Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as director. Now you're a director. Everything after that you're just negotiating your budget and your fee.

Cameron was hired as the special effects director for the sequel of Piranha entitled Piranha II: The Spawning in 1981. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment signed on with Twentieth Century Fox for production of True Lies. For creation of the sets the containment building of an unfiniJames Camerond nuclear power plant was converted and two huge tanks were used.

On March 26 2012 Cameron reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench the deepest part of the ocean in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. He found further critical acclaim for his use of special effects in the action packed blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Not adjusted for inflation Cameron's Titanic and Avatar are the two highest-grossing films of all time at $2.