James Cameron is known
for being a real bastard to work with.
“I have my bad days,
and on my best days I’m no Ron Howard.”
He works hard
and expects everyone else to do the same.
But people like to work with him
because he gets results.
His people win Oscars.
His movies make money.
Rebecca Keegan has some great snippets
about his leadership style
in her book
The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron.
“”It’s Avatar, dude,
nothing works the first time,”
read a whiteboard
in the spare Los Angeles warehouse
that served as
the sci fi film’s motion capture soundstage.
Breaking new ground
is Cameron’s raison d’être
— nothing interests this man
unless it’s hard to do.
But innovation has also become
a way of bonding his teams,
both on Avatar
and on his deep sea expeditions.
“We’re out in the wilderness
working far beyond
the borders of the known,”
Cameron says,
comparing his CG and undersea projects.
“We’re doing extraordinary things
that outsiders would not even understand.””
Are you doing extraordinary things?