Printable Biography of James Cameron

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Cameron had several siblings, one of them, Mike would later become a great asset to Cameron when making his films. James Cameron has often been described as one of those nerdy kids, a loner who didn't really fit in. Cameron's great interest when he was young was how to make things work, explore new things. He and his brother Mike were quite the scientists of the little town. Through his mother Cameron was also inspired to paint, something he was very gifted at.

When Cameron was 15 years old he initially found out what he wanted to do with his life. It happened one night when he went to the movies. The movie he saw was Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Cameron was of course mesmerized by the film, he wanted badly to find out how the movie makers had achieved the effects which were displayed on screen. He almost went crazy figuring out how anyone could have made this spectacular movie.Cameron got a hold of an old 16mm camera and he instantly started shooting his own star epics. He toyed with models, camera angles and he lay awake in bed at night and envisioned how his star battles and beautiful landscapes would appear on film.Cameron had set his hopes high. He wanted to make movies. At the time he was only interested in the special effects and technical know-how of a movie production. He didn't know anything about cinema history and he still had many limitations in using the camera right. Furthermore Cameron was frustrated knowing that he lived miles and miles away from Hollywood - the place for his dreams to be realised.

Cameron got a lucky break in 1971 when his father informed him that the whole family would be moving from Chippewa, Ontario (due to Phillip Cameron's working opportunities they had moved there from Kapuskasing) to Orange County, California. Cameron's father had been offered a job he wouldn't like to turn down. Cameron was only thrilled by the idea of living only few miles away from Hollywood so he was not the one to object against the "relocation" of the family.

As so many others Cameron was struck with disappointment when he realised that starting a career in movies isn't that easy. He had a great desire to get his foot in the door and maybe attend film school, but the limitations were huge and his family couldn't afford to pay for his tuition. Cameron had to face the facts and he enrolled to study physics at Fullerton College, he later switched to English litterature when his math skills became inadequate.