Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg was born on December 18th, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a Jewish family, in the United States of America; his love for filming began when he borrowed his father's movie camera for a Boy Scout project. While he was studying at the California State University, Long Beach; he got the opportunity to go into film making when he landed a job at Universal Studios as an unpaid intern and guest of the editing department. He had, however, applied three times to the University of Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television, but had been rejected those three times.

After Spielberg became famous, USC awarded him an honorary degree in 1994, and in 1996 he became a trustee of the university. In 2002, thirty-five years after starting college, Spielberg finished his degree via independent projects at CSULB, and was awarded a B.A. in Film Production and Electronic Arts with an option in Film/Video Production. As an intern and guest of Universal Studios, Spielberg made his first short film for theatrical release, which lasted 24 minutes: Amblin' (1968). Thanks to this film, Spielberg became the youngest director to sign with a Hollywood studio: Universal Studios.

In order to commit himself entirely to his career, he decided to drop out of University. Unfortunately, when he had the chance to direct his first full length film, Malcolm Winkler, finding the key male role caused so much difficulty that the film was never shot.

Through 1968 to 1975, he participated on filming for television, such as making the pilot episodes and segments. He got his first feature-length assignment: an episode of The Name of the Game called "L.A. 2017". With this he impressed Universal Studios again and landed another short contract and he continued to do episodes for television, and later movies for television.

Spielberg's first theatrical feature film was The Sugarland Express (1974). Even though he did impress reviewers, the movie was box office failure. However, Jaws (1975) was an absolute success. It won three Academy Awards (for editing, original score and sound). Spielberg was officially a rising star. Through 1974 to 1994 Spielberg began his legacy. His film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) won him great success, which was both written and directed by him, and it won two Oscars.

Next, Spielberg got together with director George Lucas to begin one of the most famous trilogies of all time: The Indiana Jones Trilogy. Their first task was Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), which recieved many nominations and had such a deep impact that it is still considered "a landmark example of the action genre". His next project, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) won him both Best Picture and Best Director; the film was an outstanding success. Spielberg went on with many films (directing, producing or co-writing) that we now consider as "classics" or "must sees" no matter the year they were made in. To name a few:

-Poltergeist (1982)
-The Twilight Zone (1983)
-Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
-The Goonies (1985) -The Color Purple (1985)
-Empire of the Sun (1987)
-Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
-Hook (1991)
-Jurassic Park (1993)
-Schindler's List (1993)

Steven Spielberg is a legend and his movies will be around for ages. I will now share with you a trailer of one of my favorite films by Spielberg:

The Empire of the Sun (1985)


Information obtained from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Spielberg