James Cameron's Birthday
On August 16, 1954, in the small town of Kapuskasing, the Canadian province of Ontario, a boy was born to the family of Philip and Shirley Cameron, who was named James Francis. His father at the time worked as an engineer at a local paper mill, and his mother was studying to be a nurse in Toronto.
When James was 17 years old, the Cameron family moved to California, USA, where James graduated from high school and in 1973 entered the physics department at Fullerton College. However, literally a year later, studies were over. For several years, James took odd jobs, working mainly as a truck driver and janitor. But at the same time, during this period, he independently, in his free time in the library, studied literature on optics and everything related to film technology. The 1977 film "Star Wars" by George Lucas had a huge impact on the fate of James Cameron. After watching this film, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to take up the film industry.
Borrowing $ 20,000 from a consortium of dentists (which, thanks to this, received tax breaks), James Cameron, together with two friends, made a 12-minute science fiction film "Xenogenesis" in 1978. Most of the film was filmed in James' own apartment. This film did not bring any success and financial results, but the optical special effects used in the film (it was not for nothing that James studied the literature on optics) attracted the attention of a very prolific director and producer Roger Corman, who specialized in the production of low-budget (and low-rated) fantastic films.
James Cameron got a job as a 3D designer at Roger Corman's film studio, and with this the opportunity to work as an optical special effects director on a number of films, mostly fantastic. And in 1981, James Cameron, already as a director, or rather, one of the three co-directors, shot the film "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning". Finally, in 1984, James Cameron completely independently directed the film "Terminator", which brought him worldwide fame.
For the period from 1981, when his first film was released, to 2009, when his last film, to date, came out, Cameron shot 8 films. Another 5 movies are at various stages of preparation for release. Of the 8 films released over 28 years, 5 are included in the FilmGourmand's Golden Thousand. Based on these indicators, James Cameron is included in the list of 100 Greatest Filmmakers of the XX-XXI Centuries, compiled by FilmGourmand.
According to our tradition, on the occasion of the birthday of an outstanding filmmaker, we present to your attention frames from his best films included in the Golden Thousand.
