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.
Filmmaking
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Filmmaking is the process of making a film. Filmmaking takes place in places around the world in a range of economic, social, and political contexts. Typically, it involves a number of people, and can take from a few months to several years to complete. Film production consists of five stages, Development, The first stage in which the ideas for the film are created, rights to books/plays are bought etc. Financing for the project has to be sought and greenlit, pre-production, Preparations are made for the shoot, in which cast and film crew are hired, locations are selected and sets are built. Production, The raw elements for the film are recorded during the film shoot, post-production, The images, sound, and visual effects of the recorded film are edited. Distribution, The finished film is distributed and screened in cinemas and released to home video. In this stage, the project producer selects a story, which may come from a book, play, another film, true story, video game, comic book, graphic novel, or an original idea, etc. After identifying a theme or underlying message, the works with writers to prepare a synopsis. Next they produce an outline, which breaks the story down into one-paragraph scenes that concentrate on dramatic structure. Then, they prepare a treatment, a 25-to-30-page description of the story, its mood and this usually has little dialogue and stage direction, but often contains drawings that help visualize key points. Another way is to produce a scriptment once a synopsis is produced, next, a screenwriter writes a screenplay over a period of several months. The screenwriter may rewrite it several times to improve dramatization, clarity, structure, characters, dialogue, however, producers often skip the previous steps and develop submitted screenplays which investors, studios, and other interested parties assess through a process called script coverage. A film distributor may be contacted at a stage to assess the likely market. All these factors imply a certain appeal of the film to a possible audience, not all films make a profit from the theatrical release alone, so film companies take DVD sales and worldwide distribution rights into account. The producer and screenwriter prepare a film pitch, or treatment and they will also pitch the film to actors and directors in order to attach them to the project. Many projects fail to move beyond this stage and enter so-called development hell, if a pitch succeeds, a film receives a green light, meaning someone offers financial backing, typically a major film studio, film council, or independent investor. The parties involved negotiate a deal and sign contracts, once all parties have met and the deal has been set, the film may proceed into the pre-production period
3.
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
4.
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
5.
Lucasfilm
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LLC is an American film and television production company based in the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco, California. The studio is best known for creating and producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects, sound and computer animation for film. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in San Rafael, California, the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 at a valuation of $4.06 billion. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971, and incorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. on September 12,1977, on July 8,2005, Lucasfilms marketing, online, and licensing units moved into the new Letterman Digital Arts Center located in the Presidio in San Francisco. It shares the complex with Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm had planned an expansion at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California, but shelved the plan in 2012 due to opposition from neighbors. However, it plans to expand elsewhere. Skywalker Sound remains the only Lucasfilm division based at Skywalker Ranch, in January 2012, Lucas announced his retirement from producing large-scale blockbuster films and instead re-focusing his career on smaller, independently budgeted features. She would in June 2013 and is now chairperson of Lucasfilm, on September 5,2012, Micheline Chau, who served as president and COO of Lucasfilm for two decades, announced that she was retiring. With her departure, senior executives for each of the Lucasfilm divisions will report directly to Kathleen Kennedy, Chau was credited with keeping the Lucasfilm and Star Wars brands strong, especially through animation spin-offs and licensing initiatives. Lucas told Iger he was considering retirement and planned to sell the company, on October 30,2012, Disney announced a deal to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, with approximately half in cash and half in shares of Disney stock. Kathleen Kennedy, co-chairman of Lucasfilm, became president of Lucasfilm, additionally she serves as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disneys global lines of business to build, further integrate, and maximize the value of this global franchise. Kennedy serves as producer on new Star Wars feature films, with George Lucas originally announced as serving as creative consultant, the company also announced the future release of new Star Wars films, starting with Star Wars, The Force Awakens in 2015. Disney also acquired Lucasfilms portfolio of entertainment technologies, the intent was for Lucasfilm employees to remain in their current locations. Star Wars merchandising would begin under Disney in the fiscal year 2014, starting with Star Wars Rebels, certain products will be co-branded with the Disney brand, akin to what Disney has done with Pixar. On December 4,2012, the Disney-Lucasfilm merger was approved by the Federal Trade Commission, on December 18,2012, Lucasfilm Ltd. was reincorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, and on December 21,2012, the deal was announced to be completed, in April 2013, the development arm of the LucasArts division was closed down and most of its staff was laid off. However, LucasArts remained open with a staff of fewer than ten employees so it could retain its function as a video game licensor. On May 6,2013, Disney announced a deal with Electronic Arts to produce Star Wars games for the core gaming market
6.
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
7.
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
8.
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
9.
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
10.
Stan Winston
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Stanley Stan Winston was an American television and film special make-up effects creator. He was best known for his work in the Terminator series and he won four Academy Awards for his work. Winston, a frequent collaborator with director James Cameron, owned several effects studios, the established areas of expertise for Winston were in makeup, puppets and practical effects, but he had recently expanded his studio to encompass digital effects as well. Winston was born on April 7,1946, in Arlington, Virginia to a Jewish family and he studied painting and sculpture at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville from which he graduated in 1968. In 1969, after attending California State University, Long Beach, struggling to find an acting job, he began a makeup apprenticeship at Walt Disney Studios. In 1972, Winston established his own company, Stan Winston Studio, over the next seven years, Winston continued to receive Emmy Award nominations for work on projects and won another for 1974s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Winston also created the Wookiee costumes for the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, in 1978 Winston was the Special Make-up Designer for The Wiz. In 1982, Winston received his first Oscar nomination for Heartbeeps, however, it was his ground-breaking work with Rob Bottin on his update of the science fiction horror classic The Thing that year that brought him to prominence in Hollywood. Between then, he contributed some visual effects to Friday the 13th Part III, in 1983, Winston designed the Mr. Roboto facemask for the American rock group Styx. In 1983 he also worked on the television series Manimal, for which he created the panther. Winston reached a new level of fame in 1984 when James Camerons The Terminator premiered, the movie was a surprise hit, and Winstons work in bringing the titular metallic killing machine to life led to many new projects and additional collaborations with Cameron. In fact, Winston won his first Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1986 on James Camerons next movie, in 1988, Winston made his directorial debut with the horror movie Pumpkinhead, and won Best First Time Director at the Paris Film Festival. His next directing project was the child-friendly A Gnome Named Gnorm, James Cameron drafted Winston and his team once again in 1990, this time for Terminator 2, Judgment Day. T2 premiered in the summer of 1991, and Winstons work on box office hit won him two more Oscars for Best Makeup Effects and Best Visual Effects. Winston turned his attention from super villains and cyborgs to dinosaurs when Steven Spielberg enlisted his help to bring Michael Crichtons Jurassic Park to the cinema screen, in 1993, the movie became a blockbuster and Winston won another Oscar for Best Visual Effects. In 1993, Winston, Cameron and ex-ILM General Manager Scott Ross co-founded Digital Domain, in 1998, after the box office success of Titanic, Cameron and Winston severed their working relationship with the company and resigned from its board of directors. Winston and his continued to provide effects work for many more films. One of Winstons most ambitious projects was Steven Spielbergs AI, Artificial Intelligence
11.
Richard Donner
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Richard Donner is an American film director and producer. After directing the horror film The Omen, Donner became famous for directing the first modern film, Superman. Donner later went on to such films such as The Goonies and Scrooged, while reinvigorating the buddy film genre with Lethal Weapon. He and his wife, producer Lauren Shuler Donner, own the production company The Donners Company, in 2000, he received the Presidents Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Film historian Michael Barson writes that Donner is one of Hollywoods most reliable makers of action blockbusters, Donner was born Richard Donald Schwartzberg in the Bronx, to Jewish parents, Hattie and Fred Schwartzberg. His father owned a furniture manufacturing business. Donner started his career with hopes of acting but quickly moved into directing commercials and he moved into television in the late 1950s, directing some episodes of the Steve McQueen western serial Wanted, Dead or Alive and the Chuck Connors western The Rifleman. In his early career as a director he worked on TV commercials and over twenty-five television series including Have Gun Will Travel, The Fugitive, get Smart, The Man from U. N. C. L. E. The Wild Wild West, Gilligans Island, Kojak, Tales from the Crypt and The Twilight Zone, Donner directed his first feature film in 1961, X-15, which starred Charles Bronson and Mary Tyler Moore. It was not until seven years later, however, that he directed his film, Salt and Pepper, with Sammy Davis Jr. His break-through film was The Omen, a supernatural thriller made in the wake of the success obtained by The Exorcist, the film stars Gregory Peck, David Warner and Lee Remick. It became the fifth highest-grossing movie of 1976, in 1978, Donner directed Superman, The Movie, starring Christopher Reeve in the title role. The film became a hit worldwide, projecting both Reeve and Donner to international fame, co-stars included Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, Marlon Brando as Jor-El and Gene Hackman as archvillain Lex Luthor. It succeeded at the box office, grossing $134 million domestically, principal photography of Superman included filming of its first sequel, Superman II. Donner filmed most of Superman II with the expectation he would complete the sequel after the release of Superman, despite the first films success, Donner was fired from Superman II. Throughout the filming of Superman and Superman II, Donner had a relationship with executive producers Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind. Following Donners dismissal, Marlon Brandos scenes were removed from Superman II, Gene Hackman refused to return for re-shoots, consequently, all the Lex Luthor scenes that appear in Superman II were filmed by Donner, although Donner received no onscreen credit for directing. Rotten Tomatoes summary states that Superman II meets, if not exceeds, Donner continued to promote the view his contribution was superior to rest of the series
12.
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
13.
Dennis Muren
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Dennis Muren, A. S. C is an American film special effects artist & supervisor, most notable for his work on the films of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and George Lucas. He has won nine Oscars in total, eight for Best Visual Effects, Muren was born in Glendale, California, the son of Charline Louise and Elmer Ernest Muren. He developed an interest in film-making and special effects from an early age, while studying business at Pasadena City College, Muren spent $6500 to make Equinox, a short science fiction film. Tonylyn Productions, a film company, liked the film enough to distribute it. Tonylyn hired film editor Jack Woods to direct additional footage in order to make Equinox into a feature-length movie, when the feature-length Equinox was released in October 1970, Muren was credited as a producer in spite of having directed much of the film and creating the special effects himself. Despite mixed to poor reviews the movie made money for Muren to recoup his $8000 investment. After earning his associates degree, Muren began working as an effects artist full-time. In 1976, Muren was hired at Industrial Light & Magic, Lucas and ILMs first film, Star Wars, was released in 1977 to wide critical and public acclaim and was the highest-grossing film of all time up until that point. Muren has been an important voice for pioneering new technologies in special effects, Muren spearheaded ILMs move from models and miniatures to CGI for the film Terminator 2, Judgment Day. Muren, along with Steve Williams and Mark Dippé, helped to usher in a new age of computer generated imagery with the CG dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg had intended to use go-motion for the dinosaurs, Jurassic Park was the breakthrough that convinced George Lucas that technology had advanced enough to make the Star Wars prequels. Director Peter Jackson was similarly inspired by Jurassic Parks technical breakthrough to begin planning and pre-production on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Muren also contributed effects work on two Jurassic Park sequels, The Lost World, Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. In June 1999, Muren was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and he has also been a recipient of nine Academy Awards for Best Achievement in Visual Effects and a Technical Achievement Academy Award, the most of any living movie-maker. Muren continues to work as Senior Visual Effects Supervisor and Creative Director of Industrial Light & Magic, currently he is taking time off to author a book on visual effects. His most recent project was War of the Worlds, in which he led a team to create complex effects in a span of three months. He has a small, non-speaking role in Raiders of the Lost Ark, due to their similarity in facial appearance, this character is often mistaken for Major Toht, the films primary antagonist, but it has been confirmed that they are not the same. Muren also has a cameo in the theme park attraction, Star Tours, dennis is married to British documentary filmmaker of Dream of The Sea Ranch and landscape architect Zara Muren, and they have two children together. †The award was a Special Achievement Award instead of a competitive award, dennis Muren at the Internet Movie Database Starwars. com
14.
Rick Baker
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Richard A. Rick Baker is an American special make-up effects creator, make-up artist, and special effects supervisor, mostly known for his creature effects, he was also a creature designer. Baker won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling a record seven times from a record eleven nominations, Baker was born in Binghamton, New York, to Doris and Ralph B. He is married and has two daughters, as a teen, Baker began creating artificial body parts in his own kitchen. He also appeared briefly in the fan production The Night Turkey, bakers first professional job was as an assistant to prosthetic makeup effects veteran Dick Smith on the film The Exorcist. Baker received the inaugural Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for his work on An American Werewolf in London and he also created the werecat creature Michael Jackson transforms into in the music video Thriller. Subsequently, Baker has been nominated for the Best Makeup Oscar ten more times, winning on seven occasions and he was married to Elaine Melba Parkyn for ten years. Baker claims that his work on Harry and the Hendersons is one of his proudest achievements, on October 3,2009, he received the Jack Pierce – Lifetime Achievement Award title of the Chiller-Eyegore Awards. He was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Academy of Art University San Francisco in 2008 and he also contributes commentaries to the web series Trailers From Hell for trailers about horror and science fiction films. Baker received the 2485th star of the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 30,2012, the star is located in front of the Guinness World Records Museum. Baker announced his retirement on May 28,2015, First of all and its also starting to take away the makeup part. The time is right, I am 64 years old, I like to do things right, and they wanted cheap and fast. That is not what I want to do, so I just decided it is time to get out. I would consider designing and consulting on something, but I don’t think I will have a working studio anymore. Baker played the role in the 1976 remake of King Kong. In the 2005 remake, he had a cameo as the pilot and gunner who shot down Kong. A
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Roger Deakins
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Roger Alexander Deakins, CBE, ASC, BSC is an English cinematographer best known for his work on the films of the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve. Deakins is a member of both the American and British Society of Cinematographers and he received the 2011 American Society of Cinematographers Lifetime Achievement Award. Deakins has received thirteen nominations for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Deakins was born in Torquay in the English county of Devon, the son of Josephine, an actress, and William Albert Deakins, a builder. He attended Torquay Boys Grammar School, while growing up in Torquay, Deakins spent most of his time in and out of school focusing on his primary interest, painting. Several years later he enrolled in the Bath School of Art, while studying in Bath, he discovered his love of photography. He proved to be a talented photographer, and this led to his being hired to create a photographic documentary of his home town. About a year later, Deakins transferred to the National Film, shortly after graduating, Deakins found work as a cameraman, assisting in the production of documentaries in various locations abroad for approximately seven years. During this seven-year stint, his first project involved a trip as one of the entrants of a round-the-world yacht race called Around the World with Ridgeway. This project captured the lives and growing tensions between several of the yachts crewmen, Deakins received high praise for his work out at sea showing the parallels between these teammates and shipmates. After completing Around the World with Ridgeway, Deakins was immediately hired by studios to film several documentaries in Africa. His first, Zimbabwe, was a powerful and informative depiction of the genocide that had been going on there and his second, Eritrea – Behind Enemy Lines, was another depiction of conflict, this time within the borders of Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti. From the time of his work in Africa until the early 1980s, Deakins continued his cinematographic and his early work as both a director and cinematographer of music videos including a lot of the early Madness videos. Carl Perkins Blue Suede Shoes and the concert film Van Morrison in Ireland, subsequently, he worked on Towers of Babel, Sid and Nancy, The Kitchen Toto, and Pascalis Island. Deakins first feature film in America as cinematographer was Mountains of the Moon and he began his collaboration with the Coen brothers in 1991 on the film Barton Fink. Since then, Deakins has been the Coens main cinematic collaborator and has been their principal cinematographer, the U. S. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures honored him with an award for Career Achievement in Cinematography in 2007. In 2008, Deakins became the first cinematographer in history to receive dual ASC nominations for his works The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, the latter won the BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography and he received Academy Award nominations for both films. In 2009, he was double-nominated for the ASC Award again for Revolutionary Road, in 2011 he was nominated again for his work on True Grit and also received an ASC Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2012 he won another ASC Award for outstanding achievement in cinematography for his work on Skyfall, his ninth ASC Award nomination, Deakins signed on as cinematographer for Skyfall, having previously worked with director Sam Mendes on Jarhead and Revolutionary Road
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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
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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
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Douglas Trumbull
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Douglas Huntley Trumbull is an American film director, special effects supervisor, and inventor. Douglas was born in Los Angeles and he is the son of Donald Trumbull who created visual effects for the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz as well as later movies including Silent Running and Star Wars. Douglas Trumbulls early work was at Graphic Films in Los Angeles, the small animation and graphic arts studio produced a film called To the Moon and Beyond about spaceflight for the 1964 New York Worlds Fair. Trumbull, the son of an engineer and an artist, worked at Graphic Films as an illustrator. The spaceflight film caught the attention of director Stanley Kubrick, Kubrick hired director Con Pederson from Graphic Films, and Trumbull then cold-called Kubrick after obtaining the directors home phone number from Pederson. Kubrick hired Trumbull for the production of 2001, A Space Odyssey, Trumbulls first task was to create the dozens of animations seen in the data display screens in the Aries moon shuttle and the Discovery. They looked like computer graphics, but they were created by photographing and animating reproductions of charts, Trumbull initially created the shots using a number of Rube Goldberg-like contraptions he built with gears and motors ordered from a scientific equipment supply house. Kubrick gave the effects technician creative freedom and encouragement, He would say. What do you need to do it, and I would have complete carte blanche, which was wild as a young guy, Trumbull recalled. I was 23–24 when I started the movie, and was 25 by the time I was doing the Star Gate and he would say, What do you need. And Id say, Well, I need to go into town and buy some weird bearings and some stuff and he would send me off to town in his Bentley, with a driver, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We were struggling with the Star Gate, although Trumbulls association with Kubrick was a huge boost for his career, he swore afterwards that he would never work for someone else again, in part because Kubrick was a hell of a taskmaster. His level of quality-control bordered on perfectionism, Trumbull was often incorrectly credited in print as being the sole special-effects creator for 2001. Whenever this happened, he received a call shortly thereafter from an irritated Kubrick. Though this created a relationship for many years, Trumbull said after Kubricks death that Kubrick was a genius. In 1969 Trumbull was filming the annual Flying Saucer Convention in Giant Rock California and this evolved into a full length project initially called Giant Rock, Rutabaga Deluxe, and then Saturation 70, An Ecological Horror Fantasy. The star of the film was a five year old Jason Jones, some footage includes a battle with a Green Beret and a Viet Cong in a supermarket. Trumbulls partner on the film was Anthony Foutz, a company called Dimension V took over backing of the film
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Walter Murch
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Walter Scott Murch is an American film editor and sound designer. Murch was born in New York City, New York, the son of Katharine and Canadian-born Walter Tandy Murch, as a boy, he began to experiment with sound recording, taping unusual sounds and layering them into new combinations. He attended The Collegiate School, a preparatory school in Manhattan. In the summer of 1961 he worked as a music librarian and he assisted with the July 29th 1961 live broadcast of a 12-hour folk music Hootenanny produced by Izzy Young. This featured, among other acts, the first radio performance of the 20-year-old Bob Dylan. Murch then attended Johns Hopkins University from 1961 to 1965, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in Liberal Arts, Murch spent the university school year 1963-1964 in Europe, studying Romance Languages and the History of Art in Italy at Perugia and in France at the Sorbonne. While at Johns Hopkins, he met future director/screenwriter Matthew Robbins and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, in 1965, Murch and Robbins enrolled in the graduate program of the University of Southern Californias film school, encouraging Deschanel to follow them. Not long after school, in 1969, Murch, Lucas. Murch and his family settled in Bolinas, California, in 1972, Murch started editing and mixing sound with Francis Ford Coppolas The Rain People. Murch also mixed the sound for Coppolas The Godfather Part II which was released in 1974 and he did sound design work on Apocalypse Now, for which he won his first Academy Award in 1979. In 1985 he directed his own film, Return to Oz, Murch edits in a standing position, comparing the process of film editing to conducting, brain surgery and short-order cooking, since all conductors, cooks and surgeons stand when they work. In contrast, when writing, he does so lying down, Murch has written one book on film editing, In the Blink of an Eye, which has been translated into many languages including Chinese, Italian, Hebrew, Spanish, French, German and Hungarian. Before this, he wrote the foreword to Michel Chions Audio-Vision, in 2007 the documentary Murch premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival, which centered on Murch and his thoughts on filmmaking. In 2012, Murchs translations of stories by the Italian writer Curzio Malaparte were published as The Bird That Swallowed Its Cage. Murch directed just one film in his career, the fantasy Return to Oz in 1985. After the film failed at the box office, he never directed another film again, while he was editing directly on film, Murch took notice of the crude splicing used for the daily rough-cuts. In response, he invented a modification which concealed the splice by using extremely narrow, in 1979, he won an Oscar for the sound mix of Apocalypse Now as well as a nomination for picture editing. The movie was the first multi-channel film to be mixed using a mixing board
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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
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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
