When we think of a film director, his name the first name that comes to mind.
He made several of the best and highest-grossing films in history.
He knows how to create great entertainment driven films and also more adult-oriented
dramas.
His name is as a synonym for cinema, and his face is a symbol for American popular culture.
Today, we will talk about the man himself, Steven Spielberg.
Steven Alan Spielberg was born in Cincinatti, Ohio, in 1946.
His father, Arnold Spielberg, was a radio operator during World War II, and worked as
a systems engineer.
Lía, Steven's mother, was a pianist who was also very interested in all types of art.
Both were very important influences in the life and career of young Steven, who as a
young boy had already pretty restless mind.
Because of Arnold's work, the family had to be moving constantly.
In this way, Steven had no time to grow attached to any community or make new friends.
His shy and introverted character didn't help him much either.
While being more in contact with Catholic families in his different schools and neighborhoods,
he was exposed to a strong contrast with his Jewish roots, to the point that he even denied
his own religion.
But at one point during his childhood he found something that would completely change his
world view: cinema.
When he was only 5, he was already obsessed with the movie The Greatest Show on Earth,
directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
From then on, he saw all the films that came out in theaters, especially those of the science
fiction genre, which were very popular during the 1950s.
But the film that influenced him the most was Lawrence of Arabia, directed by David
Lean.
Steven's imagination helped him cope with the discomfort of his daily life.
Incidentally, his stories also captivated his three younger sisters.
But at age 8, he found the definitive way to put his imagination into action.
His father had an 8mm camera that he used to film landscapes when going on a picnic.
On one of those days out, Steven took the camera and filmed everything his family did
during that day.
He learned to operate that new device and did tons of experiments with frame speeds
and stop-motion animation.
At the end, he began inventing little fictional stories.
His first success happened during 1958, when he joined the boy scouts.
To earn a merit badge, he filmed a western-type home movie with his friends.
The result was The Last Gun, which consisted of an armed duel, like the ones he saw on
his favorite Westerns.
He obtained his badge, which would be the first of many recognitions.
But curiously, he never directed a western film again.
Spielberg was very moved by World War II, both from the movies he saw about the subject
and his father's anecdotes.
In 1961, at age 13, he made two short films.
The first one, called Fighter Squad, mixed images of planes in battle with shots done
by Steven of an actor inside the cabin of an airplane.
The young filmmaker moved the camera to give everything a more realistic feeling.
His next film, Escape to Nowhere, had a 40 minute duration and was inspired by a war
episode in East Africa.
Steven's dedication was such, that he even got official military uniforms for his amateur
actors, and even a jeep that ended up being driven by his mother dressed as a soldier.
After finishing Escape to Nowhere, Steven turned back to his favorite genre, which was
science fiction.
In 1964, he directed his most ambitious work to that date and the spark that would turn
Spielberg into a box-office phenomenon.
His new project called Firelight was an independent science-fiction film about an alien invasion,
like the ones he saw in theaters when he was young.
In his film, the Martians abduct people and animals from a small town, in order to create
a giant space zoo.
Steven filmed Firelight in a year, during the weekends.
His parents were responsible for financing the project, while his sister Nancy appeared
as one of the actresses.
A lot of the movie plot included scientists, which would foreshadow some of his later work
in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Additionally, the original version of Firelight was 140 minutes long, making it the director's
first feature film.
And there is another crucial detail: the premiere took place at a Small Theater in Phoenix,
Arizona, where tickets sold for one dollar each.
That day Spielberg made his first box-office profit, earning a total of 501 dollars.
Satisfied with Firelight, Steven took the film reels to a Los Angeles production company,
hoping that the executives would see his material and hire him to work.
Unfortunately, that company went bankrupt a week later, and the director was never able
to retrieve his film.
Because of that trouble, it is only possible to watch a few minutes of his debut film today.
Despite this bad luck, Steven kept dreaming of becoming a part of Hollywood.
During the summer holidays he took a tour at the Universal Studios.
There he met the bookseller Chuck Silvers, who was captivated by his enthusiasm.
It was the beginning of a friendship that spanned decades.
Thanks to Silvers, young Spielberg got a job as an intern at Universal, and in three months
he learned as much as possible from the professionals in each area.
He even slept some nights in a facilities room.
Throughout his childhood and teenage years, Steven was encouraged to follow his filmmaking
dreams by his parents, but to a limited extent.
His father actually wanted him to become an engineer, but Steven hated everything related
to math, which caused some tensions between him and his father.
His mother, however, trusted him and his talent and saw him as a future film director.
Things got more tense when his parents, after years of problems, finally divorced.
This devastated Steven to such an extent, that he ended up incorporating that theme
in many of his future works.
In the late 1960s, the Vietnam War was running its course, and Steven realized they could
recruit him.
To avoid this situation, he chose to study cinema at university.
He sent applications to USC and UCLA, which had a film area where important promises were
being formed.
He was rejected by both because of his low grades, so he had to settle for attending
the less prestigious California State University of Long Beach.
Far from being intimidated, Steven returned to Universal.
His time as an intern ended, but he managed to get inside the studios again with the help
of a security officer.
Once inside, he became strongly involved with several productions, sharing ideas for many
films and programs that Universal was filming.
Rumors said he even got to set up his own office on an empty studio space.
He was determined to be hired as a director, so he stopped showing his previous work to
everyone.
He knew it was time to create a new, more mature and serious creative portfolio.
He first thought about a drama about cycling, which did not prosper due to lack of resources.
But everything changed when he met Denis Hoffman, head of the visual effects company Cinefx.
Steven showed him a script about a couple hitchhiking around the California roads and
received an investment of $ 10,000 to get it done.
The only condition was that the movie should include music from October Country, a band
Hoffman was managing at the time.
The result was Amblin.
Filmed with a 35mm camera and without any dialogue, Amblin had an irresistible freshness
and a spirit that was faithful to the times.
This 26-minute short was shot over the weekends, and had Allen Daviau in the crew, who would
later became a frequent cinematographer in Spielberg's early career.
Amblin was released in 1968 and won the Best Short Film award at the Atlanta Film Festival.
Everyone was impressed with this work, including some executives at Universal.
Chuck Silvers did not only celebrate Steven's short, but also showed it to Sid Sheinberg,
a Hollywood TV executive.
After seeing it, Sheinberg asked to meet the young director, and offered him a seven-year
contract in his company.
He promised to give Spielberg his support both in success and in failure.
In this way Steven Spielberg became a professionally hired film director.
His first job was to direct a chapter in the Night Gallery series, created by Rod Serling,
who also made The Twilight Zone.
The experience started a little bit tense, as Spielberg had to direct veteran actress
Joan Crawford, who was famous both for her performances and for her strong character.
To make things even worse, the camera crew looked down at such an inexperienced and young
filmmaker working in the major leagues.
But in the end, directing the story about a blind woman and a terrible revelation ended
up being satisfying for Spielberg and everyone in the cast and crew.
Spielberg continued directing television episodes for the series Marcus Welby and Columbo.
Those credentials didn't stop some criticisms among some Universal executives, who still
considered that Spielberg wasn't ready for his role.
However, Steven got himself into a group of filmmaking friends that included Martin Scorsese,
George Lucas, Brian De Palma, John Milius and the slightly more successful Francis Ford
Coppola.
The kind relationship Spielberg had with these people fueled his desire to direct a feature
film.
His big break opportunity came from television.
Among some made for TV movie scripts laying around the studio, he found one by Richard
Matheson, the famous book writer who made I am a legend and many film screenplays.
His script Duel started with a simple premise: an ordinary man is chased on the road by a
giant mysterious truck.
With a budget of $450,000 and eleven days to shoot, Spielberg turned the story into
an astounding suspense film that didn't over-explain itself and went right into the action.
As in his later films, the protagonist has to survive in a very aggressive context while
preserving his integrity and his humanity.
Duel was broadcasted on November 13, 1971 on NBC, and made huge ratings with great critic
reviews.
Universal noted the film success and showed it in cinemas around Europe, where it became
a great box office success.
After this break, Steven Spielberg was ready to work on the big screen.
The Sugarland Express was based on a true story about a couple chased by the police
while searching for their child.
For the first time, the Spielberg showed a recurring theme in his movies, which is the
impact of a family breakup.
The film was also essential, because it marked his first collaboration with composer John
Williams.
Williams had already some experience making film soundtracks, but his collaboration with
Spielberg through the years became one of the most important steps in his career.
The Sugarland Express won the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival and received
fantastic reviews.
However, even with Goldie Hawn as the star, the film did not work at the box office.
Disappointed with the news, Spielberg told himself that he would never allow something
like this to happen to him again.
From then on, he would always think about the audience first.
For his next project, Spielberg wanted to rethink the concept of his independent project
Firelight, this time on a larger scale.
But during post-production of The Sugarland Express, a project of the film's producers,
David Brown and Richard Zanuck caught his attention.
It was an adaptation of Peter Benchley's novel Jaws.
Since negotiations with other directors for Jaws did not prosper, Spielberg offered himself
for the role.
He had to put his epic remake of Firelight aside for some time, so he could start turning
Benchley's book into a script.
The story about the filming of Jaws is already legendary in itself, and it's worthy of another
video, but we can summarize it by pointing out some details: the robotic shark broke
all the time because Spielberg wanted to shoot in the ocean instead of a studio.
Much of the script was made up during filming, and the shooting plan went from 55 days to
159.
The film's budget became too large, and when the first cut was ready, the shark looked
too fake.
Instead of doing reshoots, the producers decided to cut out most of the shark scenes, which
ended up generating more suspense in the audiences.
The phenomenon that Jaws became when it was first released on June 20, 1975 is also legendary.
In addition to being the first film to earn more than 100 million dollars, it marked the
birth of Hollywood movie blockbusters: big-budget productions released during the summer with
a huge marketing campaign behind.
From that moment on, Steven Spielberg did not stop evolving as a creative or as an entrepreneur,
becoming the most famous and successful Hollywood film director.
He was able to make new sci-fi films thanks to Close encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.
and The War of the Worlds.
He also redefined the adventure genre with Indiana Jones; brought the dinosaurs back
to life in Jurassic Park and experimented with more adult themes such as Schindler's
List, Saving Private Ryan, and The Post.
Under his production company Amblin (named after his short film), he produced hits such
as Gremlins, The Goonies and Back to the Future.
He discovered new talented filmmakers, gathered millions of fans around the world, and inspired
whole generations of movie makers.
And all this, while still being as curious and creative as when he was a small child.