TheDykstras

Dad: Okay. I get to spend a lot more time thinking about how the images impact the story. Before, a significant portion of my work involved inventing devices and processes. So, the advent of the computer is a sword that cuts two ways. It was more fun back then, because we got to ride motorcycles and airplanes, but it's more creative now because we're not limited by the physics of the real world.

Having said that, just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should.

Chloe: What do you mean?

Dad: Well, because filmmakers use computers to create images of action that don't actually fit in with our world's physics.

Chloe: Examples? Like in an action movie?

Dad: Oh god. It's like... Cutting my own throat... Because I worked on a movie with a 600 foot monster with a tail that would be actually supersonic at the tip. And I made a guy jump off a 100 ft building and land on his feet without turning into a puddle of blood and bone.

The key to it is cheating in a way that doesn't make the viewer aware of the cheat.

Chloe: Things heal with time. :) (I hope.)

Chloe: I CAN ANSWER BOTH THESE QUESTIONS. Sorry to usurp, Dad. I was totally just at Skywalker Ranch and met Ben Burtt and actually watched him play the R2D2 sounds on this crazy ass old synthesizer... And it was so specific, all the knobs and dealies, that there was a sign saying "DON'T TOUCH THE SETTINGS, THEY ARE CRUCIAL."

Actually, the other question... Well, maybe I can't really answer that one.

Dad: It was a wooden dowel on a drill motor with strips of front projection material along its length.

You wanna know what front projection material is?

Chloe: Yeah.

Dad: It's retro-reflective screen and it's the reflective material that you see on stop signs and sportswear.

Dad: 0-18? That's tough. The movie I most remember in regards to how it relates to me being in the film business was 2001. That inspired me.

Chloe: Kubrick is my all-time favorite.

Dad: And one of the films in the past ten years is, oddly enough, Boyhood. And visual effects-wise, I thought Gravity and Apes were both great.

Chloe: Now, parties. Talk.

Dad: Yeah, that's Joe. We had... Wild parties.

Chloe: More please.

Mom: At a time when everyone was having wild parties. There were drugs all over Hollywo-

Dad: OH COME ON.

Chloe: (10 minutes of trying to convince Dad to talk)

Dad: Fine. There was no air conditioning on the stages and with the lights they would get to be 120 degrees. We had a hot tub in the parking lot and at some point in the afternoon, there would be a gathering in the hot tub (or the hot/cold tub). And we had an escape slide from a 727.

Chloe: Oh my god. Where did you get that?

Dad: I don't know. Surplus? But... We'd put a little oil on it and run some water down it and it made one hell of a slip'n'slide. ...and it was used at a couple of the parties, too.