Adam Beckett (1950 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

– 1979 in Val Verde) was an animator, special effects artist and teacher, most notable for his work on ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

''.

Work

Beckett developed a unique technique that involved creating a loop of images that continued to evolve with each loop cycle. In this way a series of drawings, say 12, would be shot, modified and re-shot. So while the final artifacts of the film would amount to only a handful of images, the film itself appears as a growing and expanding abstract loop. This was augmented with phasing of the imagery, changing the area of view, and other sophisticated uses of the

optical printer An optical printer is a device consisting of one or more film projectors mechanically linked to a movie camera. It allows filmmakers to re-photograph one or more strips of film. The optical printer is used for making special effects for motion ...

. He attended the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

from 1970 to 1975 as part of the first class of the Experimental Animation program. While there, he learned from instructors such as

Jules Engel Jules Engel (born Gyula Engel, March 11, 1909 – September 6, 2003) was an American filmmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer, animator, film director, and teacher. He was the founding director of the experimental animation ...

and Pat O'Neill, and worked alongside animators including Kathy Rose and Sky David. In 1974 he began his independent animation company, Infinite Animation, where he continued to produce his own work. In addition to his animation, he taught at CalArts and worked in the film industry, most notably at

ILM Ilm or ILM may refer to: Acronyms * Identity Lifecycle Manager, a Microsoft Server Product * ''I Love Money,'' a TV show on VH1 * Independent Loading Mechanism, a mounting system for CPU sockets * Industrial Light & Magic, an American motion pic ...

, as head of Animation and

Rotoscoping Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and traced ov ...

on ''Star Wars''. He died in 1979 as the result of a

house fire A structure fire is a fire involving the structural components of various types of residential, commercial or industrial buildings, such as barn fires. Residential buildings range from single-family detached homes and townhouses to apartments ...

. His work has been restored by the

iotaCenter The iotaCenter (founded 1994) is a Los Angeles-based cinema and visual media non-profit organization. Overview The iotaCenter is concerned primarily with abstract animation and visual music, as well as the work of west coast experimental filmmake ...

. The

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

has preserved several of Adam Beckett's films, including ''Evolution of the Red Star'', ''Flesh Flows'', ''Heavy Light'', and ''Kitsch in Synch''. His films are distributed by

Canyon Cinema Canyon Cinema is an American nonprofit organization for distributing independent, avant-garde, and artist-made films. After starting in the 1960s as an exhibition program, it grew to include a nationwide newsletter and a distribution cooperative. ...

References

External links

The iotaCenter Adam Beckett preservation project

on

UbuWeb UbuWeb is a web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives. Philosop ...

1950 births 1979 deaths American experimental filmmakers Animators from California Deaths from fire in the United States Special effects people California Institute of the Arts alumni {{US-animator-stub