Expanding the Cinematic Language through the invention of the Motion Controlled Camera

1977 marks a change for the cinema as “Star Wars: A New Hope” (George Lucas, 1977) takes the advantage of using a motion controlled camera invented by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), called the Dykstraflex, which allowed programmable camera movements which were flexible, precise and for the first time repeatable. The Dystraflex allowed for different movements like roll, pan, tilt, swing, boom, traverse, track, and its had a programmable motor drive, and opened up the possibilities of more freedom in general camera movement, but most importantly it allowed them to animate huge miniatures (by moving the camera instead of moving the miniature) and because it was precise and repeatable it allowed several elements like miniatures and matte paintings to be filmed separately through a preprogrammed camera movement, allowing them the possibility to build up complex virtual scenes through compositing. This was a big step in bringing the virtual camera to the cinema, as its use of elaborate compositing opened up the doors for including animation in live action movies, thus expanding upon the cinematic language.