The Life Of George Lucas Film Studies Essay

George Lucas was born on May 14, 1944 on a walnut ranch in Modesto, California. When he was growing up his interests were those of most kids his age like history, racecars, and music. From a young age he showed natural energy and determination for anything he strived for. Through his high school career he wanted to become a racecar driver but a tragic accident his senior year ended his pursuits to become a racecar driver and changed his view on life. Throughout his career in the film industry he is best known for his box office hit star wars series. From his series Star wars George Lucas is the best Sci-fi writer, producer, and director of his time and revolutionized the movie watching experience forever.

After Lucas’s car crash in high school he ended his dream of becoming a racecar driver and made him aware of his mortality. He then went on to contract a interest in filmmaking. Although he changed his view on life it didn’t alter his powerful imagination and strong determination. Lucas wanted to serve his country by trying to join the U.S air force after graduating but was turned down. He instead went on to attending Modesto College and developing his filmmaking interest and ideas. “He received encouragement from cinematographer Haskel Wexler and gained admissions to the film department of the university of southern California”(Encyclopedia Britannica,1 ) . This extra push from Wexler gave Lucas a opportunity to be more determined in school after barely graduating. With his new determination from Wexler he made his first film THX-1138:4EB (Electronic Labyrinth) he made with lifetime friend Francis Ford Coppola as executive producer. It was a fantasy future that incorporated a robotized, dehumanized society. This movie though unsuccessful marked his start in sci-fi and won him first place at the national student film festival while at Modesto College. His innovative sound design for the movie gives future insight on how Lucas will revolutionize the movie watching experience. It also showed his creativeness and genius spark in the sci-fi world.

Joseph Campbell was George Lucas’s mentor and partial influence through Campbell’s mythology publication and studies. Campbell’s work covered the many aspects of human experience, and paved the structure of Lucas’s Star Wars stories. Lucas’s low budget film American Graffiti was a unseen hit being the most successful film of its time, and putting storytelling in a never before seen direction. This successful film gave Lucas the status to pursuit his most epic movie Star Wars.

Lucas began writing the screenplay for Star Wars in 1973. Lucas’s vision was a classic portray of the conflict between good versus evil with many original sci-fi ideas in a futuristic setting. The movie displayed Lucas’s powerful imagination and showed his passion throughout the movie. Many studios didn’t believe the film would be successful and most tuned the idea down except Twentieth Century Fox. Lucas was unhappy with the limitations of special effects of the time but refused to settle. “Lucas formed the production company Lucasfilms, LTD., which contained a number of divisions, including Industrial Light and Magic, regarded as the most prestigious special effects workshop in America.”(Britannica Biographies,1) . Also included in Lucasfilms, LTD., is a company Sprocket Systems which edited the sounds of Star Wars which is famously known as Skywalker Sounds. This revolutionized the film watching experience and reengineered the industry.

His career is mostly independent. Lucas liked being independent and with the success of his film American Graffiti allowed Lucas to stay mostly independent for his

first Star Wars film. This is because Lucas didn’t want his film to be altered in any way by the studio production. This shows how determined he was to get complete creative control in his films. “In his films he promoted a special effects-driven aesthetic through the formation of Industrial Light and Magic, a company that produces state of the art effects for films.”(Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia,1).

Star Wars started a Sci-fi hysteria that had never been seen before. Its storytelling structure put parts of Lucas’s own life experiences in the movie to relate what he learned from Joseph Campbell’s studies. Some relations Lucas put into his movies from his life include the name of the main character “Luke ” from Star wars was Lucas’s nickname in high school. Luke’s mentor Obi Wan represents Joseph Campbell, Lucas’s mentor. The many near death experiences between the main characters in the film represent the mortality Lucas faced head to head with his near death car crash in his teenage years. Also the fighting of the dark forces throughout the movie relates to Lucas’s earlier years of trying to join the military that he never fulfilled. The element that Lucas produced by using these life experiences in his movies contributed to the films interesting and unique storyline. Many other Sci-fi filmmakers intertwined this idea within many of their films.

Lucas’s is very passionate about his Star war . He dedicated a majority of his life ensuring his movie would be to his standards. He did that through dedication and the work he put into his movie created a phenomenon in the Sci-fi world. The process which he made to create his films created technology in the special effects and sound effects divisions that changed the movie watching experience and George Lucas

Became the most famous Sci-fi writer , producer , and director