Whether by the careful planning of Events Specialist Julie Gorzik, or random serendipity, we have two amazing sci-fi themed events on campus tonight.

Avid Lecture Series: Lost

Dodge brings yet another educational demonstration / discussion with the creators and professional users of Avid’s industrial-strength multimedia composition and editing tools, and what techniques they use to bring their projects to life on the big (or, in this case, small) screen.  Tonight’s event will feature three guests: Video Editor Chris Nelson, and Sound Re-Recording Mixers Frank Morrone and Scott Weber, all experts at manipulating the software and hardware to produce nearly magical multimedia masterpieces.  Given the incredibly complex studio and location shots found throughout the Lost series, I think this lecture will educate, entertain and enthrall, as we learn the top-secret tricks from the pros.

Star Wars Screening feat Special Guest Richard Edlund

Continuing the evening’s theme of exploring the nitty gritty technical details that bring some amazing science fiction to life, we’ll be screening a little film called Star Wars.  Some of you may have heard of it before.  (Ok, ok – we’re screening A New Hope – sorry, die-hards).  This is a DVD print of the recently remastered Special Edition – absolutely don’t miss it tonight if you missed the theatrical release (it’s been over a decade since they were re-released in 1997.  Wow).

Even better, we’ll have one of the original special effects geniuses, Richard Edlund, on tap.  I hope we get a great discussion, he could speak on the amazing story of the early days of Industrial Light & Magic, being the first cameraman for the startup VFX company, working with Lucas on the first two Star Wars films, or even what it was like completely revolutionizing the film industry with his game-changing visual effects wizardry – whatever he has to say, I imagine it will be amazing.

As a true lover of science fiction myself, I will be on hand for both of these exclusive events as well.  Honestly, I’d pay to get into these!