John Charles Dykstra, A.S.C. (; born June 3, 1947) is an American

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the fictional events in a story or virtual world. ...

s artist, pioneer in the development of the use of

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

s in filmmaking and recipient of three

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

, among many other awards and prizes. He was one of the original employees of

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American Film, motion picture visual effects, computer animation and stereo conversion digital studio founded by George Lucas on May 26, 1975. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lu ...

, the

s and

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images and art with the aid of computers. Computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, digital art, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. ...

division of

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...

. He is well known as the special effects lead on the original ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'', helping bring the original visuals for

lightsaber A lightsaber is a fictional energy sword featured throughout ''Star Wars''. A typical lightsaber is shown as a luminous laser sword about in length emitted from a metal hilt around in length. First introduced in the original ''Star Wars'' ...

s, space battles between

X-wing The X-wing starfighter is a name applied to a family of fictional spacecraft manufactured by the Incom Corporation and later the Incom-FreiTek Corporation from the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Named for the distinctive shape made when its s-foils (w ...

s and TIE fighters, and

Force In physics, a force is an influence that can cause an Physical object, object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. In mechanics, force makes ideas like 'pushing' or 'pulling' mathematically precise. Because the Magnitu ...

powers to the screen. He also led special effects on many other movies, including '' Batman Forever'', '' Batman & Robin'', ''

Stuart Little ''Stuart Little'' is a 1945 American children's novel by E. B. White. It was White's first children's book, and became recognized as a classic in children's literature. ''Stuart Little'' was illustrated by the artist Garth Williams, also his f ...

'', '' X-Men: First Class'', ''

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

'' and ''

Spider-Man 2 ''Spider-Man 2'' is a 2004 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of Spider-Man. Directed by Sam Raimi and written by Alvin Sargent from a story conceived by Michael Chabon and the writing team of Alfred Gough and Miles ...

''.

Education and early career

Dykstra was born in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

. After studying

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), also known in athletics as Long Beach State University (LBSU), is a public teaching-focused institution in Long Beach, California, United States. The 322-acre campus is the second largest in the ...

(where he was a member of

Phi Kappa Tau Phi Kappa Tau (), commonly known as Phi Tau (), is a collegiate fraternity located in the United States. The fraternity was founded in 1906. As of May 2024, the fraternity has 161 chartered chapters, 83 active chapters, 7 associate chapters, a ...

fraternity), in 1971 he landed a job working with

Douglas Trumbull Douglas Hunt Trumbull (; April 8, 1942 – February 7, 2022) was an American film director and visual effects supervisor, who pioneered innovative methods in special effects. He created scenes for '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', '' Close Encounter ...

on ''

Silent Running ''Silent Running'' is a 1972 American ecological-themed science fiction film. It is the directorial debut of Douglas Trumbull, and stars Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, and Jesse Vint. Plot In the future, all forests on Earth have b ...

'' filming model effects, when Trumbull hired recent college graduates due to the film's low budget.

''Star Wars''

In 1975, when

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...

was recruiting people for the special effects work on ''

'', he approached Douglas Trumbull, but he was unavailable as he was about to start working on

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

's ''

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film, science fiction drama film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François ...

''. Trumbull pointed Lucas towards Dykstra. Lucas formed his own special effects company,

(ILM), based in warehouse premises in

Van Nuys Van Nuys ( ) is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1 ...

, and appointed Dykstra to supervise the new team. This led to the development of the Dykstraflex motion-controlled camera, which enabled many of the film's groundbreaking effects to be produced. The system was made possible by the availability of off-the-shelf integrated-circuit

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

at relatively low cost and secondhand

VistaVision VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format that was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954. Paramount did not use anamorphic processes such as CinemaScope but refined the ...

cameras. However, tensions arose between Dykstra and Lucas, the latter complaining that too much time and money was spent on developing the digital camera systems and that the effects team did not deliver all the shots that he had wanted causing the production to run behind schedule. These tensions would reportedly culminate with Dykstra's dismissal from ILM following Lucas' return from principal photography in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Regardless, following the release of ''Star Wars'', Dykstra and his team won

for best special effects and special technical achievement.

''Battlestar Galactica''

After ''Star Wars'', Dykstra began working on ''

Battlestar Galactica ''Battlestar Galactica'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. It began with the original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel series, '' Galactica 1980'', a line of book adaptat ...

'' for

Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...

. Supervising the special effects for the three-hour pilot episode (which was also released theatrically), Dykstra formed his own effects company called Apogee, Inc. which included several ILM employees who had worked on ''Star Wars''. Dykstra was also given a Producer credit for the pilot of the television series. As Universal then opted to make ''Galactica'' into a weekly series, many of Dykstra's effects shots were recycled and used repeatedly throughout the show's single season run. After ''Galactica'' aired, Lucas and 20th Century Fox began legal proceedings against Universal claiming that they had plagiarized ''Star Wars'', a matter not helped by the similar effects and design styles (artist Ralph McQuarrie had also contributed to ''Galactica''). Lucas was also reportedly unhappy about Dykstra using the equipment (that had been developed and paid for from the ''Star Wars'' budget) on a production that was essentially a competitor. When Lucas relocated ILM to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

from

to commence work on ''

The Empire Strikes Back ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic film, epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based o ...

'', several members of the Apogee team (including

Richard Edlund Richard Edlund, (born December 6, 1940) is an American visual effects artist and inventor. He was a founding member of Industrial Light & Magic, having already founded Pignose amplifiers, and later co-founded Boss Film Studios and DuMonde V ...

and

Dennis Muren Dennis Muren, A.S.C (born November 1, 1946) is an American film visual effects artist and supervisor. He has worked on the films of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron, among others, and has won nine Oscars in total: eight for Bes ...

) would return to ILM but Dykstra did not join them. He continued to work under his Apogee brand name and subsequently went to work on the effects for '' Avalanche Express'' and '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (on which he was reunited with Douglas Trumbull).

''Firefox'' and the 1980s

Dykstra's next major achievement was the effects work on ''

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...

'' in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

. Here, he took on the same challenge that Lucas had set with ''The Empire Strikes Back'' of combining miniature effects with actual backgrounds and matte work on white backgrounds using

reverse bluescreen Reverse bluescreen is a visual effects technique pioneered by Jonathan Erland of Apogee Inc., John Dykstra's company, for shooting the flying sequences in the 1982 film ''Firefox (film), Firefox'', directed by Clint Eastwood. Its objective is to ...

. The film secured further awards but was only a modest

box office A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicket. ...

hit. In 1985, Dykstra produced the special effects for the sci-fi horror film '' Lifeforce'' which was made in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He followed with work on the 1986 remake of '' Invaders from Mars'' and '' My Stepmother Is an Alien'' (1988). Apogee Inc also did the effects for the spoof comedy ''

Spaceballs ''Spaceballs'' is a 1987 American space opera parody film co-written, produced and directed by Mel Brooks. It primarily parodies the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy, but also other popular franchises such as ''Star Trek'', '' Alien'', '' The Wi ...

'' (1987). In the late 1980s Dykstra was asked by Nissan Motor Company of Japan to work on special effects for a commercial for the introduction of the Nissan R32 Skyline. He stated in an interview that ran before the commercial that he got out his "Special Effects Atlas" to provide a world that "not only looked different" but also had some "very unusual inhabitants": the "Space Fish". The Space Fish can be seen following and then examining the new Skyline during the ad.Video on Youtube of the Dykstra R32 Skyline commercial
/ref>

Comic book films

In the mid-1990s, Dykstra was supervisor for the special effects of '' Batman Forever'' and '' Batman & Robin''. He was also Senior Visual Effects Supervisor for ''

''. Dykstra was the visual effects designer on the first two ''

'' films, and received an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

for Best Visual Effects for his work on ''

''. He acted as the visual effects designer on '' X-Men: First Class'', ensuring the six effects companies involved delivered all the shots required despite the tight schedule.

Video games

In 1987, Dykstra directed the full-motion video game '' Sewer Shark'', originally intended for

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

's VHS-based NEMO console. When Hasbro abandoned the project, the system's creator Tom Zito acquired the rights to the game. In 1992, ''Sewer Shark'' was converted to the

Sega CD The Sega CD, known as in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory and format for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. Originally released in November 1991, it ca ...

by Zito's Digital Pictures, and released as a launch title for the system.

Academy Awards

Two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects

* 1978 ( 50th): for Best Visual Effects for ''

'' (1977), shared with

John Stears John Stears (25 August 1934 – 28 April 1999) was an English special effects artist. A two-time Academy Awards, Academy Award winner, nicknamed the "Dean of Special Effects," he was responsible for creating a host of iconic movie gadgets and e ...

, Grant McCune, and Robert Blalack * 2005 ( 77th): for Best Visual Effects for ''

'' (2004), shared with Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara, and John Frazier

One Academy Award for Technical Achievement

* 1978 ( 50th): "''for the development of the Dykstraflex Camera''" for ''Star Wars'' (1977), shared with Alvah J. Miller and Jerry JeffressDykstra was granted for the development of the Dykstraflex Camera and Alvah J. Miller and Jerry Jeffress were both granted for the engineering of the Electronic Motion Control System.

Other awards

Saturn Awards

* 1978: for Best Special Effects for ''

'' (1977), shared with John Stears * 1980: for Best Special Effects for '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (1979), shared with

and Richard Yuricich * 2005: for Best Special Effects for ''

'' (2004), shared with Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara, and John Frazier

Primetime Emmy Awards

* 1979: for Outstanding Individual Achievement and Creative Technical Crafts for the pilot episode ('' Saga of a Star World'') from the 1978 ''Battlestar Galactica'' TV series, shared with Richard Edlund (director of miniature photography) and Joseph Goss (mechanical special effects)

Hollywood Film Awards

* 2004: for Visual Effects of the Year for ''

'' (2004)

OFTA Film Awards

* 2005: OFTA Film Award"OFTA" stands for "Online Film and Television Association". for Best Visual Effects for ''Spider-Man 2'' (2004), shared with Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara and John Frazier

Sitges Award for Best Special Effects

* 1986: Caixa Catalunya Award for Best Special EffectsThis award (presented annually) is the Special Effects Award attributed by the

Sitges Film Festival SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia () is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain. It specializes in fantasy film, fantasy, Horror film, horror and Cult film, cult films. Established in 1968, the festiva ...

(located in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

), but its name has changed among years, depending on different sponsors. In 1986 it was called "''Premio Caixa Catalunya a los Mejores Efectos Especiales''" ("Caixa Catalunya Award for Best Special Effects") because that year the sponsor was Caixa Catalunya, a local bank. for '' Lifeforce'' (1985)

Golden Satellite Awards

* 2000: for Best Visual Effects for ''

'' (1999), shared with Jerome Chen, Henry F. Anderson III and Eric Allard

Visual Effects Society Awards

* 2007: Honorary Membership Award * 2014: Lifetime Achievement Award

Notes

References

External links

*
"Miniature and Mechanical Special Effects" (July 1977)
- an article written by Dykstra for th

concerning his work on ''

''
2006 IMNO Interview with John Dykstra
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dykstra, John 1947 births Living people Mass media people from Long Beach, California Best Visual Effects Academy Award winners Visual effects supervisors California State University, Long Beach alumni American people of Frisian descent American special effects people Primetime Emmy Award winners Industrial Light & Magic people