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Private Notes
James shares why he’s teaching a class, rooted in his belief that every filmmaker stands on the shoulders of those who came before.
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.
James teaches you how to build and hold tension—and tells you why audiences love it.
James breaks down the club scene from The Terminator, walking through, shot by shot, how he built relentless tension.
James talks through how he captured the feeling from his dream of a room covered in wasps through a scene in Aliens.
With Newt’s introduction scene in Aliens, James breaks down how he elicits different physiological responses from audiences, switching from suspense to curiosity.
Learn how integral preparation and inventing tricks are to low-budget filmmaking.
James shares the low-budget tricks he developed to create realistic moments when the Terminator performs surgery on himself.
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.
James breaks down the iconic future world set piece from The Terminator, showing how he created a set piece on a limited budget.
James talks through creating the perfect sketch of your characters, making them relatable, and introducing them to audiences.
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.
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.
The performance-capture technology used to create the Na’avi in Avatar changed the landscape of cinema forever. Learn how James developed the 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.
