Skins Analysis

The clip I watched in skins showed a group of youngsters who are waking up in the morning and getting ready or starting a new day. Different camera shots are used in this clip to help the audience understand the storyline. The different shots also keep the audience involved and excited. The over the shoulder shot is used when the boy (Tony) is looking down from his window at what can be assumed to be his parents and sister getting in to a car, this diagonal over the shoulder shot gives the viewer a similar view as Tony once again involving them in to the drama. He seems to be waiting for them to leave. The distance between himself and the people bellow I believe represent the emotional distance between himself and them. We also see other camera shots such as a recurrence of Ariel shots through the clip, of Chris and other cast members sleeping. I think that this is used because it shows us the cast waking up and opening their eyes and it gives us a direct introduction to the different people. Another camera shot was used such as the tilt shot, this was used when the camera was moving over Sid’s body as he lay in bed, his stomach was covered with a stretched portrait of Casey and the camera continued to tilt upwards as we see his face when it stops. This shot was given to create suspense between the audience and what is going on it the scene, as we had to wait until last to see who the person in bed was.

The clip also contained sound which complimented the narrative. The sound helped the audience know what is going on; the dialogue for example allows the audience knows what is being said between the characters in the clip. We see sound in the clip again as ambient sound. An example of this could be the noise of cars in the background. This is used because it makes the scenes much more realistic. We see lots of use of sound bridge, when the music carried on but the images changed to different people sleeping in bed, this may have been used to connect the people together as to say that they were associated to each other. Another example of sound was used when the theme music was played in the background at the start of the clip. The sound was calm when people were happy and loud when something was wrong. The theme music is used again as a logo for the programme. Near the end of the clip a voice over is used when Casey is writing to Sid and her back is turned toward us. This could have been used to show Casey’s inner thoughts. Therefore connecting the character and the audience together as the character reveals their inner thoughts.

Editing was also used in the clip when Anwar and Max are on the phone talking to each other we see cross-cutting being used between them. This may have been used to show the reactions and emotions the characters make while talking to each other. Another use of editing that was very recurring was the use or a jump cut between every shot. This was used to show a clean break and it looks much more professional. The use of an eye line match is shown when Anwar is on the phone to max and we can see him holding a girls photo as he speaks and then a shot that shows the photo in his perspective. This edit may have been put in to give effect as to how much this girl may mean to him, or to show the girl in the photo more accurately.

Waterloo Road- IR

In this shot we see Christine Mulgrew, who is a teacher suffering with an alcohol addiction.Prior to this scene, we see Christine attack a pupil and see the alcohol truly take over her.This close up, high angle shot threw the railings comes across as though she is in prisonbecause of the cameras positioning. This relates to the character herself because of whatshe does e.g.- drinks in school and assaults pupils; in a way it is saying that she should be inprison. The high angle shot conveys that she still has authority and is of a high position inthe school however, the fact that she is sat down on the stairs contrasts with the idea of her authority and in fact pushes her back down be

cause of her state of mind and how she’s going against school rules. The following wide shot shows her sat on stairs that go up,straight then down- again relating to her life as it could be described as a sort of rollercoaster. The wide shot allows us to see the whole scenery but also makes her look verysmall and almost as if everything is over crowding her making her look very intimidated andout of control. We then see a hand move into the close up shot and knock a bottle of vodkaout of her hand, emphasising how out of control she is. The close up of the broken bottle on the floor could symbolise almost Christine’s broken heart because of the broken bottle as she is so attached and addicted to the alcohol she feels she cannot deal without it.

 

Her son, Connor, then comes into shot and he seems to be towering over her taking all of the control as she is helpless. This is exaggerated through the contrasting camera angles.Eye line shots are used for Connor but high angle shots are used for Christine. Despite thefact, the high angle shots are used for Christine, which usually indicate the power within ascene, it is in fact Connor with all of the power and a higher status in one way or another because his mother is sat down looking up at him- almost like a parent and child exceptreversed.

 

The majority of the shots used in this scene are all close ups which really allow us to see allof their facial expressions as it is an emotional scene between the two of them. This alsoallows us to feel more of a part of the action and really transfer their feelings to your own.

 

The main representational issue in this scene is age but it is not the stereotypical age issue.Stereotypically, the older the person, the wiser, powerful and more in control they are,however this conveys the opposite. As Christine cannot look after herself, her son has to doit for her in contrast to the norm of a mother looking after her son.

Spooks IR

I watched a clip from the popular TV drama, spooks. Whilst watching this clip, I looked at what features were post important to create such a tense and exciting scene.
To begin with, I looked at sound. In the clip, sound was used with: Helicopter noises (diegetic); sirens from the police cars (diegetic); shouting dialogue (diegetic); fast pace music at the beginning of the clip (non-diegetic); slow, tension building paced music at the end (non-diegetic).
The director has used diegetic noises of sirens at the beginning of the clip, in order to signify that this is a situation of panic and urgency. This instantly makes the audience feel more on edge, as they hear the loud sirens, recognise it is a warning of danger, and they are curious as to what is happening in the scene.
The use of the diegetic sound of the helicopter flying makes the audience feel worried. It signifies the seriousness of the scene as the police have had to bring in people in aircrafts; it indicates the criminals being chased are dangerous. This adds to the excitement of the scene, as it makes the audience feel they are involved in a thrilling scene.
The uses of such vehicals make the programme look more successful and planned, making it instantly more appealing. This is because the audience recognise that using a helicopter is an expensive prop and stunt for a programme to include, therefore they feel the programme is worth watching.
The dialogue is very important in this clip as it also signifies the panic of the situation. The characters are shouting over the loud noise of the rushing air, caused by the helicopter. They are all shouting over each other, this illustrates their fear and worry. This is effective, as if the scene was silent and the characters were just discussing politely what was happening, it would give the impression they are calm. Therefore the diegetic loud use of voices, adds to the tension of the scene, making the audience feel more on edge when watching it and building excitement to the outcome of the actual programme.
Fast pace music is used also to create tension amongst the audience also. It is played at the beginning of the clip, as this is where all the high angle shots of the helicopters and cars are. Therefore it is used to build up of excitement and curiosity for the audience, as they wonder what is going to happen.
On the other hand, slow paced, tension building diegetic music is used at the end of this clip, as the innocent are being revealed and the guilty have been discovered. This is in order to create a sense of sadness, however also for a sense of relief, as the audience feel all has been resolved.  It also creates sympathy for the person that is being kicked off the service, as he has done wrong. But the slow paced music makes the reader confused about who they should side with.
I also looked at the camera editing. The camera is usually directed on the men as women are a key feature in the clip. The camera is moving fast, changing shots with the pace of the music. There are a lot of cross cuts this makes the clip seem more action packed. Also there is shaking headshots making the audience feel like they are part of the action. Moreover there is an extra long shot of the area allowing the audience to see where the actors are. Close ups warm the audience to wanting to watch the programme and feel like there is a personal connection.
The quick cut pace of the camera editing draws attention to the speed the men are in leaving the women behind looking like not as much as an influence and un-needed. Also when the camera zoom's in on the man it evokes he is a key role where as the woman is not.
Gender is used clearly to portray men in a way that makes them wrong. As the bad person is male, and the officer that fires him is male too. Everything the woman says is ignored by the male and seems unimportant. Therefore, men are shown to hold power and status that women are not.
I then analysed representation. It is raining in the clip, which represents the desperation and sadness of the situation the characters find themselves in. In addition, the barren trees connote the season and the despair of the situation.
In addition to this, all of the men are wearing standard business looking dress while the woman is wearing jeans and a regular top. This objectifies women because they are ‘supposed’ to be looking attractive when they are around men.
Another point is that there is only one woman in the entire scene, out of about ten characters. She only gets a total screen time of ~15 seconds which signifies how women are oppressed and not valued in the media. The fact that men occupy almost all of the screen time represents the hegemonic norm of men being the most important part of the police force. It is important to note that all of the men are looking very serious and seem to be armed, while the woman is not.
           This clip also gives us some insight in to the hierarchy of the police force, and how superiority works within what the director of Spooks thinks the police force is like. It is quite obvious that the man in the middle of the police trio is the man in charge, and lets his two inferiors do the talking for him until it comes time to decommission the rogue operative. Lower still than the two officers helping the boss, are the guards. This is immediately obvious when the boss shouts a command at one of the guards, ‘take him back’ and the guard immediately responds to this.
This clip also has some ideas of relationships between men. It signifies the heated moments that can happen when two men have a disagreement, and ultimately ends with one police officer losing his job. The connotation of relationships between men is most apparent when the rogue operative yells “I’ve woken up to this job!” directly at his boss.
Lastly, I chose to acknowledge what I could about the mise en-scene. The whole scene is presented in a dark blue tone; this represents the darkness, coldness and bad events. At the beginning the car swerves and a helicopter chasing them and already the audience are introduced to a chase being pursued and the audience are engaged to what’s going on and why. Also all the cars that are seen are black this forebodes that the people in the cars might be responsible for negative behaviour later in the show. The dark colours the men in the cars are wearing again suggesting the darkness and negativity of this scene. We see that one man is behind the other this shows status of the man in front. Also when they are confronting each other there seems to be multiple people against one, this is unfair, the one man loses the argument and walks alone, signifying his loneliness and rejection from the crowd.  We then see the helicopter fly above and over showing that he has lost and they have risen. Furthermore his cold breath shows his failure and disappointment.

Primeval IR

The sequence opens with an establishing shot of a an opening in a woody forest, with a calming strings music, which is in complete contrast to the acting and dialogue, as a man and woman are arguing. A shot reverse shot is used to capture the conversation, to make the viewer feel involved in the argument. The other characters are out of focus and small in the background to signify their insignificance to the scene, however the blonde man shows dominance by instructing the man to "let her go". The woman who runs away from the argument gets into a big Jeep, that can infer she likes to be strong and independent like the vehicle.
     It then cuts smoothly to a yellow digger in a forest with diegetic noise of it moving across the dirt. Cutting the scene quickly to another man setting up a trap, the director zooms the shot into the chunk of meat to suppose it is important later on in the episode. Back to the digger, there is a long close up of a woman in a digger, which is subverting the stereotype of women being feminine, as the job is quite manly. Meanwhile the blonde man is on foot collecting sticks. Matters thicken when the camera is moved to focus on the mud and captures a hand buried in a medium shot and then pans to the blonde man in a long close up to show his shock and horror. It then pans back to Abi in the digger; she has short dyed blonde hair which can be seen as masculine, but can also mean she is a strong character; her costume is all in black, which can infer she is very practical or a little boyish.
     A medium shot is cast upon the blonde man, as there is diegetic noise of a growl in the distance; this is so the audience can read the man's worried facial expression. An extremely fast pan moves to a long shot of lots of trees, which can build tension as you cannot see the animal yet. The music then picks up and becomes upbeat and lively, to match the tense and exciting atmosphere, that follows the sabertooth attacking the blonde man.
     It is unusual for this to happen, but the man was the damsel in distress, as he becomes trapped and helpless in a muddy hole. Then Abi is his shining knight in armour and distracts the sabertooth with the digger. This can represent that women are just as good and strong as men; so this programme can be seen as modern and controversial.
     The music continues to be upbeat and fast, as a birds eye view shot is used to see the man climb up the ladder; also to save time the editor cuts to the man near the bottom of the ladder to the top from a different angle. A variety of angles are used when the man is going down the zip-wire, to highlight the speed and the fear the man has; although normally men are supposed to seem brave and calm.

Hollyoaks Clip Analysis: IR

This clip is from the popular drama series Hollyoaks. We see a boy that is suffering from Schizophrenia attempt to commit suicide by jumping into the canal. There is very little dialogue throughout the whole clip but instead replaced with non-diegetic music that works just as well.

The scene begins with some orchestral, echo-y music which adds an element of suspense and mystery. Very faintly there is also a drum beat in the timing of a heart beat- this gives the impression that the audience is almost inside of Newt and can hear everything from his perspective as everything is very overwhelming for him. His girlfriend and foster father are stood watching on and they shout at him “there’s no one there, it’s just you!” the crackle in their voice portrays their panic and worry for Newt.

Non-diegetic music then comes in and it sounds very eerie and abstract linking to Newt’s character. The music consists of many different instruments such as strings, drums and brass which give it a very abnormal feel putting the audience one edge. As Newt jumps, there is dialogue from his father shouting ‘don’t jump’. Again, this is very echo-y and reinforces the idea that the audience is seeing the action through Newt’s eyes.

As he jumps, it cuts to his foster mother reading a fairytale to her son however the music continues to play over the top. This almost cuts out the horror of Newt committing suicide and replaces it with something the complete opposite- a fairytale. It could also represent the idea that his loved ones want it to be nothing but a story rather than being true. Ironically, the story she is reading is to do with a prince jumping into water.

As Newt hits the water, there is multiple different sounds overlapping one another: the sound of the water, the music and shouting from his foster father and girlfriend. However, the music has now changed to one long minor chord giving a sense of abnormality and distress.

Waterloo Road Clip- IR

This clip consists of the young girl Chlo giving birth in the school toilets. As this is quite dramatic clip, the pace of the cuts and camera movements are very quick and at times is hard to keep up with. Also, as the clip is very emotional, lots of close ups are used.

The initial establishing shot helps the audience to identity the setting as being the toilets, they then see the teacher talking to Chlo through the toilet door about giving up her baby; the door between them not only represents the divide but also their difference of opinion as the teacher is trying to tell her not to. The fact that Chlo is in an enclosed toilet cubicle suggests that she feels trapped herself because of the pressure she is under due to the expected baby.

The audience then sees a high angle, mid shot of Chlo sat on the toilet. This is the first time we see her in some sort of distress and pain which informs the audience that the baby is coming building the tension. As this point, a heavy drum beat music then kicks in which emphasises this tension and idea of distress. Multiple shots then cut in and out of close ups and mid shots to show her facial expressions so the audience are aware of the pain and discomfort she is in. These are followed by a low shot under the toilet cubicle of gushing of water- again, telling the audience that Chlo had gone into labour.

A lot of the clip is filmed free hand which allows the audience to feel like they are actually there which makes them feel more involved. Various different shots are used to portray the panic at the school. For example, wide angle shots that show many teachers and pupils rushing around with lots of background noise highlights the effect one thing has had on the whole school. Another shot of a pupil running all the way down the corridor emphasises this idea.

Waterloo Road IR

The location of this scene is in a busy canteen in a school, this is clear as there is the sound of people talking, kids shouting and knives and forks hitting plates. This sort of hectic atmosphere highlights how Ben is being publically humiliated implying the cruelty behind this bullying. It begins with a mid shot of Ben walking through the door happily; there is then a quick cut to a mid shot of Bolton walking forward, towards the camera. The use of the same shot allows the audience to grasp a better understanding of both characters, by focusing on the mise en-scene. Ben is wearing a black hoodie, a black necklace and a black bag. This reflects the darkness of this scene and the unhappiness of his life. The audience can then see that Bolton (who is the bully in this part of the scene) is also wearing a black hoodie and also a chain. This allows the audience to understand that the two characters are not all that different and would usually get along due to their similarities; however the rumour has destroyed Ben’s chances of friendship with anybody. However, Bolton’s chain is hanging out of his shirt, highlighting to the audience that he is a more upfront and cocky character compared to Ben. His earrings also indicate he is a rebellious person. Bolton’s body language can instantly be interpreted as violent due to the way he licks his gums before speaking, his aggressive and emphasised steps and his quick movements.
                The conversation is opened with the loud slam of Bolton’s lunch tray hitting the table, reflecting the harm he’s capable of. There is then a medium close up of Ben’s surprised reaction to the noise. Bolton then begins to threaten Ben, shown in an over-the-shoulder shot of Bolton and the back of Ben’s head. As the diegetic dialogue begins, the background noise of the canteen quietens, allowing the audience to hear Bolton’s accent, furthering their interpretation of his character, as his harsh accent highlights his character-type. There is then a quick cut to another over the shoulder shot of Bolton’s head and Ben quietly and softly answering, highlighting his confusion to the threatening conversation.
                There is then a two shot medium long shot of two girls noticing the heated discussion and questioning it, but not intervening and helping Ben, simply watching, highlighting how Ben has no real friends who support him. There is then a cut to a two shot medium close-up of Bolton and his mate still threatening Ben, highlighting how Ben is fighting a losing battle, as he is being ganged up on by more than one person. There is then an over the shoulder shot of the Bolton’s head as his volume increases and he begins shouting at Ben, this allows the audience to see Ben’s shocked and hurt reaction to Bolton’s threatening behaviour. A cut to a medium close up of just Ben, looking upset highlights his loneliness in this situation. There is then a single medium close-up of one of Bolton’s gang looking sternly at Ben, highlighting how people agree with Bolton and Ben is being victimised. There is then a long silence after Bolton says ‘got it?’ indicating Ben’s confusion and fear. The tension is then broken with the obvious sound of Bolton’s shoulder bashing past Ben’s, shown in a medium shot as Ben attempts to rush away. This highlights how Bolton is a bully and a violent character. As Bolton is a different ethnicity to Ben, this highlights also that the bullying might also be down to racial differences.
                The scene then switches to a conversation between two girls, sitting at a table nearby. It opens with a medium long shot of a girl quietly discussing why the two boys were arguing, the volume of the girl’s discussion highlight how the reason the boy is being bullied is supposed to be a secret – indicating how people must have gone behind his back, making the audience feel sympathetic for Ben even more. There is then a medium long shot of the girls sitting at the table, this allows the audience to consider their characters and decided what they think of them. Both girls are wearing short skirts; they have their shirts hanging out and their ties on loosely. This indicates this is not a posh school and the students within it are not respectful or necessarily smart.
                There is then rigid cross cutting of the girls, using medium close-ups, discussing the rumour about Ben and how everybody knows. The fast pace editing in this scene highlight the quick cuts which reflect the intensity of the conversation and also represent the frustration of the characters. This is then broken with a medium long shot of one girl slamming her fork on the table, the loud noise represents her anger that Ben is being bullied, showing that people do care about him.
                The scene is then taken to a close up of Ben, who is at the food court, being served by a dinner man. His sarcastic tone highlights instantly to the audience that he is a bully that has heard about the rumour also, foreboding that Ben is about to get more grief from another character. The close up of this dinner man allows the audience to judge him as a character due to the mise-en-scene. He is wearing all white, which is a contrast to the connotations of white: calm, pure, angelic. However, the colour is used to imply he is staff in the canteen, and also to indicate how Ben is bullied by all types of people, the obviously mean and the unexpectedly mean also. He is wearing a hat which is twisted sideways, indicating his rude attitude.
                A medium long shot of thee dinner man serving is opened with the loud clatter of the plates, reflecting Ben’s fear of what is about to happen. There is then a close-up of Ben’s shocked and startled reaction that even a staff member is bullying him. This is followed by a close up of the stuffing being served reminding the audience that this bullying is taking place in a busy canteen environment. The medium close up of the dinner plate allows the audience to hear the slam of the sausage being hit onto the plate reflecting the threat of violence and also the two loud hits of the spoon on the plate, indicating that Ben is powerless and the dinner man is stronger than him, mentally and physically. There is then a two shot of Ben and another student watching the dinner man, indicating to the audience that this bullying is being done in front of other people, highlighting Ben’s embarrassment. A volume increase of the dinner man shouting at the staff to ‘throw away’ all cutlery highlights how this man is more powerful than Ben and he is too weak to stand up to him. The dinner man’s violent emphasis of the word ‘catch’ demonstrates the cruelty of this bullying and reminds the audience of the rumour.
                There is then a focus pull of the man to a close up of a dinner lady in the background who has been watching the way he has been bullying Ben. The silence highlights how, alike the girls earlier in the scene, she has witnessed the bullying but not intervened and tried to help Ben. This then cuts to a focus pull from the man helping another student, using a soft and subtle tone, to a big close up of Ben looking hurt as he notices the harsh and obvious victimisation of this bullying

British Film Industry

Whatever else you might think about the British film industry, you've got to admire its chutzpah. On the eve of a swingeing Budget, certain to hit the pockets of almost everyone in the country, 72 leading British film producers decided that yesterday was the day to have a bit of a moan in a letter to The Daily Telegraph. They're not happy, you see. Though they get public subsidy from bodies such as the UK Film Council, BBC Films and Film 4, if their films make a profit, they have to give the subsidy back. Doesn't your heart bleed? You might indeed wonder why we are subsidizing films in the first place. There's a simple market mechanism, surely: make films that people want to see and you will make a profit. If you don't, you go out of business and someone else gets to have a go. That's what Hollywood does. The producers' answer to that is "British films are critical both to our culture and our economy". Really? Was Sex Lives of the Potato Men – voted number seven in the 50 Worst Movies of All Time in Empire magazine – critical to our culture? Would our economy have been damaged without the endless series of hopeless East End gangster movies that got made in the wake of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels? And even when we do make good films, hardly anyone in this country can be bothered to see them. Two British films were nominated for Oscars last year – In the Loop and An Education. Each grossed just £2.2 million in Britain, a fraction of the figure for an average Hollywood film. Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold's critically acclaimed study of a mouthy Essex teenager, selected for the Cannes Film Festival, made £600,000.

Meaningful Image

The meaning behind my photo is 'Two Left Feet' which is the well known idiom used if someone cannot dance. I portrayed this by using two shoes that are for your left foot. So, it is a symbolic image.

Promotion of 'Taken 2'

http://youtu.be/qnmDKfRnJCM

 

James Cameron: 'Hollywood gets action women wrong'

His movies are renowned for their huge budgets and incredible special effects. But he also writes great female roles. He talks about what inspires his film-making

‘Maybe it’s just a quest to understand women who are sometimes inscrutable’ … James Cameron. Photograph: Pro Centre

It's 8.30 on a grey morning in Belfast and James Cameron, never a fan of the small gesture, strides into the recently opened Titanic Belfast museum to the swelling strains of that Celine Dion song. Despite having landed about 12 hours ago, Cameron, a good-looking 58-year-old with a powder-puff moustache and beard, is full of beans, eager to wring yet more drops out of the waterlogged wreck of RMS Titanic.

The ostensible reason Cameron has flown to the other side of the world from his homes in California and New Zealand is to promote the 3D Blu-Ray disc of his world-swallowing multi-Oscar-winning 1997 film. But the real reason is that this is simply the kind of thing that he does. Cameron will happily travel anywhere to expound upon his three great passions: marine and space exploration, and technology. When we meet after the press conference he tells me repeatedly that the only reason he made Titanic was so a film studio would pay for him to go on deep-sea dives to see the wreckage: "Anything I had to do after that was just part of the deal, I make no bones about that." He seizes the opportunity of the early-morning press conference to announce proudly that three years ago he commissioned a study with the US naval academy to learn more about the sinking of the Titanic, out of plain curiosity. In the years between Titanic and Avatar he became a proficient deep-sea diver and earlier this year he was the first to make a solo dive to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench.

When I ask if he ever just chills out, he protests that of course he loves his downtime with his family: "But we'll usually jet-ski all together or do something like that." He and the presumably very energetic current Mrs Cameron – Suzy Amis, who appears briefly in Titanic – have been married for 12 years and it is by far the longest of his five marriages. "I've probably mellowed out," he says simply.

Well, it is all relative, but it is perhaps not surprising that he has been married five times as he only seems to deal in big numbers: it has been decades since he has made a film that wasn't described as "the most expensive ever made" – The Abyss was the first to be awarded that honour, then Terminator 2, True Lies, Titanic and finally Avatar – and the takings have nearly always justified the budget. At a conservative estimate, Cameron's movies have made more than $7bn and Titanic and Avatar are the two biggest-grossing films ever. The costs are largely due to his determination to make his fantasies a reality.

As a child Cameron fell in love with marine exploration, seeing it as a more accessible form of space exploration. When he saw the underwater technology that had been developed to explore the wreck of the Titanic in the 80s, he thought: "I've got to get me some of that." His love of special effects marries his love of art and science and I can still remember the gasping thrill of seeing the liquid metal in Terminator 2 at the cinema for the first time.
Cameron can be a fantastic storyteller: no matter how much you roll your eyes watching it, Titanic is as irresistible as the suction of a sinking ship. But his love of effects risks distracting his attention from the storyline, and it is not really an accusation that he does much to refute. During the morning press conference, when asked what his favourite scene from Titanic is, he replies, "when Rose and Jack first kiss," which seems a surprisingly sentimental choice for him but then he adds: "Not for the emotionality, but the way we shot it." Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet asked him how they should kiss, "and so I drew some lips here," he says, pointing to the knuckles on his thumbs and beginning to knock them together, "and said: 'Like this.'" And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win a best director Oscar.

Avatar: Cameron's space cowboy blockbuster. Photograph: 20th Century Fox

Avatar is the most obvious example of Cameron's interest in technology taking precedence over plot and it is astonishing to think that he is about to start shooting Avatars 2, 3 and maybe even 4 when there was barely enough script for Avatar 1, and what there was flirted with condescending colonialism.

After the press conference, I meet Cameron upstairs looking out over the dock where the Titanic set sail for Southampton a century ago. In person he is charm itself, talkative and open, and looking healthier than he did 10 years ago, doubtless thanks to his "gradual conversion" to a vegan diet, primarily for environmental reasons. Only occasionally are there the flashes of the legendary impatience, the first one coming when I refer to an infamous incident in which he kicked over a tea cart because he was so outraged the film crew took a break.
"That was years ago! Hello?!" he shouts and it briefly looks as if I might be the next tea cart. But the storm passes as swiftly as it erupted: "Look, there's an aspect of movie-making that rewards bad behaviour. You're working with a team of people and you tell them what you want and a few weeks later they've forgetten everything. So you scream at them and somehow they remember. Not my actors, though – I've always been very circumspect with them."
This is somewhat debatable. While some, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sigourney Weaver and Bill Paxton, have worked with him repeatedly, others couldn't get away fast enough. Winslet said Cameron "has a temper like you wouldn't believe" and she would never work with him again "unless it was for a lot of money".
But, he avows, he's a changed man. The underwater expeditions he has done in the past decade have "taught me about good leadership because now I know if someone hasn't done their job properly, I haven't done mine because I haven't communicated to them what I want".
Not that he has entirely mellowed. When I ask if it's true he wanted to buy the rights to Michael Crichton's book Jurassic Park, just the memory of how Steven Spielberg beat him to it by mere hours sparks hissing frustration: "That motherfucker!"
While Cameron is known now for spending as much on films as small countries spend on their military, he in fact started out with small budgets. After a happy childhood in Canada and then dropping out of college, he decided on film-making after seeing Star Wars and he found work at the low-budget Roger Corman studios. From there, he got an ill-fated job as the director of Piranha II and then, after coming up with the story in a feverish dream, he wrote Terminator.
Into the deep: Titanic. Photograph: Image Net Despite his displays of machismo Cameron has written some of the best roles for women in cinema. "I didn't even think it was that remarkable when I did it with Terminator – it's remarkable by its absence in other Hollywood movies," he shrugs. "I do think Hollywood movies get it wrong when they show women in action roles – they basically make them men. Or else they make them into superheroes in shiny black suits, which is just not as interesting."
You seem to enjoy writing roles for strong women, I say.
"Absolutely. To me, it's just another challenge. It doesn't matter to me if it's an engineering challenge, a scientific challenge, a writing challenge – for a man to write a woman and make her interesting to women as well as men, it's a challenge. Maybe it's just a quest to understand women who are sometimes inscrutable," he says.

As well as writing strong women he seems to enjoy marrying them. His roster of ex-wives includes Terminator's Linda Hamilton, film producer Gale Anne Hurd and the director Kathryn Bigelow, with whom he remains good friends despite losing out to her for the 2009 directing Oscar.

These days, he, his wife and his five children – aged between 23 and five – live in both New Zealand and Los Angeles after Cameron decided he didn't want his children to grow up solely in LA: "I didn't want to raise them in that poisonous atmosphere. There's a climate of materialism in Los Angeles. We're all vegan, we grow our own organic food at our ranch in California, and we'll continue to do that in New Zealand. You want your kids to grow up with a certain set of values."
As part of that endeavour, he threw out the family's television sets but does allow the kids to watch movies, yet only as a family group, with everyone voting for which film to watch: "It teaches them conflict resolution. It's like the old days when everybody lived in one room in a cabin." Albeit a one-room cabin that reportedly cost $16m and is set on 2,500 acres of prime New Zealand land. "Oh, come on! There are ranches in Montana that are 100,000 acres!" he scoffs.
So seeing as Cameron is no longer beset by his ego and temper maybe I can ask him the question that's been bugging me for the past 15 years.
"Sure," he says.
Couldn't Rose have shared her wooden board with Jack at the end of Titanic instead of shoving him into the ocean? "Wait a minute, I'm going to call up William Shakespeare and ask why Romeo and Juliet had to die," he snaps.
Ah, that's better.

'Love' Film Review

1. Love
2. Production year: 2012
3. Country: USA
4. Cert (UK): 12A
5. Runtime: 84 mins
6. Directors: Michael Haneke, William Eubank
7. Cast: Bradley Horne, Corey Richardson, Emmanuelle Riva, Gunner Wright, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant
8. More on this film

With a musical score supplied by the US band Angels & Airwaves, this sci-fi meditation from 29-year-old debutant director William Eubank is a technically accomplished but stiflingly reverential homage to Stanley Kubrick. It often seems like an 80-minute pop video with a 2001 gimmick. There's a "pre-history" sequence: not apes, but soldiers in the US civil war who make a strange discovery. Then we rocket forward centuries to a lone spaceman, Captain Lee Miller (Gunner Wright), in a cramped craft, who receives a disturbingly curt message from Houston. He's on his own. Panic is succeeded by existential horror and hallucinations that somehow trigger a kind of leap to a new consciousness, and we loop in the civil–war discovery. Technically proficient, good-looking – but what's the point?