James Cameron's Secret Film Origin Story (That You Missed In Titanic)
When I think of James Cameron, different variations of the man come to mind. There’s the action movie legend who delivered hit after hit in the early ‘90s—some of which were genuine masterpieces; there’s the bullish maestro behind Titanic, holding up his Best Director Oscar and shouting “I’m the king of the world” to a room full of people who, in that moment, might have regretted their vote; and then there’s the late career Cameron, a man who has now dedicated 20 years of his life and career to making a series of movies that everybody sees but few people seem to love.
Whatever you think of him (I’ll admit, I’m a diehard), there’s no doubting the impact Cameron has had on modern cinema—a filmmaker who’s been on the cutting edge of special effects for decades, at least since the mercury-like T1000 walked out of that burning wreckage in Terminator 2. In truth, that dedication to the craft of movie magic has been the story of his career, even since his earliest days in the industry. With the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash, let’s look back over how Cameron got to this point, and how evidence of his past life is hidden in plain sight in Titanic.
Read on to learn some more and use the guide below to find out where to stream the movies we mention on services like AppleTV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.
James Cameron’s Journey From Painter to B-Movie Director
Despite all that world-conquering success, Cameron’s entry into the business sounds as scattered as they come. He originally went to Community College to study Physics and English before dropping out, working random jobs, before deciding to become a filmmaker after seeing Star Wars.
Like many of his peers, Cameron cut his teeth at Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, where he landed a job as a model builder and matte painter. As Cameron’s mother was an artist who had encouraged him to paint from a young age, he was able to quickly get a foothold at the studio. Soon enough, he was making posters for movies like Piranha II: The Spawning, meeting his first wife, Gale Ann Hurd (who would also produce The Terminator) and inventing a style he called “tech noir.”
Working on sci-fi movies with shoestring budgets, he also crucially learned how to get bang for his buck. My favourite Cameron story from that time is from the production of Battle Beyond the Stars, when he famously stayed up all night stapling styrofoam burger boxes and McDonald’s trays to the wall and spraying them with lacquer to make them look like the walls of an alien spaceship. Corman is said to have been so impressed by Cameron’s thrifty ingenuity that he decided to let him direct Piranha II. The rest, as they say, is history.
How James Cameron Mastered Visual Effects for John Carpenter
Cameron’s most high-profile gig during the New World Pictures years was undoubtedly his long mythologised role as a special effects artist on John Carpenter’s Escape from New York. Using a model of the city’s skyline and some matte painting trickery, Cameron was able to create the incredible glider landing sequence pretty much without the help of digital effects, which were far more expensive than practical work at the time.
In a 2018 interview, Carpenter said that, even then, Cameron stood out from the pack, referring to him as the “resident genius” on set. It was during that production that Cameron also met Robert Skotak, a special effects artist who went on to collaborate with him on four films, winning Academy Awards along the way for both Aliens and Terminator 2.
James Cameron’s Skills Are Hidden in Plain Sight in Titanic
Three decades into Cameron’s career, I guess it’s fair to say that Titanic looks like his crowning achievement. That was a project he had to fight tooth and nail to get made, but one that went on to become arguably (if you take box office, Oscars, and cultural impact into account) the most successful movie ever made—at the very least since Gone With the Wind.
The shoot was a famously challenging one, a constant battle to deliver his vision with the studio breathing down his neck, but Cameron, the son of the artist, continued to do what he’d always done—including drawing the picture of Rose that would eventually be used in the movie. He also contributed the sketches we see in Jack’s notebook earlier on and, best of all, the hands we see during the painting scene are actually his—although, as Cameron is left-handed, the shot had to be flipped in the edit.
The director has yet to appear like this in any of the Avatar movies, but even as the technology gets more and more complex, he continues to be involved in creating the concept art for Pandora. I expect he’ll continue to do so.
