War Time!
On this day in 1977, Star Wars (the absolute original, Episode IV: A New Hope), opened courtesy of 20th Century Fox, and Mr. George Lucas. 20th Century gave $9.5 million to this project because of the success of Lucas' previous film "American Graffiti", in '73. From Tunisia to Death Valley, and Alderaan and the Death Star, a cast of unknown players made a sci-fi epic, epic and legendary.
Released in only 42 theaters originally, Star Wars soon spread across the nation, and globe, profiting $100million by summers' end (2nd only to "Gone With the Wind", if inflation is considered).
From ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), Lucas Ranch, the revival of the sci-fi genre, the mega-inflation of marketing and merchandising, spin-offs, competing films and television shows, and six of ten oscars on Episode IV- there is no doubt about the influence of this film.
So, that's what happened today- thirty-nine years ago- but forever in our minds, imagination, and hearts.
When You're the D.P. on Star Wars...
So, apparently, when you're good at motion picturing, and you work with some dude named J.J. Abrams on some Indy film called "Star Wars: The Force (may have been farce) Awakens" you get custom lenses made for you. Some guy named Dan Mindel (probably works at J.C. Penny's photo center part time) was the Director of Photography (think production assistant) for this star war. Anyway, someone at Panavision, probably an intern who's about to get fired, agreed to create custom lenses just for this dude and his friends so it would look like prequels to this movie. I suppose they're trying to be "cool" and "retro"... hippies. I got bored and stopped after a couple paragraphs, but maybe you can trudge through this article about it. If you fall asleep, I won't blame you. Here it is: http://www.panavision.com/panavision-designs-lenses-mindel-star-wars-force-awakens