"His desire to make these prequels came from his obsession with getting his vision on screen, and bringing the story to the conclusion he envisioned."

After reading all that I have about George Lucas, what stood out most to me was the pride and ownership associated with his work. I can relate to this point of view.

I believe that he created Star Wars for nobody else but himself. And I'm fine with that. In fact, all the power to him. Star Wars is in a sense an extension of George Lucas the man himself. It would not exist if not for him, so who's to say what it should or should not be except for him.

The fact that he was unwilling to let anybody else direct his movies makes complete sense to me. Giving up that sense of ownership would be like a great artist handing over the paintbrush to somebody else, or giving a poem to an editor. Not to say that this doesn't happen but it is quite understandable that when somebody has such a deep connection to something they would not be willing to let go.

As a designer (if I would be so bold as to call myself that), I feel that at some point in my career, I am going to have to take somebody else's vision and make that a reality. With this comes a great responsibility. There will definitely be great doubt as to whether what I will create will actually be what that person desired. I guess I will just have to figure out ways to SEE other people's vision through my own eyes/mind.

As for my own vision, still haven't quite figured out what that is.. but I'm working on it. What I do know, is that like George Lucas, I will very much be attached to it and will no doubt want to control every aspect of it.

In “A Conversation With George Lucas” by Richard Corliss of Time magazine, the author pointed out that most of the blockbuster pictures of the pre-Star Wars era “made their money slowly, playing first runs, then gradually reaching the smaller towns and theaters; the theatrical life of one of these crowd-pleasers might be a full year.” This is in large contrast to how movies are produced and played nowadays. The process of producing and manifesting movies is only going to get faster – thanks to George Lucas and his empire.

Thanks to Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic initiatives, digital technology has now made it possible to revise everything from the color of the sky to an actor’s facial expressions. Furthermore, both of the articles have discussed Lucas’ desire to issue a rerelease of all six Star Wars chapters in 3D. The thought makes me squirm in my chair. Why do we need to see them revamped in 3D? I can’t help to think that it’s only born out of Lucas’ incessant desire to tweak and bestow complete ownership of his works.

“Simone” is a movie that came out a couple of years ago that features Al Pacino and a digitally simulated actress. The movie is essentially about Al Pacino – a faltering director in Hollywood – who stumbled across the opportunity to digitally create a CGI animated actress who was at his complete control. She helped him manifest his visions as a director but also wrought havoc later on.

In the bonus sections of the DVD one of the associates of the film envisioned that in 10 years we will no longer need anymore actors – most of them will be replaced by digitally generated characters; we will no longer be able to tell the difference between what’s real and what isn’t.

Lucas also mentions the Pre-Vi system where you can make a movie very quickly – basically a moving storyboard. Just like how Alex’s son self-published a book on lulu.com, I suspect that in the near future, technology is going to empower 11 yr old kids to compose their own movies.

What does that mean to us?

Never the less, George Lucas is the genius who brought unforeseen change to how films are created. He is a visionary, yet egoistic. Perhaps he is also the one to blame for film pirating. It will be interesting to see if the movie industry truly benefited from his ingenuity.

Every creative person is subject to analytical scrutiny and floodings of emotional outpour from fans/critics. This is clearly the case with George Lucas and his Star Wars legacy. People love thinking and talking about him...some goe as far as dedicating their working and/or personal lives to this pursuit. Whether or not his "vision" suits my personal tastes in movies/film ( it doesn't), or that he has strayed from my perception of what his vision was in the early sixties, ( I prefer his older films to his more recent vision for Star wars films) is not a worthwhile point of contention.
Its his vision! - not my thoughts on what his vision ought to be. I myself resent when people assume that one's vision should be compromised in order to please the critics. So many great "visionaries" were originally criticised for diverging from other peoples expectaions of their genius, and then later praised for their ground breaking ... the late work of Picasso comes to mind.

Perhaps Lucas is a poor director as some of his critics claim ( this is also my opinion), however his passion is less for great emotional direction than for technological innovation and invention. He may not be pushing the limits of what my heart feels - but I am grateful that he has pushed the limits of what my ears have heard and will hear in the future (via TMX), what my eyes have seen and will see in the future (via ILM, Pixar) and what I can contribute to his vision of the future via engaging with TAP. May the Force be with you George Lucas.

-Stephanie Sirant

Lucas is constantly critisized for being a bad writer and director. In my opinion these criticisms are correct. He has never been one to use his actors abilities to their fullest extent. However, he has been far more succesful in his career as an innovator to the film industry. His ability to imagine beyond what was available, allowed him to create new FX techniques, sound advancements and now possibily a new form of film distribution. He sees the possbility of imagination and is driven to finding ways to make his vision realized. It is this drive and passion, that fuels his innovtive film making techniques. In otherwords, Lucas doesn't work traditionally by taking the current technologies that were/are available at the time and make a movie. He imagined a world that he wanted realized and worked at finding a way to make it as true to his imagination as possible. He never settled for the current norm of film making, which would have comprimised his initial vision. He created an experience, a product and a service while making just one film.

It is quite remarkable how Lucas brought movie making forward, and introduced digital film making. However I don't think that cellulose film will ever disappear, those who love it, really do. It's an art form and has a very hands on approach. Though digital technology, especially in editing, allows more control and is faster, the manipulating of photographs manually is skill and isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

I learned three things from Lucas.

One, dream big. Do not limit yourself to what you already know and what you already have. Unfold your imagination.

Two, do not give up your dream because of limitations you are facing. Often we laugh at our own ideas because they are impossible to come true with current technology or current culture. But, Lucas did not abandon his dream. He tried to find a way to make it happen.

Three, continually improve yourself. Lucas kept changing and editng his movies even after a huge success. There is always room for improvement in anything we design and make.

Everytime I read about successful people, a commom theme is always the fact that they had passion for something and they did not give up.

I love all of the Star Wars episodes and I couldn't believe the things that people say about Lucus. With everything taken in consideration.

I don't think it's enough to have a vision or an idea. You have to be able to see everything through even if you may not like it. Or if it's difficult try to improve, make your weaknesses your strengths. Or just deal with it, it's part of the job. Be open mind to others and consider all options. If your not passionate about what your doing you shouldn't do it at all.

It seems that George Lucas' refusal to make compromises in making the film the way he wants it to be is what made Star Wars so influential. His unrelenting passion in creating the world he envisioned led him to the development of innovations like ILM and THX.

Dale Pollock talked about how self-centered George Lucas was and how it made Lucas a despicable figure among some of the actors and directors who worked with him. But interestingly, I think it is this self-centered nature and his stubbornness that led to all the success and innovation which stemmed from the trilogy.

It seems to me that George Lucas' success is a result of him following HIS visions. No matter what you think of the first SW trilogy or the second SW triology, the fact is, they made a crap load of money. People can hate on the 2nd trilogy all they want, but it was still a (commercial) success. (note: the original Star Wars movies weren't initially a great critical success).

I find it ironic that Lucas is greatly criticized for ruining peoples vision of the Star Wars universe. When he created the universe (all 9 episodes) for himself, with his vision. And despite him making the movies for himself (ignoring fan criticism and input), ALOT of people still watch his movies.

Also, from the success of Star Wars he was able to pioneer many technologies and innovations through ILM. These innovations are mainstays in industry and continue to dictate the advancement of film.

Love it or hate it, Star Wars was and is much bigger than just Star Wars movies.