John Charles Dykstra, A.S.C. (born June 3, 1947 in Long Beach, California, United States) is a two-time Academy Award-winning special effects supervisor and pioneer in the development of the use of computers in film making. He is married to Cass McCune; their daughter is actress and model Chloe Dykstra.
After studying industrial design at California State University, Long Beach (where he was a member of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity), Dykstra landed a...
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John Charles Dykstra, A.S.C. (born June 3, 1947 in Long Beach, California, United States) is a two-time Academy Award-winning special effects supervisor and pioneer in the development of the use of computers in film making. He is married to Cass McCune; their daughter is actress and model Chloe Dykstra.
After studying industrial design at California State University, Long Beach (where he was a member of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity), Dykstra landed a job working with Douglas Trumbull on Silent Running filming model effects.
When George Lucas was recruiting people for the special effects work on Star Wars, he approached Trumbull who pointed him towards Dykstra. Dykstra led the development at Industrial Light & Magic of the Dykstraflex motion-controlled camera, which was responsible for many of the film's groundbreaking effects. The system was made possible by the availability of off-the-shelf integrated-circuit RAMs at relatively low cost and secondhand VistaVision cameras.
However, there...
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