1.
Nikola Tesla
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He immigrated to the United States in 1884, where he would become a naturalized citizen. He worked for a time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and would demonstrate his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, in 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. After Wardenclyffe, Tesla went on to try and develop a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success, having spent most of his money, he lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. The nature of his work and the pronouncements he made to the press later in life earned him the reputation of an archetypal mad scientist in American popular culture. Tesla died in New York City in January 1943 and his work fell into relative obscurity following his death, but in 1960, the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s, Tesla was born on 10 July 1856 into a Serb family in the village of Smiljan, Austrian Empire. His father, Milutin Tesla, was an Orthodox priest, Teslas mother, Đuka Tesla, whose father was also an Orthodox priest, had a talent for making home craft tools and mechanical appliances and the ability to memorize Serbian epic poems. Đuka had never received a formal education, Tesla credited his eidetic memory and creative abilities to his mothers genetics and influence. Teslas progenitors were from western Serbia, near Montenegro, Tesla was the fourth of five children. He had a brother, Dane, and three sisters, Milka, Angelina and Marica. Dane was killed in an accident when Tesla was aged five. In 1861 Tesla attended primary school in Smiljan, where he studied German, arithmetic, in 1862 the Tesla family moved to Gospić, Austrian Empire, where Teslas father worked as parish priest. Nikola completed primary school, followed by middle school, in 1870 Tesla moved to Karlovac to attend school at the Higher Real Gymnasium. The classes were held in German, as it was a school within the Austro-Hungarian Military Frontier, Tesla would later write that he became interested in demonstrations of electricity by his physics professor. Tesla noted that these demonstrations of this mysterious phenomena made him want to more of this wonderful force
2.
George Lucas
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George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is best known as the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as the founder of Lucasfilm and he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm, before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Upon graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with fellow filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Lucas wrote and directed THX1138, based on his earlier student short Electronic Labyrinth, THX1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was the film, American Graffiti, inspired by his teen years in early 1960s Modesto, California, the film was critically and commercially successful, and received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Following the first Star Wars film, Lucas produced and co-wrote the following installments in the trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, along with Steven Spielberg, Lucas co-created and wrote the Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade. Lucas also produced and/or wrote a variety of films through Lucasfilm in the 1980s and 1990s, Lucas also returned to directing with the Star Wars prequel trilogy, consisting of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. He later collaborated on the story for the Indiana Jones sequel Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, five of Lucass seven features are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is one of the American film industrys most financially successful filmmakers, Lucas is considered a significant figure in the New Hollywood era. Lucas was born and raised in Modesto, California, the son of Dorothy Ellinore Lucas and George Walton Lucas and he is of German, Swiss-German, English, Scottish, and distant Dutch and French descent. Growing up, Lucas had a passion for cars and motor racing, on June 12,1962, while driving his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina, another driver broadsided him, flipping over his car, nearly killing him, causing him to lose interest in racing as a career. He attended Modesto Junior College, where he studied anthropology, sociology and he also began shooting with an 8 mm camera, including filming car races. At this time, Lucas and his friend John Plummer became interested in Canyon Cinema, screenings of underground, avant-garde 16 mm filmmakers like Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage, and Bruce Conner. Lucas and Plummer also saw classic European films of the time, including Jean-Luc Godards Breathless, François Truffauts Jules et Jim, thats when George really started exploring, Plummer said. Through his interest in racing, Lucas met renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler, another race enthusiast. Wexler, later to work with Lucas on several occasions, was impressed by Lucas talent, George had a very good eye, and he thought visually, he recalled. Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, Lucas shared a room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood, and John Milius and he also became good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg
3.
Bust (sculpture)
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A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a persons head and neck, and a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual and these may be of any medium used for sculpture, such as marble, bronze, terracotta or wood. A parallel term, aust, is a representation of the part of an animal or mythical creature. Sculptural portrait heads from classical antiquity are sometimes displayed as busts, however, these are often fragments from full-body statues, or were created to be inserted into an existing body, these portrait heads are not included in this article. Herma Portraiture Livius. org, Bust gallery of famous ancient Greeks Oxford definition Dictionary. com definition
4.
James Cameron
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James Francis Jim Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker, director, producer, screenwriter, inventor, engineer, philanthropist, and deep-sea explorer. He first found success with the science fiction action film The Terminator. He then became a popular Hollywood director and was hired to write and direct Aliens and he found further critical acclaim for his use of special effects in Terminator 2, Judgment Day. After his film True Lies Cameron took on his biggest film at the time, Titanic, despite Avatar being his only movie made to date in 3D, Cameron is the most successful 3D film-maker in terms of box-office revenue. In the time between making Titanic and Avatar, Cameron spent several years creating many documentary films and co-developed the digital 3D Fusion Camera System, described by a biographer as part scientist and part artist, Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies. On March 26,2012, Cameron reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench and he is the first person to do this in a solo descent, and is only the third person to do so ever. In total, Camerons directorial efforts have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America, not adjusted for inflation, Camerons Titanic and Avatar are the two highest-grossing films of all time at $2.19 billion and $2.78 billion respectively. Cameron also holds the achievement of having directed two of the three films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide, in March 2011, he was named Hollywoods top earner by Vanity Fair, with estimated 2010 earnings of $257 million. Cameron was born in 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, the son of Shirley, an artist and nurse, and Phillip Cameron and his paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron grew up in Chippawa, Ontario, and attended Stamford Collegiate School in Niagara Falls and his family moved to Brea, California in 1971, when Cameron was 17 years old. He dropped out of Sonora High School, then attended Brea Olinda High School to further his secondary education, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a two-year community college, in 1973 to study physics. He switched to English, then dropped out before the start of the fall 1974 semester, next, he worked several jobs, including as a truck driver, writing when he had time. That way I could sit down and read it, and if theyd let me photocopy it, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry after seeing Star Wars in 1977. When Cameron read Syd Fields book Screenplay, it occurred to him that science and art was possible. They raised money, rented camera, lenses, film stock and they dismantled the camera to understand how to operate it and spent the first half-day of the shoot trying to figure out how to get it running. He was the director, writer, producer, and production designer for Xenogenesis and he then became a production assistant on a film called Rock and Roll High School, though uncredited, in 1979. While continuing to educate himself in film-making techniques, Cameron started working as a miniature-model maker at Roger Corman Studios, making rapidly produced, low-budget productions taught Cameron to work efficiently and effectively. He soon found employment as an art director in the sci-fi movie Battle Beyond the Stars and he did special effects work design and direction on John Carpenters Escape from New York, acted as production designer on Galaxy of Terror, and consulted on the design of Android
5.
3D film
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A three-dimensional stereoscopic film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception, hence adding a third dimension. The most common approach to the production of 3D films is derived from stereoscopic photography, 3D films are not limited to theatrical releases, television broadcasts and direct-to-video films have also incorporated similar methods, especially since the advent of 3D television and Blu-ray 3D. 3D films became more and more throughout the 2000s, culminating in the unprecedented success of 3D presentations of Avatar in December 2009. The stereoscopic era of motion pictures began in the late 1890s when British film pioneer William Friese-Greene filed a patent for a 3D film process, in his patent, two films were projected side by side on screen. The viewer looked through a stereoscope to converge the two images, because of the obtrusive mechanics behind this method, theatrical use was not practical. Frederic Eugene Ives patented his stereo camera rig in 1900, the camera had two lenses coupled together 1¾ inches apart. On June 10,1915, Edwin S. Porter and William E. Waddell presented tests to an audience at the Astor Theater in New York City. However, according to Adolph Zukor in his 1953 autobiography The Public Is Never Wrong, My 50 Years in the Motion Picture Industry, nothing was produced in this process after these tests. The earliest confirmed 3D film shown to an audience was The Power of Love. The camera rig was a product of the producer, Harry K. Fairall. Whether Fairall used colored filters on the ports or whether he used tinted prints is unknown. After a preview for exhibitors and press in New York City, the film dropped out of sight, apparently not booked by exhibitors, and is now considered lost. Kelley then struck a deal with Samuel Roxy Rothafel to premiere the first in his series of Plasticon shorts entitled Movies of the Future at the Rivoli Theater in New York City. Also in December 1922, Laurens Hammond premiered his Teleview system, Teleview was the first alternating-frame 3D system seen by the public. Using left-eye and right-eye prints and two interlocked projectors, left and right frames were alternately projected, each pair being shown three times to suppress flicker. Viewing devices attached to the armrests of the seats had rotary shutters that operated synchronously with the projector shutters, producing a clean. The show ran for weeks, apparently doing good business as a novelty. In 1922, Frederic Eugene Ives and Jacob Leventhal began releasing their first stereoscopic shorts made over a three-year period, the first film, entitled Plastigrams, was distributed nationally by Educational Pictures in the red-and-blue anaglyph format
6.
Jerry Lewis
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Jerry Lewis AM is an American actor, comedian, singer, film producer, film director, screenwriter and humanitarian. He is known for his humor in film, television, stage. He and Dean Martin were partners as the hit popular comedy duo of Martin, following that success, he was a solo star in motion pictures, nightclubs, television shows, concerts, album recordings, and musicals. Lewis served as chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and hosted the live Labor Day broadcast of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon for 44 years. Lewis was born on March 16,1926 in Newark, New Jersey to Russian Jewish parents and his father, Daniel Levitch, was a master of ceremonies and vaudeville entertainer who used the professional name Danny Lewis. His mother, Rachel Levitch, was a player for a radio station. Lewis started performing at age five and would perform alongside his parents in the Catskill Mountains in New York State. By 15, he had developed his Record Act in which he exaggeratedly mimed the lyrics to songs on a phonograph and he used the professional name Joey Lewis but soon changed it to Jerry Lewis to avoid confusion with comedian Joe E. Lewis and heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis. Lewis then dropped out of Irvington High School in the tenth grade and he was a character even in his teenage years pulling pranks in his neighborhood including sneaking into kitchens to steal fried chicken and pies. During World War II, he was rejected for service because of a heart murmur. Lewis initially gained attention as part of an act with singer Dean Martin. The performers were different from most other acts of the time because they relied on their interaction instead of planned skits. They quickly rose to prominence, first with their popular nightclub act. The two men made many appearances on live television, their first on the June 20,1948. This was followed on October 3,1948, by an appearance on the NBC series Welcome Aboard, the duo began their Paramount film careers as ensemble players in My Friend Irma, based on the popular radio series of the same name. This was followed by a sequel My Friend Irma Goes West, All sixteen movies were produced by Hal B. Attesting the comedy teams popularity, DC Comics published the best-selling The Adventures of Dean Martin, in 1954, the boys appeared on episode 191 of Whats My Line. as mystery guests. As Martins roles in their films became less important over time the partnership came under strain, Martins participation became an embarrassment in 1954 when Look magazine used a publicity photo of the team for the magazine cover but cropped Martin out of the photo
7.
Cinematography
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Typically, a lens is used to repeatedly focus the light reflected from objects into real images on the light-sensitive surface inside a camera during a questioned exposure, creating multiple images. With an electronic sensor, this produces an electrical charge at each pixel. The result with photographic emulsion is a series of invisible latent images on the film stock, the images on the film stock are played back at a rapid speed and projected onto a screen, creating the illusion of motion. Cinematography finds uses in fields of science and business as well as for entertainment purposes. The word cinematography was created from the Greek words κίνημα, meaning movement, motion and γράφειν meaning to record, the word used to refer to the art, process, or job of filming movies, but later its meaning was restricted to motion picture photography. In the 1830s, moving images were produced on revolving drums and disks, with independent invention by Simon von Stampfer in Austria, Joseph Plateau in Belgium, and William Horner in Britain. In 1845, Francis Ronalds invented the first successful camera able to make recordings of the varying indications of meteorological. The cameras were supplied to numerous observatories around the world and some remained in use well into the 20th century. William Lincoln patented a device, in 1867, that showed animated pictures called the wheel of life or zoopraxiscope, in it, moving drawings or photographs were watched through a slit. On 19 June 1873, Eadweard Muybridge successfully photographed a horse named Sallie Gardner in fast motion using a series of 24 stereoscopic cameras. The cameras were arranged along a parallel to the horses. They were 21 inches apart to cover the 20 feet taken by the horse stride, although it was never played back at speed to create motion, this was the first step towards motion pictures. The late nineteenth to the twentieth century brought rise to the use of film not only for entertainment purposes. The experimental film Roundhay Garden Scene, filmed by Louis Le Prince on 14 October 1888, in Roundhay, Leeds and this movie was shot on paper film. W. K. L. Dickson, working under the direction of Thomas Alva Edison, was the first to design a successful apparatus and this camera took a series of instantaneous photographs on standard Eastman Kodak photographic emulsion coated onto a transparent celluloid strip 35 mm wide. The results of work were first shown in public in 1893, using the viewing apparatus also designed by Dickson. Contained within a box, only one person at a time looking into it through a peephole could view the movie. The Lumière brothers were the first to present projected, moving, photographic, in 1896, movie theaters were open in France, Italy, Brussels, and London
8.
Film preservation
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In the widest sense, preservation nowadays assures that a movie will continue to exist in as close to its original form as possible. For many years the term preservation was synonymous with duplication of film, the goal of a preservationist was to create a durable copy without any significant loss of quality. In more modern terms, film preservation now includes the concepts of handling, duplication, storage, the archivist seeks to protect the film and share the content with the public. By the 1980s, it was becoming apparent that the collections of motion picture heritage were at risk of becoming lost, at that time, the best known solution was to duplicate the original film onto a more secure medium. 90 percent of all American silent films made before 1929 and 50 percent of American sound films made before 1950 are lost films, the great majority of films made in the silent era are now considered lost forever. Most films made on nitrate stock were not preserved, over the years, their negatives, many of them were recycled for their silver content, or destroyed in studio or vault fires. The largest cause, however, was intentional destruction, as film preservationist Robert A. Harris explains, Most of the early films did not survive because of wholesale junking by the studios. There was no thought of saving these films. They simply needed vault space and the materials were expensive to house, silent films had little or no commercial value after the advent of sound films in the 1930s, and as such, they were not kept. As a result, preserving the now rare silent films has been a priority amongst film historians. Because of the fragility of film stock, proper preservation of film usually involves storing the original negatives, the vast majority of films were not stored in this manner, which resulted in the widespread decay of film stocks. The problem of film decay is not limited to films made on cellulose nitrate, Film industry researchers and specialists have found that color films are also decaying at an increasingly rapid rate. A number of well-known films only exist as copies of original productions or exhibition elements because the originals have decomposed beyond use. Cellulose acetate film, which was the replacement for nitrate, has been found to suffer from vinegar syndrome. The film was paired together with a composed by Michael Gordon. The preservation of film usually refers to storage of the film in a climate-controlled vault. Film is best preserved by proper protection from external forces while in storage along with being under controlled temperatures, for most film materials, the Image Permanence Institute finds that storing film media in frozen temperatures, with RH between 30% and 50%, greatly extends its useful life. These measures inhibit deterioration better than any other methods and is a solution than replicating deteriorating films
9.
Special effect
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Special effects are illusions or visual tricks used in the film, television, theatre, video game, and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual world. Special effects are divided into the categories of optical effects. Mechanical effects are usually accomplished during the live-action shooting and this includes the use of mechanized props, scenery, scale models, animatronics, pyrotechnics and atmospheric effects, creating physical wind, rain, fog, snow, clouds, etc. Making a car appear to drive by itself and blowing up a building are examples of mechanical effects, mechanical effects are often incorporated into set design and makeup. For example, a set may be built with doors or walls to enhance a fight scene. An optical effect might be used to place actors or sets against a different background, since the 1990s, computer generated imagery has come to the forefront of special effects technologies. It gives filmmakers greater control, and allows many effects to be accomplished safely and convincingly and—as technology improves—at lower costs. As a result, many optical and mechanical effects techniques have been superseded by CGI, in 1857, Oscar Rejlander created the worlds first special effects movie by combining different sections of 30 negatives into a single image. In 1895, Alfred Clark created what is accepted as the first-ever motion picture special effect. While filming a reenactment of the beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots, as the executioner brought the axe above his head, Clark stopped the camera, had all of the actors freeze, and had the person playing Mary step off the set. He placed a Mary dummy in the place, restarted filming. Techniques like these would dominate the production of special effects for a century and it wasnt only the first use of trickery in cinema, it was also the first type of photographic trickery only possible in a motion picture, i. e. the stop trick. Georges Méliès accidentally discovered the same stop trick, according to Méliès, his camera jammed while filming a street scene in Paris. When he screened the film, he found that the trick had caused a truck to turn into a hearse, pedestrians to change direction. Because of his ability to manipulate and transform reality with the cinematograph. From 1910 to 1920, the innovations in special effects were the improvements on the matte shot by Norman Dawn. With the original matte shot, pieces of cardboard were placed to block the exposure of the film, Dawn combined this technique with the glass shot. Rather than using cardboard to block certain areas of the film exposure, from the partially exposed film, a single frame is then projected onto an easel, where the matte is then drawn
10.
Superman (1978 film)
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Superman is a 1978 superhero film directed by Richard Donner and based on the DC Comics character of the same name. The film is a British, Swiss, Panamanian and American joint venture, Film Export A. G. Dovemead Limited and International Film Productions. Superman stars Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Glenn Ford, Phyllis Thaxter, Jackie Cooper, Trevor Howard, Marc McClure, Terence Stamp, Valerie Perrine, and Ned Beatty. The film depicts Supermans origin, including his infancy as Kal-El of Krypton, Disguised as reporter Clark Kent, he adopts a mild-mannered disposition in Metropolis and develops a romance with Lois Lane, while battling the villainous Lex Luthor. Several directors, most notably Guy Hamilton, and screenwriters, were associated with the project before Richard Donner was hired to direct, Tom Mankiewicz was drafted in to rewrite the script and was given a creative consultant credit. It was decided to film both Superman and its sequel Superman II simultaneously, with principal photography beginning in March 1977 and ending in October 1978. Tensions arose between Donner and the producers, and a decision was made to stop filming the sequel, of which 75 percent had already been completed, and finish the first film. It was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Film Editing, Best Music, and Best Sound Mixing, groundbreaking in its use of special effects and science fiction/fantasy storytelling, the films legacy presaged the mainstream popularity of Hollywoods superhero film franchises. On the planet Krypton, using evidence provided by scientist Jor-El, the Council sentences attempted insurrectionists General Zod, Ursa, for this, Zod swears revenge on Jor-El and his family. Jor-El, despite his eminence, is unable to convince the Council that Krypton will soon be destroyed when its red supergiant sun goes supernova. To save his infant son, Kal-El, Jor-El launches a spacecraft containing him toward Earth, shortly after the launch, Kryptons sun explodes, destroying the planet. The ship crash lands on Earth near Smallville, Kansas, Kal-El, who is now three years old, is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who are astonished when he is able to lift their truck. They take him to their farm and raise him as their own, at 18, soon after Jonathans death due to a heart attack, Clark hears a psychic call and discovers a glowing crystal in the remains of his spacecraft. It compels him to travel to the Arctic, where the crystal builds the Fortress of Solitude, inside, a holographic vision of Jor-El appears and explains Clarks origins, educating him on his powers and responsibilities. He meets and develops a romantic attraction to co-worker Lois Lane. Clark also rescues Air Force One after a strike destroys the port outboard engine. He visits Lois at her home the night and takes her for a flight over the city. Meanwhile, criminal genius Lex Luthor has developed a plan to make a fortune in real estate by buying large amounts of barren desert land, after learning that the U. S Army and U. S
11.
The Hollywood Reporter
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Headquartered in Los Angeles, THR is part of the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, a group of properties that includes Billboard and SpinMedia. It is owned by Eldridge Industries, a company owned by an executive of its previous owner. Under Janice Min, a faltering THR was relaunched in 2010 as a weekly print magazine with a revamped, continuously updated website, as well as mobile. THR was founded in 1930 by William R, billy Wilkerson as Hollywoods first daily entertainment trade newspaper. The first edition appeared on September 3,1930, and featured Wilkersons front-page Tradeviews column, the newspaper appeared Monday to Saturday for the first 10 years, except for a brief period, then Monday to Friday from 1940. Wilkerson ran the THR until his death in September 1962, although his final column appeared 18 months prior, from the late 1930s, Wilkerson used THR to push the view that the industry was a communist stronghold. In particular, he opposed the screenplay writers trade union, the Screen Writers Guild, in 1946 the Guild considered creating an American Authors Authority to hold copyright for writers, instead of ownership passing to the studios. Wilkerson devoted his Tradeviews column to the issue on July 29,1946 and he went to confession before publishing it, knowing the damage it would cause, but was apparently encouraged by the priest to go ahead with it. The column contained the first industry names, including Dalton Trumbo and Howard Koch, on became the Hollywood blacklist. Eight of the 11 people Wilkerson named were among the Hollywood Ten who were blacklisted after hearings in 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1997 THR reporter David Robb wrote a story about the newspapers involvement, for the blacklists 65th anniversary in 2012, the THR published a lengthy investigative piece about Wilkersons role, by reporters Gary Baum and Daniel Miller. The same edition carried an apology from Wilkersons son, W. R. Wilkerson III and he wrote that his father had been motivated by revenge for his thwarted ambition to own a studio. Wilkersons wife, Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, took over as publisher and she sold the paper on April 11,1988, to Affiliated Publications, parent company of Billboard Publications, for $26.7 million. Robert J. Dowling became THR president in 1988 and editor-in-chief, Dowling brought in Alex Ben Block as editor in 1990, and editorial quality of both news and specials steadily improved. Block and Teri Ritzer dampened much of the coverage and cronyism that had infected the paper under Wilkerson. After Block left, former editor at Variety, Anita Busch, was brought in as editor between 1999 and 2001. Busch was credited with making the paper competitive with Variety, tony Uphoff assumed the publisher position in November 2005. Uphoff was replaced in October 2006 by John Kilcullen, the publisher of Billboard, Kilcullen was a defendant in Billboards infamous dildo lawsuit, in which he was accused of race discrimination and sexual harassment
12.
Industrial Light & Magic
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Industrial Light & Magic is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the production company, Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded. It is also the original company of the animation studio Pixar. ILM originated in Van Nuys, California, then moved to San Rafael in 1978. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired ILM as part of its purchase of Lucasfilm, Lucas wanted his 1977 film Star Wars to include visual effects that had never been seen on film before. After discovering that the effects department at 20th Century Fox was no longer operational, Lucas approached Douglas Trumbull, famous for the effects on 2001. Trumbull declined as he was committed to working on Steven Spielbergs film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Dykstra brought together a team of college students, artists, and engineers. Lucas named the group Industrial Light and Magic, which became the Special Visual Effects department on Star Wars. Alongside Dykstra, other leading members of the original ILM team were Ken Ralston, Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Joe Johnston, Phil Tippett, Steve Gawley, Lorne Peterson, and Paul Huston. In late 1978, when in pre-production for The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas reformed most of the team into Industrial Light & Magic in Marin County, the Extra-Terrestrial, *batteries not included, The Abyss, and Flubber, and also provided work for Avatar, alongside Weta Digital. In addition to their work for George Lucas, ILM also collaborates with Steven Spielberg on most films that he directs, Dennis Muren has acted as Visual Effects Supervisor on many of these films. After the success of the first Star Wars movie, Lucas became interested in using computer graphics on the sequel. So he contacted Triple-I, known for their early computer effects in movies like Westworld and Futureworld and he found it to be too expensive and returned to handmade models. But the test had showed him it was possible, and he decided he would create his own computer graphics department instead, one of Lucas employees was given the task to find the right people to hire. His search would lead him to NYIT, where he found Edwin Catmull, Catmull and others accepted Lucas job offer, and a new computer division at ILM was created in 1979 with the hiring of Ed Catmull as the first NYIT employee who joined Lucasfilm. John Lasseter, who was hired a few later, worked on computer animation as part of ILMs contribution to Young Sherlock Holmes. The Graphics Group was later sold to Steve Jobs, named Pixar, in 2000, ILM created the OpenEXR format for high-dynamic-range imaging
