Teaches Filmmaking

James Cameron

James shares why he’s teaching a class, rooted in his belief that every filmmaker stands on the shoulders of those who came before.

Meet Your Instructor: James Cameron

James discusses how to identify the idea that won’t go away and how to harness the power of your dreams to develop a story authentically.

Pursuing and Developing the Idea

James teaches you how to build and hold tension—and tells you why audiences love it.

Toying With the Audience: Building and Releasing Tension

James breaks down the club scene from The Terminator, walking through, shot by shot, how he built relentless tension.

THE TERMINATOR Club Scene Breakdown

James talks through how he captured the feeling from his dream of a room covered in wasps through a scene in Aliens.

ALIENS Egg Chamber Breakdown

With Newt’s introduction scene in Aliens, James breaks down how he elicits different physiological responses from audiences, switching from suspense to curiosity.

ALIENS Newt Introduction Scene Breakdown

Learn how integral preparation and inventing tricks are to low-budget filmmaking.

The Art of Low-Budget Filmmaking

James shares the low-budget tricks he developed to create realistic moments when the Terminator performs surgery on himself.

THE TERMINATOR Arm and Eye Repair Breakdown

Few directors have created set pieces as memorable as James’s. Learn how he approaches the art of creating set pieces, even on a low budget.

From Sketch to Spectacle: Creating Set Pieces

James breaks down the iconic future world set piece from The Terminator, showing how he created a set piece on a limited budget.

THE TERMINATOR Future World Breakdown: Creating a Set Piece on a Budget

James talks through creating the perfect sketch of your characters, making them relatable, and introducing them to audiences.

Crafting and Introducing Compelling Characters

In just a few shots, Rose is almost fully revealed to us. Learn how James thought about introducing Rose and what he wanted to convey.

TITANIC Rose Introduction Breakdown

The Terminator and the Alien Queen have stuck in our psyches as some of the most dreadful adversaries ever created. Learn how James thinks about adversaries and how to create them.

Developing Dread Through Adversaries

The performance-capture technology used to create the Na’avi in Avatar changed the landscape of cinema forever. Learn how James developed the technology.

AVATAR Creating Technology

James discusses his “creativity law of thermodynamics,” leadership lessons that he’s learned as a director over the years, and how to live life as an artist, preparing as much as possible to see the magic.

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