How Star Wars was saved by editing.

Anyone who was even peripherally involved in film in Northern California during the 70s and 80s knows the truth about Marcia Lucas' contribution to George's films, and other films. She was a great editor and had a wonderful story sense and grasp of what audiences wanted on the screen. Arguably, George Lucas would not be the "legend" he is without Marcia. His "cleansing" of her from the history of LucasFilm, is the proof of just how vindictive he could be. Marcia was a major reason he is now where he is in the film world.
 
Anyone who was even peripherally involved in film in Northern California during the 70s and 80s knows the truth about Marcia Lucas' contribution to George's films, and other films. She was a great editor and had a wonderful story sense and grasp of what audiences wanted on the screen. Arguably, George Lucas would not be the "legend" he is without Marcia. His "cleansing" of her from the history of LucasFilm, is the proof of just how vindictive he could be. Marcia was a major reason he is now where he is in the film world.

This is painfully true. Without Marcia George Lucas would NOT be a household name.
This, and this alone, is the primary reason I've never cared for George. True she stung him, but she MADE him.
He needs to get over it and give proper credit where it's due instead of treating her like Voldemort.
 
Also-- there's BTS footage of George and crew after watching the rough cut of TPM and basically had the same result. Only that time, he was surrounded by yes-men. Too bad DePalma wasn't there.

If I recall it correctly, there was an infamous screening where George showed a cut to Steven Spielberg and some other colleagues, and the consensus was that he better make a lot of changes to the movie. George allegedly even started to reedit the movie, but after a short time he nixed that effort and decided to "stay true to his vision" or something along that line. So, yes, only yes men booked for the fantasy flight that the PT was.
 
If I recall it correctly, there was an infamous screening where George showed a cut to Steven Spielberg and some other colleagues, and the consensus was that he better make a lot of changes to the movie. George allegedly even started to reedit the movie, but after a short time he nixed that effort and decided to "stay true to his vision" or something along that line. So, yes, only yes men booked for the fantasy flight that the PT was.

I was never privy to anything involving any behind the scenes accounts involving George Lucas, but perhaps some here were. Was he prone to firing people who didn't agree with him? I mean, we assume this when we throw around the term "surrounded by 'yes' men" but was this actually the case?
 
I was never privy to anything involving any behind the scenes accounts involving George Lucas, but perhaps some here were. Was he prone to firing people who didn't agree with him? I mean, we assume this when we throw around the term "surrounded by 'yes' men" but was this actually the case?

I have not heard anybody say or read anyone writing a bad word about him as a boss, but we haven´t heard or read a word about opposition either. So I personally can only assume that he was such a great boss that nobody actually wanted to oppose him. Or that people did not care since they could work on Star Wars. The only thing that comes to mind was the big falling out with John Dykstra, but as I understand it JD was not an easy person to work with anyways. I guess the OT was far more of an unemployment mine field than the PT was.
I furthermore can only guess that the departments were probably built not only on creative and artistic professionality but probably by compatibility with the boss? I.e. that people were hand picked for the departmens of great importance, based on social compatibility?
 
His "cleansing" of her from the history of LucasFilm, is the proof of just how vindictive he could be. Marcia was a major reason he is now where he is in the film world.
Uh...wasn't Marcia ALSO the one who left him a single dad with an infant, then tried to take him for every penny he had? I'd say perhaps some bitterness is understandable in that case.
 
Despite how they might be as people, and how they acted after the fact, Lucas making Star Wars without Marcia Lucas and Gary Kurtz makes for a very different animal.

So what? Lucas making Star Wars without John Williams or Stuart Freeborn or Ralph McQuarrie or Denis Muran or Ben Burtt or Harrison Ford or Carrie Fisher or Mark Hamill or Alec Guinness, makes for a very different animal.

Credit needs to go to George for both conjuring up this fantastic world, and then for surrounding himself with great people, like those listed above (and more), to get it done.

The Wook
 
I think that may be the 'yes men' we're just sycophantic and never thought to question the once visionary writer and director. Did we not all expect a new trilogy to be as awesome and groundbreaking as the OT ?
 
So what? Lucas making Star Wars without John Williams or Stuart Freeborn or Ralph McQuarrie or Denis Muran or Ben Burtt or Harrison Ford or Carrie Fisher or Mark Hamill or Alec Guinness, makes for a very different animal.

Credit needs to go to George for both conjuring up this fantastic world, and then for surrounding himself with great people, like those listed above (and more), to get it done.

The Wook

I agree, but by the time Jedi came around it started becoming more of the "George" show

Even if the prequels had kept the same basic story, I wonder what they could have been like if he had the same people surrounding him and he actually listened to them

He was a good visionary, he just needed people who could focus him
 
I don't think the yes-men situation was deliberate on George's part....it kind of happens all by itself once you're successful. It takes diligence on the boss's part to make extra effort to find people unafraid to speak their minds, and to create a culture that encourages that. He might not have deliberately made his yes-men bed, but he failed to prevent it from happening.
 
So what? Lucas making Star Wars without John Williams or Stuart Freeborn or Ralph McQuarrie or Denis Muran or Ben Burtt or Harrison Ford or Carrie Fisher or Mark Hamill or Alec Guinness, makes for a very different animal.

Credit needs to go to George for both conjuring up this fantastic world, and then for surrounding himself with great people, like those listed above (and more), to get it done.

The Wook

Sure-- but sometimes you need people to disagree and check you. Kurtz was not asked back because of that. Lucas is a great big picture guy, excellent producer, and genius businessman-- but he's an subaverage director, and a terrible writer, and had he been called on that the PT would have been better. Maybe not groundbreaking and mind-blowing-- but certainly better.
 
Dykstra and Kurtz were both cut loose for letting their parts of the operation fall millions of dollars behind schedule. They were both big creative assets but it's hard to blame Lucas for his beefs with them. Lucas more or less bet his career on ANH working. Then he literally put up every dollar he had to fund ESB.
 
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Sure-- but sometimes you need people to disagree and check you. Kurtz was not asked back because of that. Lucas is a great big picture guy, excellent producer, and genius businessman-- but he's an subaverage director, and a terrible writer, and had he been called on that the PT would have been better. Maybe not groundbreaking and mind-blowing-- but certainly better.

I hate when people try to diminish George Lucas as just a "big picture guy", when it comes to the creative aspects of his movies. George was creatively responsible for sooooo many of the decisions--small, medium, and large--that contributed to the greatness of Star Wars.

The Wook
 
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I hate when people try to diminish George Lucas as just a "big picture guy", when it comes to the creative aspects of his movies. George was creatively responsible for sooooo many of the decisions--small, medium, and large--that contributed to the greatness of Star Wars.

The Wook

He is or was a good editor, but as far as I can tell not that good at telling heart felt stories. He has a keen eye for architecture and style and a feel for new things. He is a tech entrepeneur and as far as I can tell from a few thousand miles away a real philanthropist. He has many, many, many good qualities and I would really love to have the opportunity to talk to him about a lot our common interests. Still, even great minds can make mistakes and err. That is the human factor. I cannot think of bad movies by e.g. Hitchcock or Ford.
 
Dykstra and Kurtz were both cut loose for letting their parts of the operation fall millions of dollars behind schedule. They were both big creative assets but it's hard to blame Lucas for his beefs with them. Lucas more or less bet his career on ANH working. Then he literally put up every dollar he had to fund ESB.

George is that you?

What a bunch of tripe. Without Dykstra, the team he created, and the camera system that bears his name, Star Wars would have been an elaborate mess.

As for Kurtz's part: I can only say the two films he was part of are sure a lot better then those he wasn't part of.
 
Lucas never quite understood Dykstra was inventing and innovating from scratch, with a lot of artists who had never done anything of the kind before. They even temp-hired an old timer to come in and teach ILM how to do blue screen photography. THEY DIDN'T KNOW. A lot of trial and error, a lot of prep work. When GL came back from England and freaked out because they'd only gotten one shot done, he failed to consider how much it took to get to that point. You have to cut bait before you can fish.

I don't know where the Kurtz-went-over schedule thing came from. Care to elaborate, batguy?
 
George is that you?

What a bunch of tripe. Without Dykstra, the team he created, and the camera system that bears his name, Star Wars would have been an elaborate mess.

As for Kurtz's part: I can only say the two films he was part of are sure a lot better then those he wasn't part of.

Yes on the effort part. And all the information we can get is only second hand hearsay at best. There are a few sources, though, that mention Dykstra and Lucas having character compatibility issues. We know that both are complicated persons, but it sounded more like Dykstra acting a bit like a diva. And as far as I can remember, the same sources tell us that GL was upset about Dykstra working on the original BSG.

Lucas never quite understood Dykstra was inventing and innovating from scratch, with a lot of artists who had never done anything of the kind before. They even temp-hired an old timer to come in and teach ILM how to do blue screen photography. THEY DIDN'T KNOW. A lot of trial and error, a lot of prep work. When GL came back from England and freaked out because they'd only gotten one shot done, he failed to consider how much it took to get to that point. You have to cut bait before you can fish.

I don't know where the Kurtz-went-over schedule thing came from. Care to elaborate, batguy?

DIdn´t that happen in conjunction with ESB and Kershner working too slow for GL´s tastes?
 
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