James Cameron calls on Australian Ray Quint for Deepsea Challenge 3D

By Garry Maddox
Updated August 20 2014 - 1:23pm, first published 12:48pm
Robust but respectful: Ray Quint (right) says James Cameron is a man with strong opinions but is prepared to be overruled. Photo: Caroline McCredie/Getty Images
Robust but respectful: Ray Quint (right) says James Cameron is a man with strong opinions but is prepared to be overruled. Photo: Caroline McCredie/Getty Images

For a little-known Australian director, the chance to work with legendary Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron came in a phone call out of the blue.

‘‘I kind of took a deep breath and went ‘you mean it’s that James Cameron?’," Ray Quint says. 

The project was the documentary Deepsea Challenge 3D, which follows the director of Titanic and Avatar as he dived in a small submersible to the deepest trench in the world's oceans in 2012.

Quint joined the film following the tragic death of Australian director Andrew Wight.

Shortly after Cameron's team built the submersible in Sydney's Leichhardt amid tight secrecy, Wight and American cinematographer Mike deGruy were killed in a helicopter crash while preparing to film a trial dive at Jervis Bay. The visual effects supervisor on Avatar, John Bruno, took over as director during the expedition with Quint taking over in post-production.

Best known for the 2007 waterfront dispute mini-series Bastard Boys, he spent a year shaping more than 1000 hours of expedition footage and filming new elements to give the documentary a stronger story. 

"I shot re-creations with Jim, historical segments, interviews with Jim and pulled together the archival [material]," he says.

"But all the time I was trying to work out what kind of film should this be? I thought if we just showed the dives, it wasn’t going to be that interesting. So I wanted to bring a thematic element to it: the idea of childhood curiosity and encouraging that."

Quint says he had heard many stories about how forthright Cameron could be but found him respectful of his role as director.

‘‘He has robust opinions - and we had some very good and robust discussions - but he’s also someone that doesn’t want you to pee in his pocket. He actually wants your opinion about why you want to do things.’’

Having worked so closely with him, Quint believes Cameron is driven by a childlike curiosity.

‘‘I think you see that in the movie - you see him as a curious young kid and then you see him as a curious adult. Some of his reactions when he’s on these dives are almost childlike responses and I mean that in a positive way because they’re about curiosity and awe and wonder. I think you see that in his movie-making as well."

So did Cameron ever over-rule him?

Quint says there was one debate about showing the Hollywood director's children inspecting the submersible. While there were security concerns about them appearing on screen, Quint argued that it was an important to reinforce the idea of Cameron passing on his curiosity to his children.

‘‘I was worried that he was going to want to take that out," he says. "Then I was in Los Angeles with him and he said ‘I’ve thought about that sequence, we’ll keep it in the film'.’’

Quint is now developing two films of his own - "one set on and around Sydney Harbour and a psychological thriller".

Deepsea Challenge 3D opens on Thursday. 

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