A Level Media Studies research task by Erika Andrejuskinaite

1. James Cameron
DIRECTOR RESEARCH BY ERIKA ANDREJUSKINAITE

2. 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

3. 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

4.  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

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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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