22/09/2016
The Spielberg story: Thursday's Motivation
Spielberg is one of the all time great motion picture directors. He dreamed of being a movie director from childhood. He began making amateur films with a primitive camera when he was still a child, and the dream never subsided.
How Spielberg broke into Universal Studios is a legend in the movie industry. He took the studio tour and during the tour sneaked off the train. He hid behind two sound stages until the tour ended. When he left at the end of the day, he made a point of saying a few words to gate guard.
Day after day, he went back to the studio for three months. He walked past the guard, waved at him and he waved back. He always wore a suit and a carried a briefcase, letting the guard assume he was one of the students with a summer job. He made a point of befriending writers, directors, editors. He even found a vacant office, took it over and listed his name in the directory.
He made it his business to get to know Sid Shienberg, then head of production for the studio’s TV arm. He showed his college film project , which so impressed Shienberg that he put the young man under contract.
His first feature film was highly acclaimed critically but overall was a failure in the box office. This did not stop him when aiming to direct Jaws. Jaws had already been cast with a high profile director, but Steven was eager to get the part. He convinced the producers to choose him as the director. Jaws had technical issues and budget problems. Overall this did not stop from being a success in two avenues. The box office release broke records and critics loved it as well. It took an unheard of 60 million at that time. Over the next years he directed many other Films. When he and two other hollywood moguls created their own company they chose to call it “Dreamworks”. Keep chasing your dreams.
