The James Cameron interview: Part 1...the final frontier

Hello readers!

I’m eternally sorry for the late posting of the James Cameron interview, but I caught rabies and have been bed-ridden for a few days. Okay, it wasn’t rabies, but that sounds way cooler than some pansy flu.

Anywho, you have probably read all the James Cameron related articles since then, including my own. However, it’s not everyday you get to meet Jim aka `the legend' so I’m going to do a series of posts utilising the material I got from the interview. Why? Because a transcript would take longer to read than a Lord Of The Rings marathon. Plus, in just under an hour Jim spoke about everything from space exploration and Avatar, to the evolution of 3D technology, deep sea expeditions and Sanctum.

Needless to say, I was your typical gushing fanboy when it came to interview time…except I’m not actually a boy, I think. And for those of you wondering, I was able to maintain my composure and not scream out “your movies shaped my childhood!”. Relief.

So, in the lead-up to the Oscars and forever after, I hope you find his responses as fascinating as I did, the man truly left me with the impression that he’s a genius-of-all trades.

The James Cameron interview: Part 1...the final frontier

Above: James Cameron on the set of Sanctum

James Cameron wants to make a film on another planet.

To fans of the legendary Hollywood filmmaker that might not seem so usual considering the alternate worlds he has created in films such as Aliens, Terminator and, most recently, Avatar. Yet this is not a fictional planet he has created, Cameron is talking about the red planet; Mars.
``We will literally be shooting the first movie on another planet,'' he says.
``It might be a very short movie, it might only be a minute long, but we will be shooting something.''

Three years ago the Canadian was sought out by NASA to invent a camera to record the discoveries of the NASA Mars rover which is scheduled to be launched in 2011. The rover will perform the first-ever precision landing on Mars and relay its findings back to the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) to determine the planet's habitability. Like one of his science-fiction fantasies brought to life, Cameron is on the NASA Advisory Council and a co-investigator on the team that will be the ``eyes of the Mars Science Laboratory.''

In a gross understatement, he sums up his involvement on what is one of the most important space missions for humankind as being ``involved in space stuff.''
``I'm on that team because they looked around and went `who knows motion-imaging in 3D? Oh, that guy,'' he says.
``There's a rover that will operate on the surface for years and make many, many important scientific discovers.
``We're building a stereoscopic motion camera to capture that.''

Few people in the world understand stereoscopic imaging, the technology used to create 3D, better than Cameron.

To bring Avatar and the world of Pandora to life, Cameron had to wait 12-years until the technology necessary was created. In the down time he invented the Cameron-Pace Fusion camera system that has revolutionised the way 3D can be filmed and is touted as the invention to bring 3D technology to the masses in the same way colour has altered the viewing experience.
``It's all happening at an exhilarated rate,'' he says.
``If you look at the history of colour it took a long time for colour to become the rule, first it was exception.
``It became the rule in movies only when the colour television set was introduced and it took another medium to shift cinema medium decisively towards colour.
``The number of (3D cinema) screens worldwide is probably going to double by in the next year.
``That's now going through a fairly seismic adjustment...and I think you'll see sports coming into the home in 3D within a year.
``Then that will allow us to have laptops, small portable devices, iPhones all in 3D as well. ``That's where it can make a significant difference.''

Above: (L-R) Sanctum director Alister Grierson, James Cameron and Andrew Wight

His technology is being utilised in the filming of 3D underwater action film Sanctum, on which Cameron serves as executive producer. On the Gold Coast recently to visit the set at Village Roadshow Studios, Cameron's next project is an extension of his deep sea expeditions conducted with Australian filmmaker and explorer Andrew Wight. After filming Titanic, the pair made landmark 3D underwater documentaries Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep which honed Cameron's 3D cameras and technology and allowed them to plan a big-screen adaptation of Wight's cave diving adventures in Sanctum.

From the undiscovered depths of the ocean to the endless void of space, Cameron is the infinite explorer and says his curiosity about the universe stems from his childhood.
``Since I was kid I was very curious about the world,'' he says.
``The projects that I'm attracted to, especially lately, are ones where I can learn.
``Let's say from Titanic on and all the expedition films, even Avatar, where we were in very unknown terrain...in how to execute the film, in terms of exploration and how to do CG characters.
``I'm just very curious, I love exploration.''


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