All filmmakers (even the most influential) have to start somewhere, and that includes
George Lucas. It’s hard to put into words just how important the Star Wars creator’s
contributions have been to the motion picture industry. From Indiana Jones to Industrial
Light and Magic, Lucas has been behind not only the movie business’s biggest franchises,
but also its biggest technological innovations.
George Lucas led the transition from celluloid to digital, paving the way for modern CGI,
and his astute business strategies in merchandising showed the world how movies could make not
just millions in the box office, but billions at the toy store.
He’s not without his critics, of course. He’s been crowned the King of Wooden Dialogue,
and his constant tinkering with the original Star Wars trilogy over the years has won him
plenty of detractors, but whether you love or hate his work, there’s no denying that
movies wouldn’t be the same without the career of George Lucas... but before he became
one of the most successful filmmakers to ever live, he was a 21-year-old student at the
University of Southern California.
[music]
The way Lucas tells it, he was really never that interested in movies growing up. At 12-years-old,
he fell in love with cars, and chose to spend his time in high school tinkering under the
hood... even racing underground circuits at the nearby fairgrounds. His obsession with
race cars was to the detriment of schoolwork, and Lucas’s father (who owned a stationary
store in town) was keen on reining him in by dragging him - kicking and screaming, if
need be - into the family business.
A week before high school graduation, George Lucas was in a terrible car accident. Driving
home from the library in his street-legal race car, Lucas was broadsided while trying
to make a left-hand turn. His car flipped several times and wrapped itself around a
tree... the kind of accident that usually results in a fatality. As it happened, George’s
seat belt broke, and he was ejected from the vehicle - likely saving his life. The accident
resulted in major injuries. His lungs were crushed. He had severe hemorrhaging. His heart
had stopped when paramedics found him.
After being rushed to the hospital, doctors managed to bring him back.
Once awake, George had plenty of time to lay in a hospital bed and think about his life’s
direction. Soon, he decided to give up racing and pursue other interests.
After graduation, he enrolled in Modesto Jr. College and studied social science, majoring
in anthropology, but his heart was in illustration (much to the chagrin of his father).
Around that time, he snagged an 8mm camera, and began shooting car races for fun, and
soon began tinkering with home movies.
His best friend at the time was planning on attending USC to major in business, and he
asked George to tag along as he drove up to the entrance exam. Once there, on a whim,
George decided to take the exam too - and much to his surprise, passed.
Unsure of what to select as a major, his friend suggested cinematography, as George seemed
to be enjoying experimenting with 8mm.
Lucas agreed and was soon enrolled in USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, one of the earliest
schools in America devoted to teaching the art of motion picture production. There, Lucas
was given unprecedented access to the greatest films ever made, and soon fell in love with
the medium.
The year was 1965.
Lucas’s first semester consisted of both a Film History class and a class on Animation.
While Film History taught him of the moviemakers who had come before him, Animation class was
his first real opportunity to create his OWN original works.
His first assignment was simple: Lucas was given a 1 minute roll of film, and with it,
was required to capture a number of basic camera movements listed on a worksheet. It’s
a fairly straightforward exercise meant only to get students familiar with the animation
camera, teaching them how to operate the equipment: check focus, perform pans, tilts, zooms (the
kind of thing they teach high schoolers in TV/Video classes these days).
While the other students took the assignment and went through the motions, George Lucas
decided to go the second mile and used HIS roll of film not just to perform the required
operations of the camera, but to simultaneously tell a story.
What resulted was George Lucas’s first real movie - a one minute short film entitled “Look at Life."
[music]
[fast-paced drums]
[minister shouting Bible verses]
The movie was a sensation at USC - unlike anything ever produced by students before.
The film department entered it into dozens of festivals all over the world, and it won
countless awards.
Based on this first success, George Lucas was then certain: he was meant to make movies.
This short is, in many ways, I believe, a microcosm of his later techniques and overall
approach to the motion pictures that would define his career.
It showcases three qualities that characterize much of what makes Lucas such a successful
artist.
First, it demonstrates Lucas’s forward-thinking when it comes to animation.
While “Look at Life” seems rather run-of-the-mill these days, it’s important to remember that
(for the time) this was a giant leap forward for student filmmaking.
This was made in 1965, decades before non-linear and digital editing systems. Every camera
movement, every zoom, every crossfade had to be done meticulously by hand! Yet, each
shot is fluid and the movie’s animation is clean and cohesive. For this first-time
assignment, Lucas pulled out all the stops, splicing eye-catching imagery and even interweaving
title cards: all the technological tricks available in the classroom at the time.
Obviously, as the years progressed, and his potential toolbox expanded, George Lucas remained
true to this approach and stayed at the forefront of what was possible in Motion Picture animation.
The original Star Wars trilogy is a masterclass in the techniques of the time: stop motion,
chroma key, rotoscoping, and more! And, the prequel trilogy pushed the movie business’s
limits even further with computer generated environments, characters, and things like
motion tracking, photorealistic rendering, and integrating live action and animated elements
within the frame are now the standard for blockbusters. Lucas always tested the upper
limits of the technology he had available to him.
See, he didn’t just make movies to turn a profit. He used them as opportunities to
experiment with new technology and push the medium further, often going into debt and
taking severe financial risks in the hopes that these experiments would be a success.
Even as a student, Lucas went above and beyond what was expected of the times.
Secondly, Lucas supplemented the movie’s visuals with a provocative and breathtaking
soundtrack. What separated “Look at Life” from every other student’s work was the
music, which hits you right out of the gate. Rather than turning in a 1-minute silent reel
of camera tests, Lucas decided to incorporate a score - something that had never been done
before at USC.
Again, these days it seems as simple as just dropping a music file onto a timeline, but
in 1965, Lucas had to do this by hand... and he didn’t just hard cut a random song into
a finished movie! Each cut is timed perfectly with the beat of the music, AND he even mixes
vocals over the soundtrack at the film’s conclusion.
Not only did he raise the bar by including music in his project, he took it a step further
by layering sound from multiple audio sources. This meant meticulous planning to properly
sync all the required elements.
And when you look at George Lucas’s later works, there’s no denying that he understands
the key role music plays in taking movies to the next level. John Williams’s breathtaking
score in the Star Wars films is iconic, and without it, those movies wouldn’t pack nearly
the emotional punch that they do. Even Indiana Jones is full of romp and action with just
as memorable a soundtrack.
Even when starting out, Lucas took advantage of music.
Thirdly and finally, Look at Life shows us that above everything else, George Lucas cares
about story. While his peers looked at that class assignment and saw only a list of mundane
exercises to run though and get a passing grade, Lucas looked at his homework as an
opportunity to do something more. He went beyond what was expected and melded the assignment
into a thought-provoking narrative that would strike a chord with the youth culture of the
1960s. He had a target audience in mind, and made a movie that would resonate with them.
With this first film, Lucas made it clear: he wasn’t in film school to learn how to
be a camera-pusher on a Hollywood lot. He was going to tell his own stories, his own
way.
A short time later, Lucas would co-found the studio American Zoetrope with Francis Ford
Coppola, and eventually Lucasfilm Ltd. The rest, as they, is history.
What can George Lucas’s first film teach the modern-day aspiring filmmaker?
Mostly, it teaches up-and-coming artists (whether students, or otherwise) to go beyond what
is expected, and to use even what appears on the surface to be a boring and banal job
or assignment as a proving ground for something greater.
If you’re in school, and your professor gives you a simple assignment like, say, a
60-second camera test... ask yourself: what can you do to make YOUR project stand out
from everyone else's?
If you’re a freelance videographer or artist and you’ve been hired to make a 30-second
commercial for a local business, or produce a banner for a local community event, how
can you stretch your creativity to its absolute limit and produce a final product that will
not only wow the client, but future potential employers?
If YOU were George Lucas’s classmate in 1965, what kind of film would YOU have made?
Most importantly... what will you make today?
Maybe you're an up-and-coming or aspiring artist, and you’re looking for a way to
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