Hey everyone...just thought I'd post something here on the Yak Shack that I posted in another forum earlier...it kind of explains my first 9 Star Wars sketch cards that have been approved for the "Star Wars 30th Anniversary" set...my little homage...hope you enjoy it...
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hey all...well, the first batch of my sketch cards have been approved...so...without further...oh wait...by now you know I have something to say...
...I'm just a little older than most of you that post on these fabulous Scoundrel boards...so my recollection of 1977...when this monumental blockbuster of a film first hit the movie screens and became an instant cinematic masterwork...was quite different...
...I was already 51 years old at the time (hehehe...only kidding)...let's just say, I was well out of high school and already into art, music, film and filmmaking at the time...I'm sure the impact on all of you was quite astounding and influential...but, for me, it was more like "damn, how did Lucas do that?"...I was rivited to the screen from the instant the first note of music blasted from the speakers of the old RKO Keiths movie theatre in Flushing, Queens (New York)...you have to try and imagine what it was like back then...
...the RKO Keith's theatre was a gigantic building that housed...ONE...yes, just one movie screen...and maybe a thousand seats. There was a large upstairs balcony, an upstairs concession stand...and a ground floor of seats that you could literally get lost in. But more astounding was the atmosphere you were enveloped in when you first entered the theatre.
The ticket booth was a small niche just at the edge of the theatre's entrance...some 10 to 12 large brass doors with shimmering clear glass panels that kept the outside world of cars and pedestrians at bay...you purchased your ticket and then entered the large hallway ramp that was lined with large, glisteningly framed movie posters...maybe a dozen or so on each side...some with films that were already classics, some of films that had been previously shown, and some variation posters of the film that was currently on the screen!
...a smaller entrance door was manned with a 'uniformed' ticket taker...some elderly dude with every gold braid and button in place... who would rip your ticket in half and place the theatre half in a large brass pedestal...like some movie prop from 'Raiders of the Lost Arc'...
...and when you then entered the "main room"...you were swept away into a world that was both exotic and mesmerizing...kind of like entering a Disney ride...or, in Epcot Center in Florida, kind of like entering the "Mexico" pavillion.
...You walked into an evening in Morocco, or Marakesh, or some exotic "Arabian Nights" wonderland...the ceiling was painted a dark prussian blue and was blistered with both painted stars and small lights...as you scanned the "sky', you slowly looked down and saw the tops of buildings...not painted buildings...but a fascade of middle eastern arches, domes and crescents...lit from behind by both a painted cerrulean blue horizon, and, quite dramatic lighting. These building fascades extended all the way to the floor...a complete environment recreated...and every other 'building' housed a concession stand of popcorn, candy and soda refreshments.
So already...your mind had entered this realm of ulta-fantasy and you were a prisoner of whatever imaginative magic a filmmaker had conjured up...you were helpless...mere putty in the hands of a master...
...so, when the movie lights finally darkened...and after only one or two "coming attractions" (not the obligatory 20 minutes of previews like you have to endure currently)...in that calm and quite reverent atmosphere...
...quiet, followed by..."A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."
...and then an orchestral blast of music that reveberated through your entire body as STAR WARS was emblazoned across the screen...
...the music of John Williams, majestically gladiator-like...swept you, your candy, drink and popcorn into another universe...the infamous Saturday movie serial introductory crawl started it's one point perspective trip across the VERY BIG movie screen...and you tried desperately to grasp the names of the characters, the tease of a basic plot, every word that you needed to read and understand in this now iconic crawl of words...
...and then it began...the first scene of what was going to change your world...forever...the image of a star studded black sky universe...then, the camera slowly pans down to reveal a planet, or is it a moon ?, and then the glow of a larger planet below...
...and at that moment...just when your beginning to find your way around this new universe...the whir and buzz and laser blasts of an ensuing battle race across the screen.
This 'in your face' introduction is like a personal and shocking kick in the face...
...I went from the streets of Flushing...into the smell of popcorn and movie theatre carpet...into an exotic evening in a Middle Eastern bazaar...and straight into the mind of George Lucas...
...and I wanted to pay my 'personal homage' to this genius of a beginning of a film...
...so...my very first NINE (9) cards attempt to recreate...for me...being thrust into the mind and imagination of one brilliant and independantly creative filmmaker...
...hope you like them...
...more to come in the days, weeks ahead...
