George Walton Lucas

8/7/2019 George Walton Lucas

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/george-walton-lucas 1/7



During this time, an experimental filmmaker named Bruce Baillie tacked up a bedsheet in his backyard in

1960 to screen the work of underground, avant-garde 16 mm filmmakers like Jordan Belson, Stan

Brakhage and Bruce Conner . For the next few years, Baillie's series, dubbed Canyon Cinema, toured

local coffeehouses. These events became a magnet for the teenage Lucas and his boyhood friend John

Plummer. The 19-year-olds began slipping away to San Francisco to hang out in jazz clubs and find news

of Canyon Cinema screenings in flyers at the City Lights bookstore. Already a promising photographer,

Lucas became infatuated with these abstract films.

"That's when he (George) really started exploring" Plummer recalled. "We went to a theater on Union

Street that shows art movies, we drove up to San Francisco State for a film festival, and there was an old

beatnik coffeehouse in Cow Hollow with shorts that were really out there." It was a season of awakening

for Lucas, who had been an uninterested slacker in high school. At an autocross track, Lucas met his first

mentor in the film industry ² famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler , a fellow aficionado of sleek racing

machines. Wexler was impressed by the way the shy teenager handled a camera, cradling it low on his

hips to get better angles. "George had a very good eye, and he thought visually," Wexler recalls.[4]

Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. USC was one of

the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, George

Lucas shared a dorm room with Randal Kleiser . Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal

Barwood and John Milius, they became a clique of film students known as The Dirty Dozen. He also

became very good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future I nd iana

Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg. Lucas was deeply influenced by the Filmic Expression course

taught at the school by filmmaker Lester Novros which concentrated on the non-narrative elements of Film Form like color, light, movement, space, and time. Another huge inspiration was the Serbian

montagist (and dean of the USC Film Department) Slavko Vorkapich, a film theoretician comparable in

historical importance to Sergei Eisenstein, who moved to Hollywood to make

stunningmontage sequences for studio features at MGM, RKO, and Paramount. Vorkapich taught the

autonomous nature of the cinematic art form, emphasizing the unique dynamic quality of movement and

kinetic energy inherent in motion pictures.

Lucas saw many inspiring movies in class, particularly the visual films coming out of the National Film

Board of Canada like Arthur Lipsett's 21-87, the French-Canadian cameraman Jean-ClaudeLabrecque's cinéma vérité 60 Cycl es, the work of Norman McLaren, and the documentaries of Claude

Jutra. Lucas fell madly in love with pure cinema and quickly became prolific at making 16 mm nonstory

noncharacter visual tone poems and cinéma vérité with such titles as Look at Life, Herbie, 1:42:08, The

Emperor , Anyone Lived in a Pretty (how) Town, Filmmaker , and 6-18-67. He was passionate and

interested in camerawork and editing, defining himself as a filmmaker as opposed to being a director, and

he loved making abstract visual films that create emotions purely through cinema.[4]



After graduating with a bachelor of fine arts in film in 1967, he tried joining the United States Air Force as

an officer, but he was immediately turned down because of his numerous speeding tickets. He was later

drafted by the Army for military service in Vietnam, but he was exempt from the draft after medical tests

showed he had diabetes, the disease that killed his paternal grandfather.

In 1967, Lucas re-enrolled as a USC graduate student in film production. Working as a teaching instructor

for a class of U.S. Navy students who were being taught documentary cinematography, Lucas directed

the short film E l ectronic Labyri nth: THX 1138 4EB, which won first prize at the 1967±68 National

Student Film Festival, and was later adapted into his first full-length feature film, THX 1138 . Lucas was

awarded a student scholarship by Warner Brothers to observe and work on the making of a film of his

choosing. The film he chose was Fi nian' s Rai nbow (1968) which was being directed byFrancis Ford

Coppola, who at the time was revered among film school students of the time as a cinema graduate who

had "made it" in Hollywood. In 1969, George Lucas was one of the camera operators on the classic

Rolling Stones concert film Gi mme Shelt er .

Film career

George Lucas is a filmmaker, with a film career dominated by writing and production. Aside from the nine

short films he made in the 1960s, he also directed six major features. His work from 1971 and 1977 as a

writer-director, which established him as a major figure in Hollywood, consists of just three films: THX

1138 , American Graffiti , and Star Wars. There was a 22-year hiatus between Star Wars Episode IV and

his only other feature-film directing credits, the three Star Wars prequels.

Lucas acted as a writer and executive producer on another successful Hollywood film franchise,the Indiana Jones series. In addition, his decision to establish his own effects company to make the

original Star Wars film has produced enormous benefits; this company, the award-winning Industrial Light

and Magic (ILM), is acknowledged[by whom? ]

one of the world leaders in the field and has created

groundbreaking[citation needed ] film special effects.

Lucas co-founded the studio American Zoetrope with Coppola²whom he met during his internship at

Warner Brothers²hoping to create a liberating environment for filmmakers to direct outside the perceived

oppressive control of the Hollywood studio system[citation needed ]. His first full-length feature film produced by

the studio, THX 1138 , was not a success. Lucas then created his own company,Lucasfilm, Ltd., and

directed American Graffiti (1973). His new-found wealth and reputation enabled him to develop a story set

in space. Even so, he encountered difficulties getting Star Wars made. It was only because Alan Ladd,

Jr., at Fox Studios liked American Graffiti that he forced through a production and distribution deal for the

film, which ended up restoring Fox to financial stability after a number of flops.[5]



Star Wars quickly became the highest-grossing film of all-time, displaced five years later by

Spielberg¶s E.T . the Ex tra-T err estrial . During the filming of Star Wars, Lucas waived his up-front fee as

director and negotiated to own the licensing rights (for novelizations, T-shirts, toys, etc.)[citation needed ]²

rights which the studio thought were nearly worthless[citation needed ]. This decision earned him hundreds of

millions of dollars[citation needed ], as he was able to directly profit from all the licensed games, toys, and

collectibles created for the franchise. This accumulated capital enabled him to finance the sequel himself.

Over the two decades after the first Star Wars film, Lucas worked extensively as a writer and/or producer,

including the many Star Wars spinoffs made for film, TV, and other media. He acted asexecutive

producer for the next two Star Wars films, assigning the direction of The E mpir e Strik es Back to Irvin

Kershner and R etur n of the J ed i to Richard Marquand, while receiving a story credit on the former and

sharing a screenwriting credit with Lawrence Kasdan on the latter. Lucas also acted as executive

producer and story writer on all four of the I nd iana Jones films, which he convinced his colleague and

good friend, Steven Spielberg, to direct. Other notable projects as a producer or executive producer in

this period include Kurosawa's Kag emusha (1980), Lawrence Kasdan's Bod y H eat (1981), Jim

Henson's Labyri nth (1986), Godfrey Reggio's Powaqqatsi (1986) and the animated film The Land Befor e

Ti me (1988). There were also some less successful projects, however, includingM or e American

Graffiti (1979), the ill-fated Howar d the Duck (1986), which was arguably[citation needed ]

the biggest flop of his

career; Willow (1988, which Lucas also wrote); and Coppola's Tuck er: The M an and His Dr eam (1988).

Between 1992 and 1996, Lucas served as executive producer for the television spinoff The Young

I nd iana Jones Chronicl es. In 1997, for the 20th anniversary of Star Wars,Lucas went back to his trilogy to

enhance and add certain scenes using newly available digital technology. These new versions were

released in theaters as the Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition. For DVD releases in 2004, this series has

received further revisions to make them congruent with the prequel trilogy. Besides the additions to the

Star Wars franchise, Lucas released Special Edition director's cuts of THX 1138 and American Graffiti

containing a number of CGI revisions.

The animation studio Pixar was founded as the Graphics Group[citation needed ]

, one third of the Computer

Division of Lucasfilm. Pixar's early computer graphics research resulted in groundbreaking effects in films

such as Star Tr ek II : The Wrath of Khan[6]

and Young Sherlock Hol mes,[6]

and the group was purchased

in 1986 by Steve Jobs shortly after he left Apple after a power struggle at Apple Computer . Jobs paid

U.S. $5 million to Lucas and put U.S. $5 million as capital into the company. The sale reflected Lucas'

desire to stop the cash flow losses from his 7-year research projects associated with new entertainment

technology tools, as well as his company's new focus on creating entertainment products rather than

tools. A contributing factor was cash-flow difficulties following Lucas' 1983 divorce concurrent with the

sudden dropoff in revenues from Star Wars licenses following the release of R etur n of the J ed i .



The sound-equipped system, THX Ltd, was founded by Lucas and Tomlinson Holman[citation needed ]. The

company was formerly owned by Lucasfilm, and contains equipment for stereo, digital, and theatrical

sound for movies, and music. Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light & Magic, the sound and visual effects

subdivisions of Lucasfilm, respectively, have become among the most respected firms in their fields[citation

needed ]. Lucasfilm Games, later renamed LucasArts, is well respected in the gaming industry[citation needed ].

In 1994, Lucas began work on the screenplay for the prequel The Phantom Menac e, which would be the

first film he had directed in over two decades. The Phantom Menac e was released in 1999, beginning a

new trilogy of Star Wars films. Lucas also directed Star Wars Episode II : Attack of the Clones and Star

Wars Episode III : R eveng e of the Sith which were released in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Numerous

critics considered these films inferior to the previously released Star Wars, The E mpir e Strik es Back ,

and R etur n of the J ed i .[7][8][9]

In 2008, he reteamed with Spielberg for I nd iana Jones and the Ki ng d om of the Crystal Skull .

Lucas currently serves as executive producer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated television

series on Cartoon Network, which was preceded by a feature film of the same name. He is also working

on a so-far untitled Star Wars live-action series.

For the film R ed Tails (2010), Lucas serves as story-writer and executive producer. He also took over

direction of reshoots while director Anthony Hemingway worked on other projects. Lucas is working on his

first musical, an untitled CGI project being produced at Skywalker Ranch. Kevin Munroe is directing

and David Berenbaum wrote the screenplay.[10]

AwardsIn 1991, The George Lucas Educational Foundation was founded as a nonprofit operating foundation to

celebrate and encourage innovation in schools. The Foundation's content is available under the

brand Edutopia, in an award-winning web site and via documentary films. Lucas, through his foundation,

was one of the leading proponents of the E-rate program in the universal service fund,[11] which was

enacted as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. On June 24, 2008, Lucas testified before

the United States House of Representatives subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet as

the head of his Foundation to advocate for a free wireless broadband educational network.[12]

The American Film Institute awarded Lucas its Life Achievement Award on June 9, 2005.[13] This was

shortly after the release of Star Wars Episode III : R eveng e of the Sith, about which he joked stating that,

since he views the entire Star Wars series as one movie, he could actually receive the award now that he

had finally "gone back and finished the movie."

On June 5, 2005, Lucas was named among the 100 "Greatest Americans" by the Discovery Channel.[14]



Lucas was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Directing and Writing for American Graffiti ,

and Best Directing and Writing for Star Wars. He received the Academy's Irving G. Thalberg Award in

1991. He appeared at the 79th Academy Awards ceremony in 2007 with Steven Spielberg and Francis

Ford Coppola to present the Best Director award to their friend Martin Scorsese. During the speech,

Spielberg and Coppola talked about the joy of winning an Oscar, making fun of Lucas, who has not won a

competitive Oscar.

In 2005, Lucas gave US$1 million to help build the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on

the National Mall in Washington D.C. to commemorate American civil rights leader Martin Luther King,

Jr.[15]

Lucas at the Ti me 100 2006 gala

On September 19, 2006, USC announced that George Lucas had donated $175±180 million to his alma

mater to expand the film school. It is the largest single donation to USC and the largest gift to a film

school anywhere.[16] Previous donations led to the already existing George Lucas Instructional Building

and Marcia Lucas Post-Production building.[17][18]

On January 1, 2007 George Lucas served as the Grand Marshal for the 2007 Tournament of Roses

Parade, and made the coin toss at the 2007Rose Bowl.

On August 25, 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver announced that Lucas would

be one of 13 California Hall of Fameinductees in The California Museum's yearlong exhibit. The induction

ceremony was on December 1, 2009 in Sacramento, California.

On September 6, 2009, Lucas was in Venice to present to the Pixar team the Golden Lion for LifetimeAchievement during the 2009 BiennaleVenice Film Festival.

Personal life

In 1969, Lucas married film editor Marcia Lou Griffin, who went on to win an Academy Award for her

editing work on the original Star Wars film. George and Marcia adopted a daughter, Amanda, in 1981,

and divorced in 1983. Lucas has since adopted two more children: Katie, born in 1988, and Jett, born in



1993. All three of his children have appeared in the three Star Wars prequels, as has Lucas himself.

Lucas had been in a long relationship with and engaged to singer Linda Ronstadt. He has been

dating Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, since 2006 and she has accompanied him to

several events including the 79th Academy Awards ceremony in February 2007, an American Film

Institute event in October 2007, the 2008 Cannes Film Festival held in May, and the 2010 Golden

Globes.[19][20][21]

Lucas was born and raised in a strong Methodist family. The religious and mythical themes in Star

Wars were inspired by Lucas' interest in the writings of mythologist Joseph Campbell,[22]

and he would

eventually come to identify strongly with the Eastern religious philosophies he studied and incorporated

into his movies, which were a major inspiration for "the Force." Lucas eventually came to state that his

religion was "Buddhist Methodist". Lucas resides in Marin County.[23] Lucas has said that he is a fan

of Seth MacFarlane's hit TV show Family Guy . MacFarlane has said that Lucasfilm was extremely helpful

when the Family Guy crew wanted to parody their works. [24]

Lucas has pledged to give half of his fortune to charity as part of an effort called The Giving Pledge led

by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to persuade America's richest individuals to donate their financial wealth

to charities.[25][26]

Documents

George Walton Lucas