Today, the summer morning felt like October, Venus crossed the
sun, and a poet of a story teller has died.
Ray Bradbury.
He was the first author that I ever read that made me realize that books could be more than
just entertaining stories. When I picked up my dad's paperback copy of The
Martian Chronicles, as a kid, I realized that a books could speak to you
about your own inner thoughts and feelings. They could show you that it
meant something to have integrity, aspire to ideals, that you weren't alone
in your fears, and that we could live in a world of higher value than what
reality television, corrupt politicians, willfully ignorant people, tabloids, and cell
phone dependency had to offer.
On one of the many times I met him, he said, "I charge you with making sure
that we go out into the stars, and continue on." He cared about whathappened to us, as a people, and knew that it was all in our own hands.
For the past three years, I have been privileged and honored to work as
production designer and effects supervisor on the documentary about his
life. A movie, that he told his close friend and producer of the film,
Michael O'Kelly, will be, "The fireworks at the end of my life."
Even though he did see much of my work for the film, I am very sorry that he
did not live to see the finished product. I really wanted him to. I wanted
to know, that after he charged us with such great responsibility, that he
would see it, and be proud, not only of us, but of himself for showing us
all, that through our works and our deeds, and our desire to make the human
race a better one, that we can all Live Forever.
CLICK HERE for more about our work with Ray.
"Would you not admit, child, that forty billion deaths are a great wisdom, and those forty billion who shelve under the earth are a great gift to the living so that they might live?"
-Ray Bradbury
From The Dust Returned
