James Cameron is a household name in the film industry. He is widely acknowledged for his expertise in film production, film directing and screen writing. His works include two of the world’s all-time best films. As a testament to the crucial role that Cameron has played to the general film industry, he has been nominated six times for the Academy Awards, something that few film directors have achieved. In essence, two of his movies, Avatar and Titanic are two of highest earning films of all-time, respectively raking $2.19 billion and $2.78 billion all over the world. Vanity Fair named him the top earner in Hollywood. Cameron has been constantly recognized for the efforts that he puts in creating environmental awareness. He also, through his films, promotes vegetarianism, a necessary tool in conserving the environment if the future is to be kept bright. In the film industry, creativity is of utmost importance. In order to attract the attention of the audience, it is necessary for the film to director to introduce a new aspect that will ensure that the viewer’s get to enjoy watching the films. This consistency in creativity is what has seen Cameron rise above other film directors to be considered among the best film directors. For the foreseeable future, Cameron will remain a force in the film industry because of the high creativity levels he has and the fact that he manages to address the current issues that affect humankind in his films. His style of delivery is, in most cases, nothing short of phenomenal.
In order to penetrate the film market effectively, Cameron has always adopted different styles to enormous success. The different styles he adopts depend on the message he wants to address and in most cases, he has addressed issues such as social inequalities and interpersonal relationships in the society. Some of these issues make his films to be highly anticipated because they get to deal with the day-to-day challenges that human beings face. Through taking key interest in such films, humans get to learn some moral lessons that can guide them in their pursuit to transform the society.
As already argued above, Cameron uses different styles in producing his films. For instance, The Abyss and Avatar are science fiction adventure films. In the film Titanic, he adopted the romantic style in narrating and giving events of an ill-fated ship. Such creativity has seen him scale different heights because of the uniqueness of his films. In essence, such styles of production play a crucial role in attracting the viewership all over the world.
The science fiction styled films, in most cases, tends to be speculative in nature, giving scientific depictions of certain phenomena that are yet to be accepted or proven in science. In most cases, this style of delivery is combined with futuristic elements and technologies that are yet to be discovered such as cyborgs, spacecraft and robots. Through using this style, a producer can effectively focus on social or political issues. The setting of most science fiction films, in most cases, is done in a time that is yet to be reached by the human beings. This is a crucial perspective in order to ensure that there is no confusion with the current issues. Cameron has effectively used this style in two of his films up for analysis; Abyss and Avatar.
The Abyss is a film that Cameron did in the year 1989, adopting the science fiction-adventure style. The creative spark of this film was enhanced by the search of the American submarine, which prompted the search team to look for the vessel. In the process of searching for the vessel, they get to discover a mysterious and new species, which facilitates their urge to explore further. Through mixing the science fiction and futuristic elements, Cameron successfully managed to give a perspective that can only be termed to happen in the future. Most science-fiction films tend to employ superior technology than the one currently available, hence explaining the role that technology will play to the development of the world in some future dates.
The Abyss is based on the fantasy that can be created and goes to an extent of fantasizing some unreal events in the world. When the USS Montana sinks because of the accident that it involves itself in, there is an attempt by the submarines to salvage it. This is made difficult by the fact that the hurricane is moving in, making the rescue attempt seem to be out of reach. By inserting the SEAL onto the deep core, they have expectations that it will serve as their operations’ base. In the real world, it is difficult to think of such technology being used to increase the rescuing missions because of its superior nature. In their rescuing mission, they get to discover some objects and creature in the waters that make their mission harder. To some extent, they think that the creatures they have discovered (the NTIs) are friendly. Coffey, however, is of a different opinion as he sees the creature as being harmful and extremely dangerous. It is only during the rescuing mission that they get to learn that the creatures are, in fact, helpful as they play a role in rescuing the ship. The mystery of the new creatures is not revealed, hence leading to the arguments that the film is based on the science fiction for its delivery. Important to note is the fact that the technology that is employed in the rescuing mission is out of this world, further demonstrating the extent to which creativity has an impact to the viewership of the movies. It would be very difficult to imagine the events in the film-taking place in the current era because they probably are of a superior nature. Through this film, Cameron effectively employed science fiction to develop the film. This style has proved to be effective, since it challenges the current technology and promotes creativity in the film industry.
On a similar note, Cameron has employed the science fiction style in the film Avatar. The setting of the event is presented to be in the year 2154, in which it is difficult to imagine what the earth will be looking like. On imagination and fantasies, the natural resources of the world would be severely depleted and by this, life will be difficult to imagine about. In order to seek for extra resources for mining, the scientists discover unobtanium in Pandora, a space within the star system of Alpha Centauri. In this habitat, Eywa is the mother goddess, which all the habitants worship. Pandora’s atmosphere is, however, poisonous to humans . This space is specifically inhabited by the Na’vi, sapient humanoids that are portrayed as blue-skinned creatures. Despite the difficulties that the humans face in exploring this poisonous space, they employ technology to create hybrids of Na’vi-human form, to which they call avatars. In a way, the intention is to use the avatars to explore the means through which they can successfully explore the resources that are found in the harmful space. Through the events that follow, the humans fail to conquer the space because the Na’vi proved to be too strong to them. Cameron has effectively used science fiction style to complement his creativity. In the real world, it is difficult to imagine of such a space existing, leave alone the valuable resources and the creatures present. It is also unreal to imagine the earth being completely depleted of its resources, making it difficult for the humans to survive. All these can only be considered fantasies. Coupling this with the superior nature of technology that is used can only give the perception of events that are not real in the world. Through this, Cameron achieves to effectively use the science fiction style.
Contrary to the style that Cameron has used in the above films, Titanic takes a rather romantic disaster style. Cameron’s fascination with shipwrecks saw him develop the urge to convoy a message that was emotional in nature. Perfectly, he decided to incorporate a love story into human loss in order to toy with the emotions of the people. It is difficult to imagine of the love story having really existed when the ship was sinking. However, through his creativity, Cameron had the urge to use epic romance disaster to demonstrate the happenings that led to the ship sinking. This style has been credited by many people for the creativity it brings to the movie industry. In essence, this style of production is different from the early styles that Cameron employed in the early films, demonstrating his creative prowess in the film industry.
Works Cited
Cameron, James, Jon Landau, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton, and James Horner. Titanic. Hollywood, Calif N.p., n.d. Print.
Cameron, James, Jon Landau, Mauro Fiore, Colin Wilson, Laeta Kalogridis, Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel D. Moore, C C. H. Pounder, Wes Studi, Laz Alonso, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Stephen E. Rivkin, John Refoua, Mayes Rubeo, Deborah L. Scott, and James Horner. Avatar. Beverly Hills, CA N.p., n.d. Print.
Harris, Ed, Mary E. Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn, Gale A. Hurd, and James Cameron. The Abyss. Beverly Hills, Calif N.p., n.d. Print.
