James Cameron Interview (page: 7 / 8) Master Filmmaker	Print Interview

How would you explain to somebody who knows nothing about what you do, what is it that's so exciting to you about doing it?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. James Cameron: The thing that is exciting about film making is to think back to the moment in time right before you had the idea, and think about that at the moment that you're sitting or standing on the set and there are thousands of people around and they've built this huge set, and there are all these actors, and there's all this energy and all this focus, and realize that it's all in the service of something that was made up out of whole cloth, you know? And that's fun. I mean, that's what an architect must feel like when they drive down the street and they look up and see a building that they designed. It's something that you imagined made tangible.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

I get that rush much more on the set than I do when the film is done. When the film is done you've lived with it for so long that it's not new anymore, and it almost seems like it's just destiny. That's just what it is. But there's a time on the set when it's new, and you can walk into it and you can see it, and it's this physical tangible manifestation of pure imagination.

Now as much fun as that is, it becomes a curse. The next time you sit down and face the blank CRT you know you have to come up with something, because there's going to be a time when everybody is standing around, having gathered and built this huge human enterprise, and you better think of something good. So that's the rush you get out of it, but it's also the thing that haunts you before you start.

How would you characterize your contribution, your achievement in the field of film making?

James Cameron: I think that's probably best left to others.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I know what I've tried to do, which is tell stories that excite the imagination and maybe say something at a thematic level, and maybe something about the human condition with respect to our human relationship with technology, because ultimately I think all my stories have been about that to one degree or another. And to allow people to step through that screen into that world, whatever it is. You know, whether it's the world of The Abyss, or the world of The Terminator, or Titanic, to let people live in that -- create that space for them and let them live in the shoes of those characters for a while. That's what I set out to do, so I think it's really up to others to sort of sort it out, what it ultimately means.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

I see things that I have done that I know were inspired by other things. I see other filmmakers picking up on my leads and taking it further, and I realize that it is part of an ongoing creative process that is self-perpetuating. I think of myself as a link in a chain of cinematic ideas. It's fun to have that place.

What do you see as the next great challenge, the next great frontier in film making?

James Cameron: Ultimately the frontiers of film making have never changed. They change in the specifics of the technology and the technique, but ultimately it's somebody sitting in a room writing. It's actors saying the lines in front of a lens, and that image being captured, and that little slice of life for those characters, those relationships, being made alive in the mind's of other people all around the world. I don't think that is fundamentally going to change indefinitely.

The specifics are probably going to change a lot. We'll have electronic digital projection of the films. That's going to inform the entire post-production process. Ultimately we won't be working on film any more. We'll call it film but there won't be any film involved. It may be shot electronically. Film itself as a substance, as a thing, may be obsolete within 10 to 20 years other than atavistic artists who choose to shoot on film because of some real or perceived artistic need, in the same way that people still make pots by hand even though there are machines that make them beautifully.

Visual effects are happening now. It's not even the next frontier. Visual effects are just becoming integrated into the basic fabric of film making, they are not outside of the normal film making process. Now all directors are working with visual effects and it has just become as basic to the technique as a light or a dolly or whatever. I think it's empowering to the imagination to let people create whatever it is they want to create and do it in a very easy and straightforward manner, which visual effects are now capable of doing because of the ease of digital compositing. I think computer graphics and animation are going to have an increasing role. I think very real characters will come out of that. I don't think we're going to replace actors. They're going to have to be nonhuman characters.

There has to be a reason to do a CG character, and the reason is it can't be you or I. The traditional techniques of putting rubber on people's faces and making rubber puppets and running them with hydraulics and so on are going to fall by the wayside. Actors will still be empowered within that process because it will still be a performance created by an actor in some way. They just won't have five pounds of make-up stuck on their face.

Titanic has got to be a tough act to follow. Is there something you haven't you done that you would like to do?

James Cameron: There are many things I'd love to do. There are still a lot of stories that I want to tell. I get very excited by all kinds of different stories. I'd love to do a film with a scientist as a main character and really try to communicate to people the passion of science, because our culture thinks science is kind of unhip. Scientists get it, but I think the greater community doesn't understand how scientists think, what drives them, and how their passion can be as great as the passion of an artist or the passion of a great athlete, which our culture respects much more, unfortunately.

I'd love to be able to crack that nut because I don't think Hollywood has served the science community well. They are usually stereotypes: geeks, bad guys, or distant, unemotional people and, of course, none of that is true. It can certainly be true of individuals but it's not generally true.

What do you understand about achievement now that you did not when you were younger?

James Cameron: I used to think that the great films that I saw, the great works of art, were something that somebody imagined in every detail and then went and did. I didn't realize that the creative process is the end result of a lot of different people bringing a lot of different things to the table and it's impossible to predict. It's a real time monitoring, shaping, molding process. The end result may be quite different than what you imagined when you started out, but that that's how it works.

I'm at an interesting point right now. Just having done this film, it's definitely a high water mark and I have to evaluate what that means. Do I let the success of that overpower my artistic instincts? There's a lot of things I want to do and I know for certain some of them are going to be disappointments to people who think I'm going to come out and try to kick Titanic's butt. It might be some little intimate thing or it might be something that's a little off center.

Sometimes success brings with it a tremendous amount of scrutiny and anticipation of what's going to happen next. That is not a good thing necessarily. You want to have the freedom to just react instinctively as an artist and not second guess yourself.

I've been speaking to young people a lot lately, who are right at the cusp of deciding their path. I relate where I am right now to where I was when I was 18 years old and thinking, "I've got to make this big decision what I'm going to be, and if I mess up I mess up my whole life," and it's just not like that.

It's an evolving process, so I think the illumination I might be able to share is, "You've got time." As long as you follow your heart, you'll be going in the right direction for you. It may not be the direction that everybody around you thinks you should be going, but it'll be what's ultimately right for you.

I think the problem for a lot of people, especially when they show great potential, is that all of a sudden you've got 50 people in your hip pocket telling you what you should be and what you should do. Those voices can be deflecting you off your true course. I didn't find my true course until I was 25, so you've got time. I don't think you have until your 45, but I think you have at least until you're in your mid 20's. And, of course, there are stories of a legion of people who didn't find their true calling until they are in their 40s or 50s.

I had the great opportunity to become friends briefly with a woman who died recently at the age of 105. She was an artist in California named Beatrice Wood. She was a little bit the inspiration for the character in Titanic. In fact, I called her up and asked her permission to use her a little bit, to interview her and use her as kind of a model for this character even though Beatrice had no connection to Titanic itself. She said, "Oh, I couldn't possibly do that because I'm only 35." She was 102 at the time.

She was an artist, and none of her significant work was done before she was 90. She switched on when she hit 90. I think that's an interesting thing to remember.

James Cameron Interview, Page: 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8