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| sent from: London, UK. destination: Mill Valley, California, USA |
I don’t want to sound old fogey-ish, but the speed with which the internet has changed our relationship to information is staggering. At some point in the late 80s I had a book – ‘The Art of Special Effects’, all about ILM. It spoke of the ‘secret location’ of the offices, and I imagined its hallowed halls. I don’t know if I pestered my father or if he offered, but he said he could obtain their information. A few weeks later he gave me a piece of paper with a dot matrix print out – Industrial Light and Magic – an address in California, and an impossibly long phone number that meant international. I dreamed of calling it but of course that was out of the question, far too expensive. “Many Bothans died to bring you this information.” Not really, but he made it sound like it was a big deal. My future was on that piece of paper, it felt like secret, sacred knowledge.
Had I called or shown up at that address, I would’ve found an empty space devoid of Industry, Light or Magic – it was the information for their Van Nuys offices that they vacated after Star Wars to move to the Bay Area.
So . . . in 8th grade, I started getting into Star Wars, which led me to the world of special effects. I found the ILM book at the library (I believe the one on the military base in Albuquerque, New Mexico), and that's when I decided I wanted to do whatever it was that they did.
I wrote a letter to “George Lucas” saying that I wanted to work at ILM, and my dad found a fax number. Away went the fax, and then the waiting. Weeks later, I got an envelope with the ILM logo on it, and a letter thanking me for my interest, and with suggestions on where to go to school, what to study, etc. I still have the letter, and we'll see if I still get to work there in the future as well.
Jason