out in the Libyan Desert. Since his family had moved to Arizona in 1960, the Arizona desert near his house would easily replicate the simulation of the Libyan Desert. It is clear that Stevens love and knowledge of visual effects began many years before his creation of a mechanical great white shark in 1975. There have been many incidents throughout Steven's childhood that have made it into his films.At the age of six, Stevens father awoke him to witness a meteor shower in the middle of the night (Stein 2). In time this event would also find its way into his 1977 film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The grin of a clown, a deadly tree outside a window, and being afraid at night, all out of 1982s Poltergeist, were all born out of Stevens real childhood phobias (5). Influence for films such as 1993s Academy Award winning drama/documentary Schindlers List could be attributed Steven growing up in a Jewish family. Steven has recalled that during his days in school he felt discriminated from others for being apart of the only Jewish family within the whole community (Graham 530). During the Christmas season, he would be embarrassed that his familys house would be the only one without lights or decorations. When his father offered to place a menorah in the window, Steven responded, No!People will think were Jewish (Graham 528). Steven has claimed to have learned his numbers as a toddler with the help of a concentration camp survivor who pointed out the numerals tattooed on his arm. However, it was at high school, where he was first exposed to anti-Semitic behavior. He would suffer verbal and sometimes physical abuse from other students. Making movies was definitely an escape for Steven who told the New York Post, I enjoy the sense of being transported and no longer thinking anyone is in the audience (529). Nearly three years after finishing Escape to Nowhere, he made his first feature-length film Firelight. It was a two-an...
