Dennis Muren
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| Dennis Muren, A.S.C. | |
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| Born | November 1, 1946 Glendale, California |
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Dennis E. Muren, A.S.C. (born November 1, 1946) is an American film special effects artist, most notable for his work on the films of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and George Lucas. He has won 6 oscars for Best Visual Effects.
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[edit] Early life & career
Muren was born in Glendale, California, the son of Charline Louise (née Clayton) and Elmer Ernest Muren.[1] He developed an interest in film-making and special effects from an early age. While studying business at Pasadena City College, Muren spent $6500 to make Equinox, a short science fiction film. Tonylyn Productions, a small film company, liked the film enough to distribute it. Tonylyn hired film editor Jack Woods to direct additional footage in order to make Equinox into a feature-length movie. When the feature-length Equinox was released in October 1970, Muren was credited as a producer in spite of having directed much of the film and creating the special effects himself. Despite mixed to poor reviews the movie made enough money for Muren to recoup his $8000 investment, and in the years since it has become a minor cult classic.
After earning his associate's degree, Muren began working as a visual effects artist full-time. In 1976, Muren was hired at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), then an upstart visual effects studio founded by little-known director George Lucas. Lucas and ILM's first film, Star Wars, was released in 1977 to wide critical and public acclaim and was the highest grossing film of all time up until that point.
[edit] Later career
Muren has been an important voice for pioneering new technologies in special effects. Muren spearheaded ILM's move from models and miniatures to CGI for the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In a 2000 interview, he stated that Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the film he was most proud of.
Muren, along with Steve Williams and Mark Dippe, helped to usher in a new age of computer generated imagery with the CG dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg had intended to use go-motion for the dinosaurs, but quickly changed his mind when shown a test of a CG T-Rex (with Marin County as the backdrop). Jurassic Park was the breakthrough which convinced George Lucas that technology had advanced enough to make the Star Wars prequels.
In June of 1999, Muren was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the first visual effects artist to ever be so recognized. He has also been the recipient of nine Academy Awards, the most of any living movie-maker.
Muren continues to work for ILM to this day; his title is Senior Visual Effects Supervisor. Currently he is taking time off to author a book on visual effects; he also consults for Pixar. His most recent project was War of the Worlds, in which he lead a team to create complex effects in a span of only three months.
He has a small, non-speaking role in Raiders of the Lost Ark as a spy. He's the man who looks over the newspaper as Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) boards the passenger plane.
Muren has an almost-invisible cameo in the theme park ride Star Tours. He and two other ILM'ers are visible in a movie-within-a-movie... they're rear-projected into the windows of a miniature Maintenance Bay building, which is then rear-projected into the cabin of the flight simulator. They can be seen ducking in fear as the point-of-view spaceship almost careens into them.
Dennis is married to British documentary filmmaker of "Dream of The Sea Ranch" and landscape architect Zara Muren, and they have two children together. They currently live in California.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Dennis Muren at the Internet Movie Database
- Starwars.com (2005). Dennis Muren. Retrieved 3 July 2005.
- Hollywood.com (2005). Dennis Muren. Retrieved 3 July 2005.
- Tome, Chris for 3dvfx.net (2000). The Dennis Muren Interview. Retrieved 3 July 2005.
- Erickson, Hal for All Movie Guide (2004). Equinox entry at All Movie Guide. Retrieved 3 July 2005.
