James Cameron Biography

[DavidBrennan]

My name is David and I just self-published my second book through Lulu.  I run a fan blog and podcast about moviemaker James Cameron ('Titanic', 'Terminator', 'Avatar') and this is a biography about his early life and his first three movies ('Piranha 2: The Spawning', 'The Terminator', and 'Aliens'.)  It features never-before-seen artwork by Cameron and many new pieces of information about his movies and life.

Here's the Lulu page (with an extended excerpt).

If you have any questions (particularly about the book's content and especially if you've read it!) I'll be thrilled to discuss it with you.

[Ron Miller]

You have, I presume, the rights to publish the art and photos?

[DavidBrennan]

I don't know what you're referring to, exactly.  But if you're asking whether all the images in the book I personally own and/or I got permission to use, the answer is yes.

[simonralli]

David

Hi - congratulations on your new book.  

I mentioned Avatar in my new book "The Shaman and Snow White":

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-shaman-and-snow-white-ayahuasca-san-pedro-shamanic-states-...

For me, and many others, Avatar is a very shamanic film.  My book could partly be described as a real life Avatar, as it describes my time spent in the rainforest in Peru learning the indigenous ways of healing using natural plant hallucinogens.

I don't know if you have seen the deleted scenes footage from the new DVD of Avatar, or read the script, but basically there is a scene which is an analogy for the hallucinogenic drink ayahuasca, which Jake has to take as part of his final test.

I have no evidence, but I would strongly suspect that Cameron too has had experience with ayahuasca, and the magical realms one travels to when you have drunk it.

Regards

Simon

[Ron Miller]

I was asking largely because many self-published authors have very mistaken (and sometimes imaginative) ideas about copyrights. I'm glad to hear that you've been careful to get permission before using any images!

[DavidBrennan]

SimonRalli,

Yeah, I'm aware of the deleted scene from AVATAR and I know that many people have cited the drug DMT as an inspiration for that.  (In the AVATAR thread at JamesCameronOnline.com forums, somebody started a separate thread on that very subject.) 

I would definitely tend to believe that Cameron was indeed referencing that, but I don't know that he's ever spoken of it, and so it's mostly up to each viewer's personal opinions, I believe. 

[PieMagazineUK]

I'm curious, what provoked such a fan-based interest in James Cameron for you? Was it a particular movie or do you just happen to be a fan of his directing skills?

I guess the question I'm asking is... What sparked your love?

[Peter May]

Book looks good.Lots of solid information and research.

I'd suggest that -- since this is one of three volumes -- that the front cover made it clear what movies are featured in this volume -- maybe with a subtitle, say

The Life & Works of James Cameron

Vol 1 of 3

The Coming Storm (that is uninformative to me*, I'd rather the name the films were shown), eg

Piranha, Terminator & Aliens

I'd buy the  book if it covered  Terminator** and Aliens, I'm not interested in Avatar, and probably there will be those who would go for the Avatar one but not this.

I would prefer the book to set in a standard serif font, but its too late for you to change now, I understand.

But what you could do is include in your preview the Table of Contents as that does describe what is in the book.

And please tell me that you do have an index!

*I get the reference

** I did buy Sean French's book in the BFI Modern Classics series and thought it poor.

[DavidBrennan]

PieMagazineUK,

I'm 30 now, and I've been a big James Cameron fan since I was a teenager.  I was really a fan before I even knew what a director was, because of T2.  Then, a few years later, I rented 'The Abyss' on VHS and eventually started realizing what a director did and so I became a fan through that.  Then I REALLY became a huge fan before 'Titanic' came out, because I was super-excited about that. 

I talk about a lot of this sort of stuff at my James Cameron Fan Podcast.  (JamesCameronFanPodcast.Blogspot.com).

Lots of that might come through in the book, but for the most part, I think it's a very analytical narrative, explaining how the movies were made and the creative decisions along the way.

Thanks a lot for the interest.  I'll be happy to answer any other questions.

[DavidBrennan]

Peter May,

Yeah, showing the Table of Contents would've probably been a good idea.  However, I believe that the book's timeline is shown in every single description of the book, and so hopefully people can fill in the blanks, and so that's a satisfactory substitute.

Unfortunately, I don't have an index, although it's so rigorously chronological that, for the most part, people should be able to find where a given subject starts. 

As far as the cover goes....I'm grateful for the opinions, but I'm just kinda settled on that.  I know it's a long, long way from perfect, but I'm at peace with those imperfections because I know my time and financial limitations, and I can't do much more than that within reasonable time and money parameters.