The myth of Brad Alexander and my Joseph Campbell Star Wars book - By N.L. Belardes

Does your life ever turn full circle? Can you trace your past and connect dots? One moment today strangely connects to another point in your past that you thought was completely isolated?

I recently spoke to a relative of Joseph Campbell. As soon as I heard the name I thought of the book by him I once owned, The Power of Myth. You know the book, right? There was a six-part PBS/Bill Moyers series that recorded interviews between Lucas and Campbell on Skywalker Ranch. All six one-hour episodes were recorded there and aired in 1988, the year after Campbell died. Campbell discusses at length the role of myth in human society.

I used the book as reference when writing my own myth: The Citrus Girl. There’s even a few Star Wars references in the novel. The novel sits in a dusty cupboard. Hardly anyone has read it. I don’t know why I hoard it. Fear probably.

At work, when I sit at my desk I always see, “Brad Alexander”. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t glance in the direction of his shadowy name. The cover on my Rolodex has slipped off and his is the first to appear. I don’t throw it away for a few reasons. One, some people you don’t want to forget, and two, I’m too lazy to just grab the card and toss it.

The last time I called LucasFilm they acted like they never heard of Brad Alexander. How could that be? He’d just worked on a few Star Wars films and games. He was supposedly responsible for portions of CGI in the cantina scene and the weird millipede creature that crawls on Amidala. I often wondered if he worked on some of the lighting on the giant Wookie battle… he may have set the mood entirely. Emails bounced back too.

The receptionist said she never heard of Brad Alexander.

It was a cover-up.

And a lot like chump Brad’s own cover-up of the book I loaned him years ago while at Up in the Air Productions out of Las Vegas working on Fremont Street Experience sound-and-light shows. There was Brad, a snotty-nosed kid right out of the Air Force. We talked Star Wars. I mentioned the Power of Myth book. He needed to read it like a true Star Wars junkie.

So I loaned it. I just never got it back.

I talked to another buddy of mine who had a lead that he was working on War of the Worlds. I had no leads, so I gave up trying to find him. According to the IMDb database, it looks like he not only worked on War of the Worlds, but moved on to Underworld: Evolution, X-Men: The Last Stand, Ghost Rider, Evan Almighty, The Kingdom, Transformers, and Avatar. And it looks like Brad Alexander has moved up in the world of Animatics and pre-visualization.

A short bio on IMDb reads:

Throughout the workday, he is completing a series of tasks including rigging and animating a digital character, texturing and lighting lavish realms, modeling a creature or character, and 2D/3D tracking.

Alexander often begins his day organizing what needs to be done, whether it be creature modeling or animation. Sometimes he is expected to show his progress to Lucas who visits the Animatics office on a daily basis.

"My favorite part of the job is being able to work directly with George on sequences one-on-one and learning his way of making the masterpieces he does," Alexander says. "Learning the aesthetics of filmmaking from him as it is created in real-time is the most incredible thing."

I often wonder what that book helped form in Brad’s own mind about Star Wars. And all the notes I’d written in the margins—my own theories and ideas of myths, heroes and the nature of humans.

I don’t hold anything against Brad. He’s just one of those old pals you lose sight of then gain glimpses of again in memory.

Such strange circles.