How Star Wars changed my life at age seven

When I was a little kid I went to see Star Wars in the theater with my parents. I remember being fascinated by it. Star Wars was the movie that made me want to be a camera operator. I saw the way the story was told, and how captivating it was, and I did not see the actors or know anything about the director, I saw that someone had held a camera and taken an image that made me and so many others sit and be transfixed by a story. I wanted to show the world what I saw, wanted people to see through my eyes and see what I knew I could show them if only they would sit and watch what I filmed.

Well, I grew up in an area that made going into cinematography extremely difficult, and although I subscribed to all the videography magazines, I could not afford to buy a video camera. By the time I could afford one I was not in a position where I could find anyone that could act in my movies and was not about to get in front of the camera myself. I was a cinematographer, not an actress.

Dreams of making movies faded away and melted into a decision to write instead. If I could not show them the world as I saw it, I could put pen to paper and let them read it and see it in the theater of the minds eye. Thus Phantascene found its true meaning as a phantasm, an image created by the mind, melded into a scene, the setting of a story.

Still, Star Wars is a major part of my love of showing others the world. What those men did changed the world of cinema and proved that if you wanted something bad enough, you can achieve the impossible.

Years after Star Wars, past the sequels and into the years to come, I have shared my passion with many nephews. It does not seem that long ago that one of my youngest nephews was wanting to be that Star Wars character Darth Maul for Halloween. Face paint courtesy his uncle, costume courtesy of me sitting up late into the night trying to figure out how to construct a Darth Maul robe from some fabric and a bit of old vynal I had. (I think his outfit turned out rather good if I do say so myself.)

It's fairly easy now days to find Star Wars costumes about anywhere. Whether you want a costume for going trick-or-treating or to a convention, maybe just a mask to add to your collection of memorabilia? It's easy to be any level of fan for the show. You can pick up toys and other memorabilia in second hand stores and yard sales, sometimes even finding the stuff released back when the first three (or was that second three?) movies were released if you're lucky. I have a Star Wars pod racer mask for Anakin from the first of the newer movies (Episode 1). It had been part of another nephew's Halloween costume and found its way into my meager collection of memorabilia when Halloween had passed.

I always liked Han the best myself. Have a poster of him picking at the flaking plaster in the canteena on Tatooine. Watching Star Wars is what made me a lifelong fan of Harrison Ford. The man's still sexy as all hell after all these years. Just that little smirking smile of his is enough to make you want to smile yourself.

So anyway, here I sit, 30 years away from the beginning of my fascination with stoytelling. Rather than the cinematographer that I had thought I would become I am working on a career as a writer. Whew. Has it really been 30 years? Would I change things if I could? Perhaps. There's a lot that people want to change in their lives, but I suppose that I would be quite happy if I ended up right where I am today working on a career as a writer rather than being a cinematographer, so I guess I would not change much if I had the chance to go back. At least, not much that would effect the course of my career - except maybe make the decision to be a writer a lot earlier in my life. That would be nice.

This post was sponsored by EasternToys.com
Who got me thinking about Star Wars and did
not complain when I just ran off on a tangent
about my passion.