James Cameron

I don't even think about it.

I don't think about the camera angles when I'm working with the actors.

I know I'll be able to shoot it.

I don't know exactly how I'll shoot it, but I just care about the heart and the soul and the authenticity of the moment with the actors.

Now I'm done with them.

Now they're all working on another movie.

Now it's like, okay, am I in a wide shot, close shot?

Am I in a long lens, short lens?

is the camera moving is it still is it raining is it not you know is it night is it day and you can make all those decisions later with that nucleus that sort of beating heart of the performance but you can interpret it many many different ways so that that idea of you know infinite choice it can be paralyzing or it can make you more rigorous and and it forces you to define to yourself and to the others you're working with other editors other designers um

um why you're doing it that way and sometimes i just i just talk it's like okay you know it's like i'll talk while i'm working it's like okay i can be here i can be there i can put the camera here what do you guys think you know and they're like well i like the water shot it's like okay let's do the water shot it gets more inclusive in a way not that i'm doubting myself but it's like why not why wouldn't you be inclusive

This is going back to The Terminator.

You're talking about the fact that I made a rights deal with Gayle Ann Hurd

who was another up-and-comer in the same super low tier as I was.

And, you know, she had the eye of the tiger, and I recognized in her the same thing she recognized in me, which is that we could get this done.

We could make something happen together.

And so I sold her the rights for a dollar in exchange for a promise, and that promise was worth a lot more than a dollar to me, which was you will never proceed with this movie.

I mean, I could have written a 20-page contract to do it,

But it was like a blood oath, almost literally.

I don't think we actually cut our hands, but it was pretty much that.

And this was before we were romantically involved.