don't put limitations on yourself other
people will do that for you don't do it
to yourself don't bet against yourself a
lot of stuff comes to me in dreams and I
remember it sometimes I write it down
sometimes it's an image and I'll go I'll
go draw or paint that image just do it
just pick up a camera and start shooting
something it's all driven by curiosity
and the desire to be personally
challenged you know I look back on it
and every single thing I learned at that
time has paid off for me I may not be
very good at this but I know I'm better
than that guy the special thrill as a
filmmaker comes from seeing an immediate
audience response you do have to have a
really strong personal ethos in the film
business we've managed to get the
eyeballs we've got people thinking about
this film why not use it to focus a
spotlight on some very specific issues
there's no just open for you every once
in a while one will open a crack and you
have to recognize that that's the moment
he's a Canadian filmmaker inventor
engineer and deep-sea Explorer his first
major success was with the science
fiction action film Terminator in 1984
in total his movies have grossed over
two billion dollars in North America and
over six billion dollars worldwide he's
James Cameron and here his top 10 rules
for success I have young filmmakers come
up to me and say you know give me some
advice for doing this and I say don't
put limitations on yourself other people
will do that for you don't do it to
yourself don't bet against yourself and
and take risks nASA has this has this
phrase that they like failure is not an
option but failure has to be an option
in art and an exploration because it's a
leap of faith and no important endeavor
that required innovation was done
without risk you have to be willing to
take those risks so that's the thought I
would leave you with is it in whatever
you're doing
failure is an option but fear is not so
this is going back to 1976
and this was for a film project that
never went anywhere the thing that's
interesting about it is that I've
already got a tall hot blue girl in that
movie her name was in a tiara and it was
in a completely different context but I
was already thinking about it then a lot
of stuff comes to me in dreams and I
remember it sometimes I write it down
sometimes it's an image and I'll go I'll
go draw or paint that image I remember
waking up from a dream in college and I
remember this very clearly having leaped
through a book of paintings and waking
up and saying wow I wish I could paint
like that and saying it dummy you just
painted all those paintings in your head
now paint them for real and I quickly
painted as many of them as I could
remember one of them was a glowing
forest with a river of light running
through it and trees that kind of look
like fiber-optics well guess what cut to
you know 30 years later I'm making a
movie where we're spending millions of
dollars to actually create that image
but that image came in in a dream when I
was 18 years old just do it just pick up
a camera and start shooting something
don't wait to be asked because nobody's
going to ask you and don't wait for the
perfect conditions because they'll never
be perfect it's a little bit like having
a child if you wait until the right time
to have a child you'll die childless and
I think filmmaking is very much the same
thing you just have to take the plunge
and just start shooting something even
if it's bad you can always hide it but
you will have learn something for me I
would say it's all driven by curiosity
and the desire to be personally
challenged those two things I can sum up
sum it all up and I don't know if it's a
if it's a formula for success it's just
what what drives me very curious I want
to know more I choose projects that I'm
going to learn from I choose projects
that are challenging I don't want to do
the same thing twice so I think you know
I think personal challenge you know
trying trying to to strive for
excellence and to me that the in
filmmaking the excellence is how
excellent can the the entertainment
experience be for the audience and I'll
pull out all all stops to do that
these are storyboards for the Terminator
the Terminator was actually my best
prepared film but I've ever shot because
I storyboarded it was shot myself I
found that kind of everything that I had
been doing before all slowed perfectly
to that moment of film directing and you
know that's the first time I ever really
felt like I belong to where I was but
you know now I look back on it and every
single thing I learned at that time has
paid off for me
how to drive a truck you know how to be
a machinist even being a high school
janitor and scraping the gum off the off
the bottom of the desks you know even
that was something that I value know was
something that I needed to go through
what finally attracted me to film in
such a definitive way was it was the
only place I could reconcile the need to
tell stories and to work in a visual art
medium and the desire to understand
things at a technical technological
level and my fascination with with
engineering and technology I watched a
couple of really bad directors work and
I saw how they completely botched it up
and missed the visual opportunities of
the scene when we had put things in
front of them as opportunity set pieces
props and so on they had these great
actors to work with and they just blew
it and there was a moment where I said I
may not be very good at this but I know
I'm better than that guy and that was
kind of a critical moment because when
you realized that you can at least be
better than somebody else who's already
doing it then you can visualize yourself
doing the job what does it take coming
out of you what's inside you that
enables you or compels you to make films
with such relentless drive where in the
world is that come it's I don't know
it's hard to say it's it's uh it comes
from from unwritten Orville yeah well
you never know I mean if the demons
weren't unleashed through film I'd
probably go Amelia you know somewhere
and there's a theory on Thursday on
Thorazine you know know that I don't
think that's true I think it just has to
do with with how films that I liked it I
remembered you know enjoying and having
that exhilaration hit me and I want to
transfer that back to other people
just studying the craft and learning how
to do it and and the special thrill as a
filmmaker comes from seeing an immediate
audience response now the only the only
other thing the only other sort of genre
or if it's not even a genre but the only
the only other thing that has that
effect in films is comedy and comedy is
not my forte demonstrably yet it allows
a people found that a terminator and and
there's some comedy in this film but for
a film to function as a comedy I think
there's a special magic there and I'm
you know I'm creeping toward it but I'm
not sure I can do that but that's the
that's the other area where where you
can look at it at a sea of 700 faces and
see them all having the same reaction
and you know you're touching touching
them that's I mean I I'm not a performer
I can't stand up on a stage and tell
jokes or sing or do something that that
affects people directly
the closest thing for me is being able
to sit in the theatre and watch a
reaction to something that I've put up
on the screen so it's at one remove but
it's the same sort of feeling that's
that's where the the drive and the
desire to do that comes from you do have
to have a really strong personal ethos
in the film business because there is so
much craziness and backstabbing and and
and famous is very fleeting and fickle
and all those things so ultimately being
a person of your word I think is really
important and that's what's really
allowed me to accomplish a lot of what
I've done maker what's next is there
another new avatar well we're gonna make
we're gonna make two more avatar films I
guess my most powerful motivation for
that other than then you know obviously
we've got a huge fan base now is that
the film's had this interesting effect
around the world they they made a lot of
money but they made they made money in a
way that that that I actually found
really inspired hope in me because
people were connecting with the message
of you know connectedness with each
other you know I see you connectedness
with nature and there was this this huge
outpouring of interest from
environmental groups NGOs you know
nonprofits that were involved in
indigenous rights and so on that that
came to me wanting to be involved
somehow you know help use
asked me if they could help use avatar
not to further our message but to
further their message I thought okay you
know that's that's fair enough you know
we've we've managed to get the eyeballs
we've got people thinking about this
film why not use it to focus a spotlight
on some very specific issues and that's
why we went down to the to the Amazon
and got involved in some of the
indigenous rights issues there went up
to Canada to the to the tar sands and
you know did a little fact-finding
expedition up there and have gotten more
and more involved in in a lot of these
causes I mean I was always involved you
know as a kind of a lay it you know
environmentalist now I'm much more
involved the incentive to make the the
second and third Avatar film is that
that I think we can continue to do good
we can do well and we can do good as
weird as we're doing well and I
certainly would encourage anybody I
would challenge anybody given the state
of the world as it might be if we're not
careful to try to find ways to be
entrepreneurs and be innovative and be
inventive funnel all that towards
something it also is going to be good
for the planet
and for our children there's no just
open for you every once in a while one
will open a crack and you have to
recognize that that's the moment there
are all open just a crack for a split
second and you have to push it the rest
of the way open and you have to know
that that's the moment to step through
it's a question of being prepared
knowing what you want moving toward it
so that you are prepared in that moment
to step through the door I always think
the universe is like a giant bank vault
lock you know and the tumblers are
constantly moving and every once in a
while the tumblers line up and you've
got to listen for the clip thank you so
much for watching we made this video
because Henry asked us to so there's a
famous entrepreneur that you want us to
profile next leave in the comments below
and I'll see what I can do I'd also love
to know which of James Cameron's top 10
rules meant the most to you had the
biggest impact leaving the comments all
during the discussion thank you so much
for watching
can you should believe and we'll see you
soon