I bet you didnt know that the incredible film maker and explorer, James Cameron, was a college drop out and a truck driver! His journey to get to where he is now is inspiring and encouraging. Heres how we found out about it. Last night my 14yo son wanted to watch Avatar, which we havent seen for ages, so I happily watched it with him and we lost ourselves in that amazing movie! Afterwards, he was talking (and talking, and talking, lol) about James Cameron and how amazing he is, so I looked him up on Wikipedia and we found out some amazing stuff. Not only is he an amazing film maker, he is also an explorer and has recently finished filming a documentary about the deep sea, and the process he went through to film it is incredible! But mostly, what stood out to me, was the journey he took to get to where he is now, including dropping out of college and being a truck driver! Here is a snippet: Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a two-year community college, in 1973 to study physics. He switched to English, then dropped out before the start of the fall 1974 semester.[22] Next, he worked several jobs, including as a truck driver, writing when he had time.[23] During this period he taught himself about special effects: Id go down to the USC library and pull any thesis that graduate students had written about optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology. That way I could sit down and read it, and if theyd let me photocopy it, I would. If not, Id make notes.[24] Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry after seeing the original Star Wars film in 1977.[25] When Cameron read Syd Fields 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.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 03:57:55 +0000