Visual effects veteran Scott Ross reflected on the heated disagreements he had with James Cameron. ... "Second to my mother dying, [making Titanic] was the worst experience of my life,” Ross admitted, saying he was under very public, “unbelievable pressure” when the budget was rising while the need to complete more work for the director nearly bankrupt the company. “I felt like I had no support,” Ross said. "The studio sided with Jim, I could never ask Fox for a change order. We were the fall guys."
“I went head to head with Jim Cameron over and over again,” he recalled, adding that it's more important to win the war than the battle. “I could have handled my relationship with Jim in a much better way ... more strategically. ... Digital Domain I think would be a very different company today had Jim and I got along. … I think Digital Domain would be as successful as Pixar,”
Yeah, hm hm.
I'm always skeptical of "If it hadn't been for X, everything would have turned out Y instead of Z." Because there is only what happened, not what would have happened if reality had been different. (As in, "If there wasn't any Christmas, we'd all be Buddhist." Oh really?)
And Mr. Ross weighs in about the wage suppression thingie:
“To me, Ed Catmull was always a shining light. ... When I found out [about the alleged anti-poaching agreements], my initial reaction was to defend him. But I knew people around him are very smart. … and no matter how you look at it, it’s illegal." ...
I doubt that Dr. Catmull (and others) were thinking about possible illegalities. I think they were focused on keeping wages under control "for the greater good of the business".
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Of COURSE Fox sided with James Cameron. He was the writer, director, and one of the producer of "Titanic." He was the only one whose change orders matter. Duh. And Digital Domain did good work on the film, but they're a visual effects house, not a film production company. They've never created a story produced into a successful feature film. Visual effects are hard to do, but it's NOT the same as producing a film from scratch.
"I doubt that Dr. Catmull (and others) were thinking about possible illegalities. I think they were focused on keeping wages under control "for the greater good of the business".
Not the greater good of the business (which includes all of us) but the greater good (profits) of HIS business interests .
Catmull is smart and managed to cloak his chicanery better than say , John Textor, whose epic ineptitude and greed drove DD off a cliff.
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