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JOHN DYKSTRA
SPECIAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR
I first learned of John Dykstra when he began working on the epic
Star Wars adventure that hit theaters in 1977. But he was working
long before I knew who he was.
John Dykstra was born in 1947 and attended a Southern California
Design School. Before getting into the film industry he earned a
living as a still photographer.
One of Dykstra's first gigs getting into the business was working
with the legendary effects wizard Douglas Trumbull on the the
feature film "Silent Running" which starred Bruce Dern.
After this he worked for the Institute of Urban and Regional
Development developing new filming techniques to make miniature
buildings look real on film. Most importantly he developed a
computer to control camera movements. The company at Berkley ran out
of money and John Dykstra landed on the Star Wars project after
Douglas Trumbull backed out of the project.
John Dykstra is the man who helped George Lucas' special effects
studios known as ILM or Industrial Light & Magic. It was here
that Dykstra purchased some old Vista Vision cameras and set up the
first motion-controlled camera system. His new system became
known as the Dykstraflex, and revolutionized the special effects
industry. The new camera system allowed camera movement to be
duplicated exactly as many times as needed for a shoot. It earned
John Dykstra and Academy Award in 1978.
He went on to produce the special effects for Battlestar Galactica/Galactica
1980, and left ILM to start his own business, APOGEE - which went
out of business in 1993. The company worked on the effects for Star
Trek: The Motion Picture; Lifeforce; Die Hard 2: Die Harder;
Ghostbusters II; Firefox; Never Say Never Again; Dune; and Honey, I
Blew Up the Kid.
Nothing is written down, but it isn't likely that John Dykstra and
George Lucas parted the best of friends. Fox sued Universal over
Battlestar Galactica being a Star Wars clone and Dykstra was
producing the effects for Galactica making him a pain in George's
behind.
Dykstra's projects include, Caddyshack, Batman & Robin, Batman
Forever, Stuart Little, and Spiderman.
Much of the work done by the Dykstraflex Camera-System is now done
CGI. But John Dykstra showed the industry the way. He is still one
of the top VFX Supervisors in the business today.
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