Acclaimed movie director James Cameron he learned how to make movies without going to film school. She felt that this decision ultimately worked out for him. Especially since he discovered that film schools were generally a waste of time.
When James Cameron realized he could be a director
Cameron was fascinated with storytelling from an early age. His fascination would later carry over to movies, which inspired his inevitable passion for movies. One of the movies that left a lasting impression on a very young Cameron was the 1963 film. Jason and the Argonauts. Cameron recalled the experience of him watching the Don Chaffey performance as one of utter amazement.
“I distinctly remember my grandfather taking me to the local theater in Ontario and being absolutely blown away by the film’s vivid colors, the brightness, the reality of the skeleton fight. Of course, looking at it four decades later, it’s laughable. But I went back to my third grade class and quickly started drawing my own version of the movie,” he once said. DGA.
Much later, Cameron would find himself working for film companies. Watching the movies being distributed, Cameron began to wonder if he could do a better job than those he worked for.
“Well, I had worked in production design for these Corman movies and he had high standards even though we were working on low budgets. He saw some directors constantly screw up scene after scene. They wouldn’t know where to put the camera or how to turn it on. I thought: if that’s a director, he could do that. There was no question in my mind that he could do it, but that leap didn’t happen until I saw other people doing it wrong,” he said.
James Cameron was against going to film school because it ‘fucks you up’
Cameron did not pursue his directorial ambitions using a traditional route. Other filmmakers might study the prestigious directors who came before them, but Cameron learned simply from the casual movies he enjoyed.
“I did not study cinema. I never took classes in film aesthetics and so on, so I never saw the evolution of action direction from [John] Ford through Peckinpah, or whatever the evolutionary spectrum. For me, it was just what I came up with to see that I liked. And I have to tell you, I probably learned more from Roger Corman’s car chase movies than from action writers,” Cameron once said in an interview with The Los Angeles Times (via completion files).
During this time, Cameron also avoided film schools. Something he felt could only do his fellow directors more harm than good.
“Film school fucks you. It takes years to recover. I think the basic requirement to direct is to be able to anticipate what the audience wants to see. And having created something, what they want to see next. And the only way you can do that is to have been an audience,” Cameron continued. “If, at the age of 15, you immediately start becoming a filmmaker, you’ve missed that healing period where you’re just a blank slate and you’re reacting.”
James Cameron’s advice for aspiring directors
For Cameron, becoming a filmmaker is much simpler than spending money on film school. The Oscar Winner he advised other youngsters and aspiring talents that becoming a director was all a matter of initiative.
“A lot of people ask me, ‘You know, what’s the best advice for someone who wants to be a director?’ And the answer I give is very simple. Be a director,” Cameron once said according to Manufacturing Intellectual. “Take a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy. It doesn’t matter if your friends and your sisters are starring in it. Put your name on it as director. Now you are director. After that, you’re just negotiating your budget and your rate.”
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