ABSTRACT
People have been held spellbound by the fantasy world found on the sil-
ver screen since Thomas Edison started turning his hand-cranked camera and making moving pictures in 1910. Movies bond humanity through a
universal language of emotions and experiences. The appeal of living
vicariously through an actor’s performance is like an unquenchable 13
thirst. We escape our everyday doldrums to pursue impossible travels
through time, space, and our own fears. It can feel perhaps like a waking
dream. It can feel that real. It’s easy to get swept up in the magic of movie making. We all want to make our movies. It’s the honored role of
storytelling that goes back to the cave where our ancient ancestors sat
around the flickering fire watching dancing shadows, sharing adventures, and drawing pictures on the cave wall. For us, the moviemaking experi-
ence now provides a personal outlet that allows us to move through a
sophisticated fantasy world where we can control light, sound, and human behavior. It’s a creative theme park in which any ride will take
us into another world of human encounters and common understand-
ing. We are creative beings. It is an intrinsic and important part of who and what we are as a species. This movie mystique is powerful.
