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“Both Cameron and Scott worked themselves to a frazzle. You have to give them a hundred percent because they’re giving a hundred and eighty percent.
And the incredible thing about Cameron is, because he’s been a production designer and a special-effects supervisor, you can’t pull the wool over his eyes. If you give him what he wants then he’s over the moon, if you don’t give him what he wants, the **** hits the fan and he goes out there and does it himself. He knows how to do practically everything associated with a film.
What you have to remember is: If you say to Cameron, ‘Look, I really don’t think I can do this this way, but I can do it that way!’ He’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, he won’t say ‘You’ve got to do it this way!!’ But, after you’ve said what you can do, if you don’t then do it ... look out."
He has a reputation of being a real tyrant.
“No, he’s a very charming man, actually. When he’s under pressure, he can be tough, but most of the time, I really liked him. You’ve heard the stories about the crew wearing t-shirts saying ‘You can’t scare me, I’ve worked with Cameron’, well, the truth is, he’s an incredibly generous man.
I was up for an Oscar for the work I did on Aliens, but I had my nomination squashed by Twentieth Century Fox. I’d shot most of the model-shots during live-action shooting, and over-saw all the post-production stuff, and because of that Cameron asked for my name to be put on the nomination list. But, at that time, the Academy were only accepting four names per nomination and, because I’d started work last, my name came fifth.
Jim Cameron stood up, at the Academy nominations committee meeting, and argued on my behalf, for three-quarters of an hour, that my name should be on as I’d done more work than some of those whose names came before mine. He said it was a complete injustice. But Fox had the say, and because of regulations, they would have had to pay a penalty of about a hundred and eighty thousand dollars to remove an undeserving name and replace it with mine, so that was it.
Well, I understand that’s how it works; but Jim and Gale didn’t accept it. They had a special Academy Nomination prize made for me by Tiffany’s, which they presented to me as a consolation prize. I thought that was really sweet of them.”
That's a quote from Brian Johnson who won an Oscar for his work on Alien. He also worked on the sequel with Cameron. Basically he expects nothing but the best from the crew and can be extremely short with you if you don't do your job. Regarding Aliens, it doesn't help when the crew is questioning EVERY single thing you do as a director. Obviously tensions are going to be high and it creates a hostile working environment. But in all honesty, a crew should have faith in their director. The crew of Aliens did not and it wasn't until the saw the final product that they realized the guy is extremely talented.
He has a big ego, there is no doubt about that, but he can back that up. The two biggest films of all-time are his. He invented camera and pre-viz for Avatar. He talked big game about Avatar and changing the industry, but it was the industries half ass attempt at cashing in on 3D that is giving it a bad name. All the post conversion crap we see. Avatar looked glorious in theatres and I don't care if people complain about originality, Cameron can tell an entertaining story. I'll be interested in seeing where he takes the world of Avatar.
I don't care about any of his religious views or how that would change my viewing of his films.
And the incredible thing about Cameron is, because he’s been a production designer and a special-effects supervisor, you can’t pull the wool over his eyes. If you give him what he wants then he’s over the moon, if you don’t give him what he wants, the **** hits the fan and he goes out there and does it himself. He knows how to do practically everything associated with a film.
What you have to remember is: If you say to Cameron, ‘Look, I really don’t think I can do this this way, but I can do it that way!’ He’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, he won’t say ‘You’ve got to do it this way!!’ But, after you’ve said what you can do, if you don’t then do it ... look out."
He has a reputation of being a real tyrant.
“No, he’s a very charming man, actually. When he’s under pressure, he can be tough, but most of the time, I really liked him. You’ve heard the stories about the crew wearing t-shirts saying ‘You can’t scare me, I’ve worked with Cameron’, well, the truth is, he’s an incredibly generous man.
I was up for an Oscar for the work I did on Aliens, but I had my nomination squashed by Twentieth Century Fox. I’d shot most of the model-shots during live-action shooting, and over-saw all the post-production stuff, and because of that Cameron asked for my name to be put on the nomination list. But, at that time, the Academy were only accepting four names per nomination and, because I’d started work last, my name came fifth.
Jim Cameron stood up, at the Academy nominations committee meeting, and argued on my behalf, for three-quarters of an hour, that my name should be on as I’d done more work than some of those whose names came before mine. He said it was a complete injustice. But Fox had the say, and because of regulations, they would have had to pay a penalty of about a hundred and eighty thousand dollars to remove an undeserving name and replace it with mine, so that was it.
Well, I understand that’s how it works; but Jim and Gale didn’t accept it. They had a special Academy Nomination prize made for me by Tiffany’s, which they presented to me as a consolation prize. I thought that was really sweet of them.”
That's a quote from Brian Johnson who won an Oscar for his work on Alien. He also worked on the sequel with Cameron. Basically he expects nothing but the best from the crew and can be extremely short with you if you don't do your job. Regarding Aliens, it doesn't help when the crew is questioning EVERY single thing you do as a director. Obviously tensions are going to be high and it creates a hostile working environment. But in all honesty, a crew should have faith in their director. The crew of Aliens did not and it wasn't until the saw the final product that they realized the guy is extremely talented.
He has a big ego, there is no doubt about that, but he can back that up. The two biggest films of all-time are his. He invented camera and pre-viz for Avatar. He talked big game about Avatar and changing the industry, but it was the industries half ass attempt at cashing in on 3D that is giving it a bad name. All the post conversion crap we see. Avatar looked glorious in theatres and I don't care if people complain about originality, Cameron can tell an entertaining story. I'll be interested in seeing where he takes the world of Avatar.
I don't care about any of his religious views or how that would change my viewing of his films.
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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."
Suspect's Reviews
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."
Suspect's Reviews
As mentioned in the part about The Abyss, the negativity is always the point and the positivity is always an addendum. But it'll be interesting to see if he drifts this way (towards more constructive critiques of humanity) now that he's later in his career, though. I could see that.
