What was it like working at Lucasfilm back in 1982-83? originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

Working at Lucasfilm back in the early eighties was pretty fun. Working there at the time conveyed a lot of what we called “pixie dust”. For example, when I applied to rent my crummy little apartment in San Rafael, the manager (son of the landlord) stopped reading my application when he got to 'Employer'. He picked up the phone and I heard, “Dad, I got one… Yeah, I know. This one’s better.”

While a lot of us who worked there were Star Wars fans, coming off as one in a job interview was a guaranteed way to fail out. A significant percentage of the company had never even seen Star Wars, and that was fine. They just wanted people who would do their jobs.

It was a place where you might get recruited at random for a group Foley session, or even some solo screams. (I’m Mola Ram’s death scream in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.)

If your job, like mine did when I was doing janitorial and security, included entering Industrial Light & Magic it was always a kick to see the models on the shooting stages. One night on patrol I found the Star Destroyer model from the opening of Star Wars and, of course, I crouched down, closed one eye, and did The Shot.

It was also, especially depending on your department, a crap ton of work. The ILM “Optical Dogs” were working twenty hour days, seven days a week toward the end of Jedi. It was brutal. But the culture was one of, “we’re getting to make something awesome, so we’re going to make it awesome.” Everywhere there was a mix of humor and explicit threats of violence.

There was the time we all got an email saying that they were going to be blowing up Jabba’s Barge on the roof of C Building, and to please not go outside to watch because it would attract attention. Naturally, minutes later all of us computer nerds were out on the street watching the pyro on the roof, the large crew with movie lights, and the two bright red fire trucks. Yeah, everybody was looking at the geeks in tee shirts on the other side of Kerner.

It actually took a few takes to get an explosion they liked, so it became routine for a week or so to be working in our offices and then feel the building shake with a thud.

Then there were the golden opportunities of advance employee screenings. We saw Jedi three weeks before release. You have to recall that the world had spent three years wondering about the truth of Luke’s paternity situation, so curiosity was rife. Tom Duff used his button maker to make buttons for us that said, “I’ve seen Return of the Jedi and I’m not talking.” Man, those were fun to wear everywhere. (Even church.)

It was clear hanging around in the Computer Division that exciting new things were happening. There was EditDroid, which eventually died and rose from the ashes as Avid. There was digital audio, which was indistinguishable from magic at the time, and then there was the “Graphics Group”. The CG done for Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan was so groundbreaking, and beloved by the producers, that it appeared in one form or another in the next, uh, twelve I think, Star Trek films.

Did we know just how big CG would get? Probably not. But we knew big changes were afoot, and it was fun to be around the people who did it.

This question originally appeared on Quora. More questions on Quora:

* Lucasfilm: What is it like to work at Lucasfilm?

* Movie Production: What exactly does a movie producer do?

* Movie Business and Industry: Can I sell an idea about an animation movie to Pixar?

Photo Credit: Instants/Getty Images