Dreaming Aloud - the life and films of James Cameron

This is the first biography to appear on Cameron’s work. It is written by a Canadian debut author named Christopher Heard, and covers Cameron’s career from his childhood to the making of Titanic. The book is about 250 pages long, and gives un an insight view of all Cameron’s film, including some of them done for the Roger Corman studios in the beginning of the eighties, thanks we needed that!!

Although this is a biography, we only hear of Cameron’s exploits, we never learn so much about him as a person. There are quotes though, and people who have worked with him make statements regarding his character. But there is not so much description of Cameron as a movie maker that one could have hoped for, but nevertheless it is an interesting read. It is funny to hear of the different people’s reactions towards James Cameron and his ways of doing movies.

It is a shame that the book does not include so much about Titanic that one could have hoped for, but the book is simply too old, and therefore it does not let us share Cameron’s experiences during this spring where he has just been swimming in awards.

It’s an interesting book, definitely worth looking at, I have already read it twice

Titanic and the making of James Cameron:

This is book is definitely the ultimate Titanic and James Cameron book. It was written by Paul Parisia, a reporter at the Hollywood Reporter. Paula Parisi has done many hours of interview on Cameron, and she is probably the journalist who has spend most time with the king..ever.

All this, and a friendship between Parisi and Cameron is the basis for a great book. The book deals with every aspect of the makiing of Titanic, and we learn a lot about Cameron as a person and as a filmmaker that you would never think. We hear in detail all of the principal photography, and the joy of being a part of such a major productions, and we hear alot about the small arguments, like the time when Cameron fired his stunt coordinater Simon Crane, because he said a “fuck-you” to Cameron.

The book also takes into the abyss of the Titanic, is is quite a large segment of the book (around 70 pages). We hear about Anatoly and Cameron working together, and we hear about the late night parties on the Keldysh where the russians kept going until dawn, but the americans (including Cameorn) had to back down already around midnight. Russian vodka is strong.

And of course we get to hear about casting Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet, and editing sound and images in the summer and fall of ´97. The book also takes us to the Golden Globes and the Oscars, as I’ve said coverirng every aspect.

As I have already mentioned I cannot recommended this book too much, it is definitely the best Cameron book outthere. I only have one little piece of constructive critiszism. I think Parisi uses too much time explain about the Keldysh and the dive to the Titanic, as I’ve said it was about 70 pages long, and that is a long time to read alot about techno stuff and how submersibles work. But nevertheless, buy this book, your money is well spent!!!

James Cameron’s Titanic:

James Cameron’s Titanic by Ed W. Marsh is probably the most popular book outthere concerning James Cameron’s work. And it is not hard to see why it has become so popular. It is 178 page book filled with glamour shots from the movie Titanic. And most of them are excellent shots and shots hard to find on the internet. The quality of the paper is also extremely good, so if you are a Titanic fan this is definitely something for you.

Ed W. Marsh, the author of the book, is no amature. He has done behind-the-scenes books on many other movies, including Cameron’s The Abyss and Terminator 2, Judgment Day. And this book is also done with smooth professinalism, but if you expect you get 178 pages of inside look on the production forget it!! If this book were done in only text format it would probably be no more than 20 pages long, and the info which is supplied within the 20 page does not exceed what you might have learned watching James Cameron on Oprah Winfrey or seeing the documentary feature, Titanic Brekaing new Ground.

But then again the book is definitely worth a look, it is cleverly divided into different sections that follow the storyline of the film and you also get to see a lot of shots from some of the scenes which were cut from Cameron’s completed version of the film + a lot of original shots from Titanic and the sister ship Olympic.