The Speech that changed My Life
I am an engineering graduate who is now a YouTuber and a huge film buff. My journey to find my passion wasn’t a straight road as I got into engineering without knowing what it was and spent the first two years of my college life feeling dead inside as I believed I was in the wrong place for my passion. Despite being a person who took part in many extra curricular activities during my school days I was never apart of anything in college and it almost seemed like I never existed until one day where everything changed with a speech.
The Impromptu Factor
The Career Development Cell (CDC) in my college had gathered my department students for a meeting and one staff from the CDC who was aware of my alma matter insisted I address the group till the speaker arrives. I was very reluctant in the beginning but then decided to do an impromptu speech about my inspiration James Cameron. For the few who don’t know who he is, James Cameron is the visionary director of films like Titanic, Terminator and Avatar. Titanic also happens to be one of my most favorite films ever since childhood. Once I grew up and found out the story as to how the film was made and how much James Cameron had to go through, I was in complete awe. This is one of the major reasons why I make film appreciation videos on YouTube today.
Here is a throwback of me in the Titanic pose.
James Cameron’s Genesis
So coming back. I made my speech explaining how James Cameron who has developed and revolutionized technologies for his films was just a lorry driver during his early days after dropping out of college. Despite all this James Cameron used to visit the library and learn a lot about special effects. One day in 1977 James Cameron saw Star Wars and was so inspired by it that he quit his job and decided to make a science fiction short film titled ‘Xenogenesis’ by borrowing money from various dentists he knew. After which James Cameron pursued his career in the film industry by landing a few technical roles and finally got the opportunity to direct his first film Piranha 2 but could not make a mark due to a lot of limitations and hindrance from the studio. James Cameron had to sell the rights of Terminator for 1$ to Orion Pictures in order to get the chance to direct it. That did not mean that James Cameron got all the budget he needed, in fact he didn’t even get the support he needed as nobody took the film seriously. This was what Arnold Schwarzenegger had to say about the film while filming,
Oh some shit movie I’m doing, take a couple weeks
We all know how important Terminator became for Schwarzenegger as it helped cement an iconic image for the actor. I was thinking of a ways to wrap the speech up with a point to stick the landing and so stated we should never blame our circumstances but instead follow our dreams no matter what.
The Feeling of Hypocrisy
Till date I don’t know how many of them even listened to my talk that day but I felt like a hypocrite as I stood there in front of everyone talking about how James Cameron didn’t bother that he was a truck driver who had no degree or experience in doing what he was passionate about but still went after his dreams, while I was using it as an excuse to live an ordinary life. Being a person who hates hypocrisy I realized my mistake and started participating in more activities and co created a media club in my college called ‘Media Guild’. Started developing new content for my YouTube channel ‘Avant Grande’ which has grown into a successful and well recognized channel with 2.15 lakh subscribers and counting.
A Domino
James Cameron’s Titanic went on to beat Star Wars in the Box Office, it is such a poetic story as Star Wars was one of the pivotal reasons why James Cameron became a filmmaker and here I stand as a passionate writer because of James Cameron. I am yet another domino in this world where the work of artists touch the lives of numerous people.