I had a hard time finding a profile that I was happy with for this week, most of the ones that I found were either really short or at least 10 pages long. I eventually found this article on James Cameron, who is best known for directing movies such as Titanic and Avatar. It was written during the filming and production of Avatar and was published on October 26, 2009. I chose this article because I liked the way Goodyear paints such a detailed picture of Cameron from the very first paragraph. While beginning with a focus on Cameron's temperament and more recent work, Goodyear goes on to intersperse anecdotes from Cameron's lifetime/movie-making career throughout the piece, and these further the reader's perception of Cameron's work ethic, dedication, and stubbornness. I was interested to read this article because I have seen some of Cameron's films and was curious about the man behind them, especially someone that could make the range of movies that he has. Also, I have heard about Cameron's previous marriage to Kathryn Bigelow, the director of Hurt Locker, and how their films competed against each other for the title of Best Picture at this year's Oscars, so I was interested to see if Goodyear addressed the relationship at all. I discovered that there were several paragraphs devoted to Cameron's marriages (he's currently on his fifth) as a way of further explaining his mentality and interactions with others, and this gave me a clearer picture of Cameron. Goodyear spoke with Cameron several times in researching this article, and also had a variety of anecdotes from those close to Cameron, so I felt like the piece did a great job of illustrating who Cameron is on several levels.
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Goodyear's profile of James Cameron was very good! The reading for this week talked about how useful having quotes from the person being profile is to capturing the spirit of the person. The direct quotes from Cameron really helped to capture his essence. I can't believe he uses to many obscenities! Also including the details about him also worked; he does makeup for his actors- what??? It added another layer to the profile when Goodyear included a mini life history mid-piece; it helped explain Cameron's character further though. Compared to the piece about Hugh Laurie, it seemed that Goodyear had much better access to James Cameron than Carter had to Laurie: so many details! This piece is obviously well researched, in addition to being well written. He included dialogue from Cameron with his crew members in one scene! Again, this worked to illustrate a point from our reading this week that dialogue from a person being profiled is gold in capturing the true spirit of that person:
ReplyDelete"'What’s with the tan?' Cameron asked him. 'No one’s supposed to have a tan here. We’re in here fourteen hours a day. We see the sun as we drive to work, and not again till the next morning.'
'I fell asleep by the pool in Vegas yesterday,' Landau said. Cameron looked appalled. "
That by itself would be enough to profile Cameron!
I think you chose a good article to talk about--Cameron's works are so interesting that it would tale quite the article to profile him and his creations. Goodyear does a good job of adding depth to Cameron (possible? yes.)especially with the history and details and such. And I agree with Simona--the dialogue with Cameron and the crew really drew me in as a reader because it actually helped me to visualize the scene and relate.
ReplyDeleteSo, since dialogue is a common trend for this week's comments, I guess I'll stick to that.
ReplyDeleteIt's already been said that Cameron's quotes drew other people in as readers/allowed them to really get inside Cameron's head. Jeeze, though, Cameron is kind of an a-hole. I know he's an anal-retentive genius and all, and that most "master of the trade" are a bit cocky (for good reason), but he takes it to a new extreme.
I suppose that's one of the reasons I liked this piece. Goodyear didn't try to whitewash any of Cameron's lines. She kept to her script and didn't try to punctuate the article with her own viewpoints or opinions concerning Cameron's ego. I think this allowed her to really get at the spirit of Cameron - his essence. I only hope I can do as well on my profile. Excluding emotion or personal opinion from a piece is becoming increasingly difficult.
One of my favorite parts of the article was when Goodyear follows Cameron into a computer lab and notes, "The lab smelled of coffee. Nearly everyone had chin hair." It's amazing how she sets the scene: those two sentences tell me everything I need to know. In general, Goodyear included a lot of small but powerful details (like all of the T-shirt slogans throughout the piece), and her descriptions of Cameron and his surroundings were enough to help you visualize, but not too much that you get lost or bored. I agree with Simona - it's amazing that Goodyear got such good access, and over an extended period of time, it seems like. I appreciated the scene where she's interviewing him and then they are interrupted and he goes off to shoot a scene and she follows and describes what happens. She doesn't try to neaten up the edges, she lets the reporting show itself.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he should of put some of that talent, passion and money into a decent script and some real actors, then he wouldn't have been sitting there, stuck-on-stupid, when he didn't get best picture.
ReplyDelete