Recipe for Success: Steven Spielberg

Image of Steven Spielberg from Far Out Magazine, faroutmagazine.co.uk/steven-spielberg-10-greatest-films-list/

Born: December 18, 1946

Personal Success Definition

I define success as someone who meets their own personal goals. For the average person, their goals would probably be to get a good job, a house, a car, and possibly a family. For someone like Steven Spielberg, their goals may be to have a meaningful impact on the world through film.

Skills for Success

Steven Spielberg is a 1) film director, 2) producer, and 3) a screenwriter. At age 12, Spielberg made his first film using toy trains. He would continue to make films on 8 mm in his early teenage years. After graduating high school, his goal was to become a film director. He was admitted to California State University. Why he was there, he was offered an intern position at Universal Studios. Spielberg began his journey in Hollywood by directing TV and minor theater. Soon after, he would release the first summer blockbuster, Jaws, making him a well-known name.

How They Used These Skills

Universal Studios gave Spielberg the chance to direct a short film. He presented them with the 26 min long ‘Amblin’, which he wrote and directed using 35 mm. The Vice President of Universal Studios, Sidney Sheinberg, was impressed with the work. ‘Amblin’ also won several awards. This got Spielberg a seven-year directing contract in Hollywood, making him the youngest director to be signed to a major, long-term deal in Hollywood. His coworkers realized his genius when he took on his first professional TV job, which was directing a segment for the pilot of Night Gallery. After the pilot segment, he directed an episode of Marcus Webly M.D. Afterward, he directed an episode of the name of “The Name of the Game” called “L.A. 2017”. His work would continue into shows like Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, The Psychiatrist, and Colombo. Universal signed him to do 4-films. And after these four, he would go on to create and direct some of the greatest American films of all time.

Challenges Overcome

Spielberg’s paternal grandparents were Jews from Ukraine. He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family. He suffered from Anti-Semitic acts. Spielberg said, “In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. Two bloody noses. It was horrible.”. While attending Saratoga High School his parents divorced. When was offered his first long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio, he was judged because he was the youngest director ever to get such a big deal.

Significant Work

Throughout Spielberg’s career, he has addressed some serious issues in his films. Some of which are, ‘The Color Purple’, ‘Empire of the Sun’, ‘Schindler’s List’, ‘Amistad’, and ‘Saving Private Ryan’. ‘Schindler’s List deals with a subject that is close to the heart of Spielberg, the Nazi attack and Jewish persecution of WWII. The film focuses on Oskar Shindler, a German industrialist and his wife Emilie Shindler who saved over a thousand mostly Polish Jewish refugees from the Nazis by employing them in factories. This film is based off of the Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally, written in 1982.