Posted
on December 18, 2015
At
age 12, a Boy Scout wanted to earn the photography merit badge. But
his dad's camera was broken! What's a kid to do?
Young
Steven Spielberg (born on this date in 1946) realized that, although
his dad's still camera was broken, his dad also had a movie
camera.
Spielberg asked the Scoutmaster if he could make a movie in
order to earn the badge, and he was given permission to do so.
So
pre-teen Spielberg made an 8mm Western called The Last Gunfight.
He earned his badge and went on to making other amateur movies when
he was 13 and 14 and...
Spielberg
was born in Ohio, had lived in New Jersey and Arizona, and eventually
California. As soon as he graduated from high school, Spielberg moved
to Los Angeles. He wanted to become a movie director, and he applied
to USC's film school (one of the most prestigious in the world). But
he was turned down for his mediocre grades at high school. So he went
to Cal State Long Beach instead.
But
Spielberg also took a small, unpaid intern job at Universal Studios.
And he took every opportunity to keep making films. One of his films
was seen by Universal Studios vice president Sidney Sheinberg – and
Sheinberg was impressed!
Sheinberg
did a very rare thing: he offered Spielberg a seven-year directing
contract. Suddenly, Spielberg became the youngest director EVER to be
signed for a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio.
Spielberg
dropped out of college and started to work professionally for
Universal.
Was
the Universal Studio executive's hunch right to sign Spielberg? Was
Spielberg right to drop out of college?
Here
are some of Spielberg's movies:
- Jaws
- Close
Encounters of the Third Kind
- Raiders
of the Lost Ark
- E.T.
The Extra-Terrestrial
- Poltergeist
- The
Twilight Zone
- The
Goonies
- Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom
- Gremlins
- The
Color Purple
- Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade
- Hook
- Jurassic
Park
- Schindler's
List
- Saving
Private Ryan
- Catch
Me If You Can
- War
of the Worlds
- Indiana
Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Lincoln
- Bridge
of Spies
- True
Grit
- Jurassic
World
- Men
in Black
- and,
honestly, too many others to list!
To
sum up, Steven Spielberg is one of the most popular and influential
directors and producers in movie history! He is one of the
co-founders of DreamWorks Studios, he has won Academy Awards for Best
Director and Best Picture, and he is a billionaire!!
Here
are a few things I found interesting about Spielberg's story:
Spielberg
always loved the movies, and he particularly loved James Bond
movies. He asked Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli if he could direct
a Bond film, and he was turned down because he didn't have enough
experience. So Spielberg got more experience and then asked again if
he could direct a Bond film.
At that point, Spielberg's films
were super popular and making money like crazy. So Broccoli again
turned Spielberg down, this time saying he couldn't afford him.
Spielberg
is really generous. He has a cool collection of movie items, but he
has purchased several Oscar statues that he then donated to the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in an effort to preserve
film history. Also, he donated any earnings he made from his
Oscar-winning, highly-acclaimed film Schindler's List – including
any future profits from the film – to the Shoah Foundation, an
organization dedicated to preserving and promoting visual history
and education, including filmed interviews with survivors and
witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides.
Spielberg
has made some pretty sweet, even heart-warming movies about aliens,
which I really appreciate - because so many movies featuring aliens
before Spielberg came along were all about the horror and violence
of such contacts! But Spielberg has also created a lot of super sad
movies, horror movies, scary movies!
I didn't realize that
Spielberg cared enough about his young viewers that he helped to
create the PG-13 rating to tip people off if a movie might be too
upsetting for younger kids.
Like
me, Spielberg hates coffee and never drinks the vile stuff! We are a
rarity among adults in America, though!
Even
though Spielberg dropped out of college in order to start his dream
profession, he did end up slowly finishing his degree through an
independent projects program. In 2002, he was awarded a B.A. in film
production.
Of course, he has also received an honorary
degree from Brown University and from Boston University.
Spielberg
apparently suffered from dyslexia, which is a general term for
disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read. That may be
one reason he is such a proponent of visual education. Many, many
people learn more easily through audio-visual materials such as
movies and video games than they do through reading.
Also
on this date:
Answer
the Phone Like Buddy the Elf Day
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