by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Over the weekend, KUAM News had the rare opportunity to be behind the scenes of filming for a documentary and 3-D feature film of Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron's upcoming dive into the Marianas Trench. Since he was a child, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker loved science fiction and could only dream of one day exploring an alien planet.

Much to his imagination, he'll be fulfilling that dream by not going into orbit, instead diving seven miles deep to the deepest part of the earth which he plans to share the journey with the world. "I think it's very simple, the story that I want to tell is that there's world down there that we haven't seen that it's unexplored right here on planet earth, that's as alien as anything we'll find out in outer space," he said.

For example, during his dive down the New Britain Trench at nearly 27,000 feet, Cameron discovered a new type of species, something he thought was merely a jellyfish. He hopes to replicate those findings down 36,000 feet in the Marianas Trench. "That's what we're here for," he continued. "We're here to extend the limits of what science knows about this last frontier, because this is really the last frontier here on Earth - the Artic and Antarctic, and all the mountains and everything, it's all been mapped from orbit, but the Abyssal Depths of the ocean, which are the greater part of the ocean down there in the dark, we have vehicles that go to the Abyssal Depths, but there are no vehicles that can take a human being to the Hadal Depths until now."

And what better way to share his journey with the world by doing what he does best - making movies. Not only will his dive be recorded through a National Geographic television special and a documentary feature film, but it will be shot in 3-D. KUAM was behind the scenes of filming on board the mermaid sapphire that carried the submarine Cameron will ride solo, The Deepsea Challenger.

"So I've been very involved in the 3-D community, so there's no way I can dive to the Marianas Trench and not shoot it in 3-D - come on, it's expected! So we had to come up with some pretty and some of the most advanced technology on this sub is the imaging technology, the lighting and the cameras. We had to build some very small cameras that could withstand the force of 16,000 pounds per square inch, HD cameras to be able to shoot 3-D down there and that was one of our hardest jobs."

And after writing, producing and directing the highest grossing movie of all time, everyone is curious about just how influential this mission will have on the much anticipated Avatar sequel? "It all feeds back into Avatar and all the other stuff that," said Cameron. "I'll do when I wear my other hat as Hollywood filmmaker, all these adventures just feed into that." So we could possibly see Guam and the Marianas Trench in Avatar 2? "You'll have to look carefully, it's a bit like a war-shot test, everything gets filtered through the imagination of all the artists that work on a film like Avatar," he said.

Ultimately, Cameron is a storyteller in many ways not only through his lens but as a human being. and for us on Guam who can boast that they have the ocean in their backyard or for those interested and have never even seen the ocean in person or dive like Cameron has done for years, Cameron also wants to raise awareness on our responsibility in caring for our waters.

"The ocean is where life came from, all of life on the planet is dependent on it, it moderates our temperature, it gives us our rain, everything and all life comes from our ocean, not only originally but day to day in our life, and we need to learn how to respect it, how to care for it and understand that we have the power to destroy the life in the ocean and through the misuse of pollution, resources and so on ," he said.

And while we wait to see the results of his mission and documentary, students from Australia and California will get an opportunity to watch live streaming video of the historic dive through a partnership with Telstra - a global telecommunications company that will also be providing Cameron with connectivity to his team.

"I think it's important to not only do these things but to get everybody to participate in it, especially kids because kids get it immediately," he shared. "And if a little bit of that excitement can stay with them until their teenage years when they're making their career path decisions or into their adulthood, maybe they'll grow up with a respect for science, maybe they'll grow up with a respect for the ocean, maybe they'll even choose a life-path in the sciences or technology if they get excited enough about these ideas while they are kids."

Cameron meanwhile had nothing but praise for Guam, saying it's one of the most wonderful parts of the world that has grown and diversified through the years. The TV special is expected to air in early fall and the 3-D film should be hitting theaters the first quarter of next year.