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Dykstraflex
The Dykstraflex was the first digital motion control photography camera system, named after its primary developer John Dykstra. Numerous people actually created the camera, with the critical electronics being created by Alvah J. Miller and Jerry Jeffress. The camera was developed in 1976 specifically for complex special effects shots in '' Star Wars''. Using old VistaVision cameras (for their high image resolution), created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954, and hand wire wrapped TTL chips, the all-digitally controlled system allowed for 7 axes of motion: roll, pan, tilt, swing, boom, traverse, track, lens focus, motor drive, shutter control, and their duplication in multiple takes. Dykstra's development of this first digital motion control camera system earned himself, Al Miller, and Jerry Jeffress Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The ...
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John Dykstra
John Charles Dykstra, A.S.C. (; born June 3, 1947) is an American special effects artist, pioneer in the development of the use of computers in filmmaking and recipient of three Academy Awards, among many other awards and prizes. He was one of the original employees of Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects and computer graphics division of Lucasfilm. He is well known as the special effects lead on the original ''Star Wars'', helping bring the original visuals for lightsabers, space battles between X-wings and TIE fighters, and Force powers to the screen. He also led special effects on many other movies, including ''Batman Forever'', '' Batman & Robin'', ''Stuart Little'', '' X-Men: First Class'', ''Spider-Man'' and ''Spider-Man 2''. Education and early career Dykstra was born in Long Beach, California. After studying industrial design at California State University, Long Beach (where he was a member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity), in 1971 he landed a job working with Dougl ...
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Motion Control Photography
Motion control photography is a technique used in Photograph, still and motion photography that enables precise control of, and optionally also allows repetition of, camera movements. It can be used to facilitate special effects photography. The process can involve filming several elements using the same camera motion, and then compositing the elements into a single image. Other effects are often used along with motion control, such as chroma key to aid the compositing. Motion control camera rigs are also used in still photography with or without compositing; for example in Long-exposure photography, long exposures of moving vehicles. Today's computer technology allows the programmed camera movement to be processed, such as having the move scaled up or down for different sized elements. Common applications of this process include shooting with Miniature effect, miniatures, either to composite several miniatures or to composite miniatures with full-scale elements. The process is ...
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Motion Control Photography
Motion control photography is a technique used in Photograph, still and motion photography that enables precise control of, and optionally also allows repetition of, camera movements. It can be used to facilitate special effects photography. The process can involve filming several elements using the same camera motion, and then compositing the elements into a single image. Other effects are often used along with motion control, such as chroma key to aid the compositing. Motion control camera rigs are also used in still photography with or without compositing; for example in Long-exposure photography, long exposures of moving vehicles. Today's computer technology allows the programmed camera movement to be processed, such as having the move scaled up or down for different sized elements. Common applications of this process include shooting with Miniature effect, miniatures, either to composite several miniatures or to composite miniatures with full-scale elements. The process is ...
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Star Wars (film)
''Star Wars'' (retroactively titled ''Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope'') is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas, produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the first film in the '' Star Wars'' film series and fourth chronological chapter of the " Skywalker Saga". Set "a long time ago" in a fictional universe where the galaxy is ruled by the tyrannical Galactic Empire, the story focuses on a group of freedom fighters known as the Rebel Alliance, who aim to destroy the Empire's newest weapon, the Death Star. Luke Skywalker becomes caught in the conflict while learning the ways of a metaphysical power known as "the Force" from Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The cast includes Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew. Lucas had the idea for a science-fiction film in the vein of '' Flash Gordon'' aro ...
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VistaVision
VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954. Paramount never used anamorphic processes such as 2.55: 1, CinemaScope but refined the quality of its flat widescreen system by orienting the 35 mm negative horizontally in the camera gate and shooting onto a big area, which yielded the finer-grained projection print. As finer-grained film stocks appeared on the market, VistaVision became obsolete. Paramount dropped the format just after seven years, although for 40 more years the format was used by some European and Japanese producers for movies, and by USA movies such as the first three ''Star Wars'' films for high-resolution special effects sequences. In many ways, VistaVision became the testing ground for every cinematography idea that evolved into 70 mm IMAX and OMNIMAX film formats in the 1970s. Both IMAX and OMNIMAX are oriented sideways, like Vist ...
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Jerry Jeffress
Jerry may refer to: Animals * Jerry (Grand National winner), racehorse, winner of the 1840 Grand National * Jerry (St Leger winner), racehorse, winner of 1824 St Leger Stakes Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Jerry'' (film), a 2006 Indian film * "Jerry", a song from the album ''Young and Free'' by Rock Goddess * Tom and Jerry (other) People * Jerry (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Harold A. Jerry, Jr. (1920–2001), New York politician * Thomas Jeremiah (d. 1775), commonly known simply as "Jerry", a free Negro in colonial South Carolina Places * Branche à Jerry, a tributary of the Baker River in Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada * Jerry, Washington, a community in the United States Other uses * Jerry (company) * Jerry (WWII), Allied nickname for Germans, originally from WWI but widely used in World War II * Jerry Rescue (1851), involving American slave William Henry, who called himself "Jerry" See also * Geri (disam ...
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Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States (behind Universal Pictures), and the sole member of the Major film studio, "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 24 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo. In 1967, the number of stars was reduced to 22 and their hidden meaning was dropped. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, Motion Picture Associ ...
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Transistor–transistor Logic
Transistor–transistor logic (TTL) is a logic family built from bipolar junction transistors. Its name signifies that transistors perform both the logic function (the first "transistor") and the amplifying function (the second "transistor"), as opposed to earlier resistor–transistor logic (RTL) and diode–transistor logic (DTL). TTL integrated circuits (ICs) were widely used in applications such as computers, industrial controls, test equipment and instrumentation, consumer electronics, and synthesizers. After their introduction in integrated circuit form in 1963 by Sylvania Electric Products, TTL integrated circuits were manufactured by several semiconductor companies. The 7400 series by Texas Instruments became particularly popular. TTL manufacturers offered a wide range of logic gates, flip-flops, counters, and other circuits. Variations of the original TTL circuit design offered higher speed or lower power dissipation to allow design optimization. TTL devices were original ...
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Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment industry worldwide. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements, as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette as a trophy, officially called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more commonly referred to by its nickname, the "Oscar". The statuette, depicting a knight rendered in the Art Deco style, was originally sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley from a design sketch by art director Cedric Gibbons. The 1st Academy Awards were held in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Academy Awards cerem ...
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Movie Cameras
A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either on an image sensor or onto film stock, in order to produce a moving image to project onto a movie screen. In contrast to the still camera, which captures a single image at a time, by way of an intermittent mechanism, the movie camera takes a series of images; each image is a ''frame'' of film. The strips of frames are projected through a movie projector at a specific frame rate (number of frames per second) to show a moving picture. When projected at a given frame rate, the persistence of vision allows the eyes and brain of the viewer to merge the separate frames into a continuous moving picture. History An interesting forerunner to the movie camera was the machine invented by Francis Ronalds at the Kew Observatory in 1845. A photosensitive surface was drawn slowly past the aperture diaphragm of the camera by a clockwork mechanism to e ...
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