How did Steven Spielberg start making movies?

A world-renowned director and producer whose blockbuster films ushered in a new era in the film industry.

When Steven Spielberg started making movies, the director was still the most important person in Hollywood. Now it is an era when marketing controls the film industry. Yet the fact that he remained the most influential filmmaker in the world during both periods speaks volumes about his genius and adaptability. He has produced many blockbuster movies, and no one has surpassed him to this day. However, in addition to those popular entertainment films for people's entertainment, he also made artistic films such as "The Color Purple" and "Schindler's List". The fusion of entertainment and art produced "Alien", a film that wonderfully blends popular taste with the master's style.

Spielberg’s most important contribution to modern movies is his original idea: if you use the novel techniques of A-level movies to shoot the outdated plots of B-level movies, and then use the latest special effects to enhance the effects, it will be Films can be produced that attract large audiences. Just look at these movies: "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and other Indiana Jones films, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "E.T." and "Jurassic Park." Let’s take a look at the films he produced but didn’t direct: the Back to the Future series, Elf, The Walking Dead, and Twister, all of which have plots that look like Saturday dramas. It is plain and old-fashioned, but the filming technology it uses is the most advanced. More importantly, it achieves the goal that the movie has always promised: to touch the hearts of viewers with some unprecedented touching scenes.

The director will talk about his main intention. These intentions run through their major films as they express their basic views on things. Spielberg once said that his main image was the bright light coming from the doorway in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", which suggested the light and mystery outside. This strong backlighting technique is also used in many of his films: the aliens in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" come out of a strong halo; the spacecraft hatch also overflows with light in "Alien"; Indiana ·Jones often uses a powerful flashlight to shoot a strong and dazzling beam.

In Spielberg's films, mystery is hidden in the light source, but for many other directors, darkness is where the mystery lies. This difference is that Spielberg believes that mystery brings It is hope rather than fear. He clearly developed this tendency while growing up in Phoenix, Arizona. When talking about his childhood, he mentioned such an experience that had a profound impact on him. He said: "When I was a child, my father once took me to watch a meteor shower. He woke me up in the middle of the night. My heart was pounding and I was very scared because I didn't know what he was going to do. He didn't tell me and took me there. The car set off straight away. Later, I saw many people lying on blankets, looking up at the sky. My dad also spread out the blankets, and we also lay down and stared at the sky. It was the first time I saw so many shooting stars. What scared me at the time was being woken up in the middle of the night and not knowing where I was going to be taken, but this spectacular cosmic meteor shower did not scare me, and it also gave me a very peaceful feeling in my heart. From then on, whenever I looked up at the sky, I never thought it was a bad place."

This story contains two important elements: a sense of wonder and hope and identification with the innocence of children. point of view. The best characters Spielberg has created are extensions of his protagonists: bold boys who rise to any challenge. Even Schindler's character takes on this quality: the joy of a young boy who successfully completes a daring plan and then escapes punishment.

It’s not often that the protagonists in Spielberg’s films are mired in intricate emotional entanglements. "Forever" is one of his few failed works. It tells the story of a ghost who watches his girlfriend fall in love with someone else. In typical Spielberg fashion, the protagonist is attracted and inspired to explore. Key scenes in many of his films reveal his own sense of wonder, such as that breathless moment when he first sees a dinosaur in Jurassic Park.

Spielberg's first important feature film was "The Great Escape" in 1974. At that time, some talented directors, such as Scorsese, Altman, Coppola, De Palma and Deep Mank, were dominating Hollywood. Their god is Orson Welles - he made the classic Citizen Kane without any interference from the studios, and they all want to make "the greatest American movie" . But a year later, "The Great White Turtle" changed the historical development direction of modern Hollywood. The unprecedented sensation of "The Great White Turtle" made the big bosses of the film company no longer satisfied with playing it safe. They all wanted to hit a home run. "Baby Turtle" was released in the summer, a period that major studios usually reserved for low-budget ventures. Within a few short years, the Jaws model was all the rage, it became fashionable to run a budget out of control during the production of a film because the revenue seemed endless; summer action movies dominated the movie industry; young hits Directors compete to make "the biggest American movie."

Spielberg is not responsible for this earth-shaking change in the film industry, because "Baby Turtle" just happened to start the trend.

If the shark had sunk as soon as it hit the water (and it was a real possibility at one point due to the difficulties involved in filming), then another movie would have ushered in the era of blockbusters, probably Lucas's "Star Wars." No one knows his own weaknesses better than Spielberg. Once when he was finding fault with his work, he laughed and said a lot: "They said: Oh, Spielberg's shots cut too fast, and the editing The pace is too fast, he likes to use wide-angle lenses, he is not good at photographing women, he is too fancy, he likes to dig a hole in the ground and shoot people, he especially likes to do tricks, and he loves the camera more than the plot. ” p>

These are correct. But there is a much longer list of his virtues, including his ability to reach directly into our subconscious. Spielberg's requirements for film quality are almost demanding. When his films are done well, every aspect of the film works well. When watching "Alien" at the Kansas Film Festival, even the most insensitive filmmaker in the world was made to cry and cheer at other times.

In the history of late 20th century film, Spielberg is one of the most influential figures, both in good ways and in bad ways. In his worse films he relied too much on superficial plots and seemed to play with special effects for their own sake; in his best films he inspired dreams woven from the good nature of people's hearts.