Ben Burtt

Rediscovered and named the now ubiquitious "Wilhelm scream" sound effect in the Warner Brothers sound archives. To date, it has been used in over 75 films.

Your success as an artist, to say something new, ultimately depends on the breadth of your education. My recommendation would be to major in an area other than film, develop a point of view, and then apply that knowledge to film. Because if film is all you know, you cannot help but make derivative work. I found that what I had learned about sound, history, biology, English, physics all goes into the mix.