all time,
both worldwide and in the United States and Canada and was also the first film to gross
more than $1 billion worldwide. It remained the highest-grossing film since 1998, until
Cameron's 2009 film Avatar surpassed its gross in 2010

9. Avatar 2009
In June 2005, Cameron was announced to be working on a project titled "Project 880“
which is now know to be Avatar and he was also working on another project name Battle
Angel. Avatar had an estimated budget of over $300 million and was released on December
18, 2009.This marked his first feature film since 1997'sTitanic. It was entirely based on
computer generated animation and much advanced technology was used . Cameroon
wrote avatar script in 1995 and announced it that he would complete it after making
titanic. In 2006 he explained the delay for avatar this was because there were no advanced
technologies to make the film at the time no studio would finance for the development of
the visual effects. The film was originally scheduled to be released in May 2009 but was
pushed back to December 2009 to allow more time for post-production on the
complex CGI and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors.
Cameron originally intended Avatar to be 3D-only. Avatar broke several box office records
during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada
and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in
the United States and Canada, surpassing Cameron's Titanic Avatar also became the first
movie to ever earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Including revenue from the re-release
of Avatar featuring extended footage, it grossed $760.5 million in the U.S. and Canada and
more than $2.78 billion worldwide. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards,
including Best Picture and Best Director and won three for Best Art Direction, Best
Cinematography and Best Visual Effects.

10. Personal life
Cameron has been married five times to the following women: Sharon Williams
(1978–1984), Gale Anne Hurd (1985–1989), director Kathryn Bigelow (1989–
1991), Linda Hamilton (1997–1999, daughter Josephine born in 1993), and Suzy
Amis(2000–present). Cameron lives in New Zealand, a country he fell in love with
when he was filming Avatar Hurd was the producer of Cameron's The
Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss and the executive producer of Terminator2
Judgment Day. Both Cameron and Bigelow were nominated for the Oscar,
the Golden Globe, and the BAFTA Award for Best Director for films released in
2009. Cameron won the Golden Globe, while Bigelow won the Oscar and the
BAFTA for Best Director, becoming the first woman to win either.
Cameron is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and is working on the project
to put cameras on an upcoming manned Mars mission. Cameron has also given
speeches and raised money for the Mars Society, a non-profit organization
lobbying for the colonization of Mars.

11. Cameron became an expert on deep-sea exploration in conjunction with his
research and underwater filming for The Abyss (1989) and Titanic (1997).In June
2010, Cameron met in Washington with the EPA to discuss possible solutions to
the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (BP) oil spill. Later that week at the All Things
Digital Conference, he attracted some notoriety Reportedly, Cameron had
offered BP help to plug the oil well, but it declined. The oil spill was eventually
stopped using techniques similar to those Cameron recommended. Early in 2014,
Cameron purchased the Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery in Courtenay at a
price of $2.7 million, as well as a number of other businesses in the area,
including cattle ranching operations, to pursue his passion for sustainable agri
business.3 months prior, Cameron made the local news when he was caught on
camera purchasing quality wine at a local liquor store.

12. Awards
Cameron achieved the inaugural Bradbury Award from the Science
Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1992 for Terminator 2
Judgment day For Titanic he won several including Academy
Awards for Best Picture (shared with Jon Landau), Best
Director and Best Film Editing (shared with Conrad Buff and Richard
A. Harris). Cameron is one of the few filmmakers to win three Oscars
in a single evening and Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture –
Drama and Best Director. In 1998, Cameron attended convocation to
receive an honorary doctorate of Laws from Ryerson University,
Toronto. The university awards its highest honour to those who have
made extraordinary contributions in Canada, June 3, 2008, it was
announced that he would be inducted into Canada's Walk of
Fame. On December 18, 2009, the same day Avatar was released
worldwide, Cameron received the 2,396th star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame. After the release of Avatar, on February 28, 2010,
Cameron was also honoured with a Visual Effects Society (VES)
Lifetime Achievement Award

13. For Avatar, Cameron won numerous awards as well, including:
Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama (shared with Jon
Landau) and Best Director. He was nominated for three Academy
Awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing (shared
with John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin. However, Cameron
and Avatar lost to his former wife Kathryn Bigelow and her film, The
Hurt Locker.
On September 24, 2010, James Cameron was named Number 1 in
The 2010 Guardian Film Power 100 list. In a list compiled by the
British magazine New Statesman in September 2010, he was listed
30th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Cameron in June 2012

14. REFRENCES
GOOGLE.COM
WIKIPEDIA.COM

15. Waleed Farooq
AS-F