Watched the main making of documentary on the episode 3 DVD and it confirmed something I had long suspected: George Lucas had a backward way of making films which has resulted in a sub par episodes 1-3.
He seems to have the approach of
1. Write a screen play. Dont spend to much time on the actual story, character development or narative
2. Start assembling hundreds of people to make the starwasr universe as authentic as possible
3. Build some minimal sets with huge green screens.
4. Throw in a little bit of acting. Quickly film the actors on green screen regurgitating the poor dialogue you created. Give them no inspiration by making them act with characters that will be filled in with CGI later on in. Make them imagine their environment as it will all be cgi'd in later
5. Now the George Lucas film making really kicks in. Take all the footage you have filmed and make a film out of it, work in as much cgi as possible and do reshoots of action scenes because you didnt quite like the way they worked the first time.
6. Let ILM beaver away for months on end actually creating the film
7. Voila, a Starwars film
CGI is the worse thing that ever happened to starwars. George Lucas has created a way of making films which makes visuals the priority while story, character development and narative take a back seat.
With the original trilogy he didnt have huge SFX budgets. He had to have a compelling story which would keep people interested. He had characters that were interesting and loveable, chewie, han, obiwan, r2d2 and c3po, all good characters, Luke, hmmmmmmmmmm, not so good but necessary. George had no choice but to create good characters, good stories, exciting real world action scenes. The space battles in ep4 have more tension and excitement than the space battles in ep1-3. George Lucas has the wrong approach to cgi. Just because you can render a scene in full cgi doesnt mean you should. I dont think its the fact that ep1-3 are made up of too much cgi that makes them bad. Its the fact that lucas has put all his efforts into creating a cgi starwars universe that is correct to the smallest detail that he has forgoten about the most important part of a film, the story.
Look at Lord of the rings, that had the right approach to cgi. The original book had a good story, good characters but to bring middle earth onto the screen cgi was needed. But Peter Jackson used real sets where he could, real locations. In the fellowship of the ring when the fellowship are walking up that snow covered mountain and sean beans character picks up the ring, the whole scene is real. Its a real mountain, its real snow, the actors are freezing cold. If lucas had been in charge it would of been cgi!! Imagine the beggining of the return of the jedi on the ice planet done by lucas now. He could cgi all over that scene. The asteroid belt that han flies through would all be cgi. Jabba would probably be cgi, the run into the death star would be cgi. It wouldnt make it a better film.
Dont get me wrong I am not anti cgi but I just feel that Lucas uses it in the wrong way. Good directors have good screen plays, good actors and good characters. Give them good lines on real sets and where its not possible to use real sets then use minimal cgi.
Theres a scene in episode 3 where obiwan sneaks into padme's ship, its done at a far distance and the whole scene is cgi, nothing is real. Now 20 years ago he would of had to built a replica ship, have a close in shot of pdame talking and then obiwan sneaking aboad. This is how films should be. On the making of documentary Rick McCallum and Goerge Lucas talk about the fight scene on mustafa, how complicated it was, how much time and effort went into the cgi, the greebe screen sets etc etc. This was a good scene but not for all the cgi. It was a good scene because it was the scene that every starwars fan has been waiting for for 20 years. It was good because the 2 actors had mastered some very good sword fighting skills. Granted it was a dramatic location but it wasnt the reason the scene was so good. George could of easily filmed this on location next to a volcano and then cgi'd in some of the background but no he decided to do the whole thing cgi.
Lucas should go back to story and character and forget about cgi.
He seems to have the approach of
1. Write a screen play. Dont spend to much time on the actual story, character development or narative
2. Start assembling hundreds of people to make the starwasr universe as authentic as possible
3. Build some minimal sets with huge green screens.
4. Throw in a little bit of acting. Quickly film the actors on green screen regurgitating the poor dialogue you created. Give them no inspiration by making them act with characters that will be filled in with CGI later on in. Make them imagine their environment as it will all be cgi'd in later
5. Now the George Lucas film making really kicks in. Take all the footage you have filmed and make a film out of it, work in as much cgi as possible and do reshoots of action scenes because you didnt quite like the way they worked the first time.
6. Let ILM beaver away for months on end actually creating the film
7. Voila, a Starwars film
CGI is the worse thing that ever happened to starwars. George Lucas has created a way of making films which makes visuals the priority while story, character development and narative take a back seat.
With the original trilogy he didnt have huge SFX budgets. He had to have a compelling story which would keep people interested. He had characters that were interesting and loveable, chewie, han, obiwan, r2d2 and c3po, all good characters, Luke, hmmmmmmmmmm, not so good but necessary. George had no choice but to create good characters, good stories, exciting real world action scenes. The space battles in ep4 have more tension and excitement than the space battles in ep1-3. George Lucas has the wrong approach to cgi. Just because you can render a scene in full cgi doesnt mean you should. I dont think its the fact that ep1-3 are made up of too much cgi that makes them bad. Its the fact that lucas has put all his efforts into creating a cgi starwars universe that is correct to the smallest detail that he has forgoten about the most important part of a film, the story.
Look at Lord of the rings, that had the right approach to cgi. The original book had a good story, good characters but to bring middle earth onto the screen cgi was needed. But Peter Jackson used real sets where he could, real locations. In the fellowship of the ring when the fellowship are walking up that snow covered mountain and sean beans character picks up the ring, the whole scene is real. Its a real mountain, its real snow, the actors are freezing cold. If lucas had been in charge it would of been cgi!! Imagine the beggining of the return of the jedi on the ice planet done by lucas now. He could cgi all over that scene. The asteroid belt that han flies through would all be cgi. Jabba would probably be cgi, the run into the death star would be cgi. It wouldnt make it a better film.
Dont get me wrong I am not anti cgi but I just feel that Lucas uses it in the wrong way. Good directors have good screen plays, good actors and good characters. Give them good lines on real sets and where its not possible to use real sets then use minimal cgi.
Theres a scene in episode 3 where obiwan sneaks into padme's ship, its done at a far distance and the whole scene is cgi, nothing is real. Now 20 years ago he would of had to built a replica ship, have a close in shot of pdame talking and then obiwan sneaking aboad. This is how films should be. On the making of documentary Rick McCallum and Goerge Lucas talk about the fight scene on mustafa, how complicated it was, how much time and effort went into the cgi, the greebe screen sets etc etc. This was a good scene but not for all the cgi. It was a good scene because it was the scene that every starwars fan has been waiting for for 20 years. It was good because the 2 actors had mastered some very good sword fighting skills. Granted it was a dramatic location but it wasnt the reason the scene was so good. George could of easily filmed this on location next to a volcano and then cgi'd in some of the background but no he decided to do the whole thing cgi.
Lucas should go back to story and character and forget about cgi.