James Cameron

The most successful filmmaker of our time started somewhere: XENOGENESIS.

As a guest at a recent taping of The Jay Leno Show, I heard James Cameron talk about his earliest experience in the world of film.  The episode aired last night at 10.

After years as a machinist and truck driver, he claims to have maxed out his wife’s credit card to make a short film  in his living room.  The film was inspired by the recent release of Star Wars, in which Cameron recognized a world that reflected many of his own ideas.  The short is both amateur and inspired, a machinist’s take on the sci-fi genre.  Even though the human element is underdeveloped, the old-school robot fight is almost exciting, and foreshadows Cameron’s creation of THE TERMINATOR.

Xenogenesis got him “a gig” working for Roger Corman, the most prolific B-movie producer of all time.  His first feature directing gig was a gem: 1989′s PIRANHA PART II: THE SPAWNING.  The film was basically a JAWS ripoff involving a mutant strain of killer fish that originate from a sunken fighter ship.  I recommend the article Bad Acting, Boobies and Blood… James Cameron’s First Film. Then his first script, THE TERMINATOR, was produced.  And the rest is history: ALIENS, T2, TRUE LIES, TITANIC and AVATAR.  Those are just the highlights.

To learn that he was at one time a very normal person encourages those of us who have big dreams and humble realities.  But wouldn’t machining be fun too?

New World Record

Numbers from AVATAR are out of this world.

Explosions, battles, and a climactic hand-to-hand fight between hero and villain: these are the obligatory thrills of the Tentpole Film.  But sometimes, for some of us, the real thrills come from outside the theater and inside the box-office.

James Cameron has once again blown past all the competition.  Except himself.  AVATAR is already the runner-up best-performing box-office earner of all time.  In five weeks the “action/adventure/sci-fi” has earned $1.4 billion internationally.  The defending champ, Cameron’s TITANIC, earned a total of $1.8 billion.  But that was 16 weeks of theater revenue.  In its first five weeks TITANIC earned (only) $550 million.  This means that, barring an upset, AVATAR will raise the bar by the time it is half way through its theatrical run and claim a definitive victory.

James Cameron, director of TITANIC, will have to drink the bitter cup of defeat and hand the laurels over to… himself. But will this film earn him the Oscar for Best Picture as TITANIC did in 1997?  If the Golden Globes are any indication (which they often are), it is a distinct possibility.

PRAGMATICS

I use the term to mean pragmatic elements, not pragmatists. So I was thinking. How does one break into Hollywood? First of all, I strongly dislike the term “breaking in.” The last place I want to be is inside the box. How about creating a break-out short film or micro-budget feature? That’s how to make a splash as a new creative force. So how do we do this? We need to pair high quality and low budget from concept to conclusion. Budget will not determine what story we tell, but it will determine the setting and style of that story. Do we want to be Blaire Witch or Napoleon Dynamite? How will we set ourselves apart and compensate for lack of money? Let the pragmatics become the constrictions that drive creativity! Remember where a diamond comes from. We’ve been in the rough long enough. That’s our new mantra: in the rough long enough.