Dennis Muren began his career by directing and producing his own ultra low budget sci-fi movie -- Equinox -- in 1970. Yet, despite the feature going largely unseen, it represented the start of the filmmaker's decades-long involvement with the genre and, of course, George Lucas in particular. Starting with his work as a cameraman on the original Star Wars in 1977 (he was responsible for shooting the miniature and optical effects) and stretching into every other sequel and prequel, excepting 2005's Revenge of the Sith, Muren quickly became a trusted part of the ILM team. Here's a preview of the interview:
Can you begin by telling us about how you got involved in Star Wars?
I came from the old school of special effects. Prior to Star Wars, everything was based around what you could do with your idea for a shot -- you could not get the money to build anything too complex. The reason for that is simple. People were not making sci-fi movies much before Star Wars. When George began working on Star Wars he needed as many special effects guys as possible. Up until that time there were always two groups of effects people. First of all there were the younger folks like David Tremble, who came from England, and John Dykstra, who worked for him on stuff like Silent Running. That group was using the latest technology to capture these incredible images. They were really pushing new boundaries. I was with the other group that was centred in L.A. Ken Ralston was there and Steve Allen -- and these are the guys who grew up with King Kong and Ray Harryhausen, but they never had any money to do anything. George brought both groups together on Star Wars, which was a very smart decision.
It might have, but I believe the respect also came from the fact that this genre, and using effects in films, never stopped. Usually if you track types of films over the year -- like visual effects movies -- two or three of them might be made in a period of four years, and then nothing happens for 15 years. Many of us thought that this was what would happen with Star Wars -- but the respect from Hollywood comes with money. The fact that people are still doing these movies and still making millions of dollars for the industry -- that is where the respect came from. The awards are nice, but I think it is bigger than that.
The Empire Strikes Back is also a far more colorful movie than Star Wars.
I am so glad that you picked up on that. The color artwork that we got for Empire was so far beyond the first Star Wars effects-wise and in terms of vision. That is what drove us -- how do we do these shots as realistically as possible? At the time we used some new ideas and some old ideas. That film still holds up really well. My goal was for the audience to come out of Empire stunned, turn around and get back in line to watch it all over again. That is what I did when watching Ray Harryhausen's movies.
Read the full interview in Star Wars Insider #104, on sale this week. For a run-down of other content in this issue, see this story here. For more information about Star Wars Insider magazine, visit Titan Magazine's official site here.
