George Lucas 60 Minutes Special [Discussion]

Pretty good interview, can't wait to see the film

Yoda looks off the charts. I thought he was good in AOTC, but according to the clips we saw tonight, he looks amazing. Wow.

Yeah, he looked brilliant.

Not too bad. Nothing really substantial. How many times can they ask Lucas if he cares about the critics? He denied (again) that there was ever an idea for a 7th film and said he would never approve of another director doing any star wars films. the clips were mostly from the trailer. i only saw half of the interview, so perhaps there was more illuminating stuff at the beginning.

Lucas bought that old set from the Sean Connery movie?

I really wanted to punch Leslie Stahl in the face.

I'ld fuck her.

Lucas went wrong when he decided to make Star Wars completley digital. Didn't A New Hope win an oscar for best set design? What happened to that?

Because the OT had a specific used look, it was easy to create this through set design, the current prequels are far more ambitious in terms of design, hence what Lucas was aiming for could only be achieved through digital cinematography.

Umm, that was like 1977. I'm sure if digital technology were available to him then he'd use it.

The thing you have to remember is that Lucas has always been, at his core, an experimental filmmaker. The prequels, if nothing else, are hugely experimental in administering this new ethic.

Yep it was a good piece by 60 Minutes. I thought George came off really well honestly. Also some of the stuff they showed of Anakin and Obi-Wan dueling face to face 3 feet from one another.

HOLY SHIT! Looks totally badass.

Yeah, that little "spinning sabers" routine got my heart pumping a little faster!

Er, no. The OT was made when you built sets (or partial sets extended with matte paintings) as a matter of fact. While the Prequels may be more ambitious, the OT was no slouch. Never forget that the OT had this going on as well - remember Obi-Wan turning off the tractor beam in ANH? Guinness was on a partial set, about 6 or so feet off the stage floor. The endless shaft below was added in Post Production via a matte painting by Harrison Ellenshaw. We're seeing the same things now (the shot of the droid factory in AOTC), but instead of paint on glass its created with pixels in a computer.
Don't confuse the aesthetic of a "used" universe with the craft which brought it to life.
The digital technology used in the making of the Prequels allows him to do many things that are not cost effective - most visible in such things as creating an army of Wookies or an army of Battle Droids. It costs a lot of money to dress, feed, etc an army of extras these days. Just too much money, never mind the cost of being on location. Digital cinematography is something that comes in handy too - you can see the take you just shot immediately. You don't have to wait a day to see dailies. When working with CGI VFX, you don't have to scan film in - is't ready to be digitized right away. Fast & (hopefully) seemless integration. It's all about saving money and time - which, in the film business, are the same thing.

To be fair, Lucas didn't deny that there was ever a 7th episode planned or imagined, just that there isn't one now and there's not going to be one. From hearing that clip of Mark Hamill talking, it sounded like there was a wild idea to have 9 or more of these serialized stories possibly maybe one day, but clearly that's not happening. I've seen Lucas called a liar over this kind of thing, and that's just an unfortunate twist of the words. He said "there is no episode 7," but that doesn't mean that 30 years ago he didn't think maybe one day there could be.

Even after all the Lucas-bashing that me and my friends have done over the past couple years, and after all the venomous hatred in text form I've seen on the internet, it wasn't until I watched the interview that I suddenly became really defensive of him. When the interviewer said "The critics HATED the first two prequels," I almost jumped out of my seat, thinking to myself 'NOW HOLD ON JUST ONE MINUTE!' And when she kept on bugging Lucas about his personal life it almost seemed like she was picking on him, and I couldn't help but be angry about it. I guess when all is said and done, when the chips are down I find myself still loyally in the Lucas camp.

It bugs me that George Lucas lies to the fans that he "never had plans for 7,8 and 9. It was concocted by the media", as if there is no written, recorded and oral record of him saying so himself.


Does it bug anyone else that he is a liar? I hate liars.

I think Lucas referred to the rumors of another trilogy that sprung up this summer, not the overall idea of them.


I'm watching the 60 minutes feature right now....

1) Woah, why is Grievous walking like a Chickenpimp?
2) There's something weird about that digital double example [Anakin and Obi-Wan's wideshot for them struggling] maybe it's cause Anakins only using one hand but looks weird.

That was good though, nice look into the making of, hope the DVD has a alll encompassing documentry on the making of the film like Episode I, AotC dosn't really have anything like that.

I like George Lucas.

I don't think he came off very well in the interview. He seemed to nonchalant about the entire thing, not really acknowledging the lives he's changed through his work. I'm not talking about fans either - people working for him and around him who would not have had opportunities otherwise. He also seems to know that he could make Episode III complete crap, but people would still go and see. Then he can go "fail for the rest of his life."

Or maybe I'm just feeling that way right now because I had watched Empire of Dreams for the first time right before the interview, and I thought he came off as being a bit pretentious and stuck up. :-/

The funny thing about Lucas is that he seems more down-to-earth to me than most other people in a similar position who are interviewed. You get some directors with large or great or influential bodies of work who seem to want to philosophize about every aspect of filmmaking whenever given the chance. Others seem completely distanced from the real world, stuck in movie-land. Still others put on the mask of the common-man, but shill out company-line bullshit. Lucas at lesat tells you what he feels, which I think rubs people the wrong way. Are the movies a huge part of his life? Yeah, but are they the most important thing in his life-- no. Does the guy ever have to work another day in his life? No, and he knows it, and yet he does keep working because he enjoys it or has something to say.

I think people are taking the 'I have earned the right to fail' thing in the wrong way. He's not saying he's earned the right to make a shitty movie; he's saying he's earned the right to make whatever the hell movie he wants, without concern for profits, box office take, or critical accolades. And that's absoultely true. He's already made his contributions to the history of cinema and to pop culture at large, so whatever he does from here won't define him, and that's all he's saying. No one is going to write the obit of George Lucas saying "he was a man who made some indie movies that failed at the box office" even if he does that after Episode III.

The man's made tons of decisions and moves I don't really agree with or like, but calling him a liar or misrepresenting what he's talking about are just not called for.

zeroplate-

"To be fair, Lucas didn't deny that there was ever a 7th episode planned or imagined, just that there isn't one now and there's not going to be one. From hearing that clip of Mark Hamill talking, it sounded like there was a wild idea to have 9 or more of these serialized stories possibly maybe one day, but clearly that's not happening. I've seen Lucas called a liar over this kind of thing, and that's just an unfortunate twist of the words. He said "there is no episode 7," but that doesn't mean that 30 years ago he didn't think maybe one day there could be."
----------------------------

Yet you continue to follow his work, odd.

That was 1977 money when tickets were $3.50. You realize ANH was made for just $10 million. It was considered an expensive B movie that would maybe make $35 million tops.

If he built every set in the prequels full -size it would send the budgets ballooning, not real smart when Lucas is bankrolling the whole damn thing himself. Thats tons of dough when each episode costs around $100 million apiece.

Most people fail to realize that Ep 1 & 2 have used just as many if not more model shots than the OT did. The films are NOT completely digital. It's an inevitiable technological evolution. Move forward, make film effects as practical and flawless as possible.

I'm pretty sure they were less than 3.50 back then. More like 3$. And that was only for theaters in Manhattan Ny. And Probably L.A

BTW both the prequels and LOTR used a lot of good, old fashioned matte paintings. Matte paintings are still better then digital for some effects.
As to the episodes 7,8, and 9 I think Lucas toyed with the idea, but decided that main story he had to tell concluded with "Jedi", and there was no place to go with the Charecters, and a continunation would just be Space Opera which he was not interested in that.
IMHO Lucas knew there would not be a film taking place after "Jedi" when he authroized the EU stuff beginning around 1989. He was pretty much giving that over to other people when he did that, and showed he had no real personal interest in continuing the films.