It is no secret that I am a fan of Star Wars. I’m not a fanatic or anything like that. I would never go to a convention or name my children after a character from the series. I cannot tell you the name of the ship Luke used to get to whatever planet he was on when he met Yoda for the first time. But I can tell you that I’ve seen all six movies numerous times and that my favorite one in the series is The Empire Strikes Back because it has all the best lines.
My love of the Star Wars began with my parents. I basically grew up watching the saga. When I was a child, I was blown away by the special effects in the movies. But as I grew older, I became less and less impressed by them. As a teenager I found them laughable. By then the industry of special effects was just beginning to hit its stride. Images that were once impossible to produce are now right there in front of us on the screen. Effects that were reserved only for the movies with the biggest budgets are now seen every day on cable TV.
I shared this view point with my mother. I asked her how she could have ever thought that the effects in A New Hope were anything but ridiculous. She told me I just didn’t understand. It was 1977 and they had never seen anything like it before. In the opening scene when the star destroyer flies overhead, it left them all in awe. She said she felt bad that I would never get to experience that rush of excitement at the movies because I have become almost indifferent to special effects. I just expect them to be there and to be amazing. My parents watched the slow evolution of special effects over the past decades, seeing them become more refined and impressive.
Should I feel as if I have been spoiled? I do get to experience all the amazing advances in movie technology without first having to deal with its primitive beginnings. Or should I be jealous that my parents got watch the evolution special effects first hand?
I appreciate your being open to this consideration, Jamie! I was there too to see the first Star Wars movie, and I came out of it knowing that the movie industry was going to change. I was 21. But I'd also seen special effects before, and I knew they were special effects, just like your parents did. I remember a beating heart in a castle in one of the Sindbad the Sailor movies, and there was an army of animated skeletons in it, too. How did they do that??? I wondered, and marveled.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I do envy your generation is the easy access to quality tools for making movies. It's not hard to do, but so many things are out there to distract people, that they don't try to do the work themselves.