Originally posted by: JediFlyer06

Thank merciful god that Lucas didn't have the technology available back in the 70s to do what he did with the PT. If he had, Star Wars would suck. The more time goes on, the more apparent it becomes that Star Wars succeeded in spite of George Lucas, not because of him.

You know, I think you just might be right . . .

I've had the same thought recently, and it disturbs me, though I do think he wasn't nearly as off his rocker as he has been lately. He's been haunted by the technology of special effects not being good enough to live up to his "vision" but I believe some of the limitations ended up making the original SW as good as it is. Take the Jabba scene for example, most of the dislike of it these days comes from the bad cgi job, but actually I think that scene was always a mistake to begin with. It didn't belong there, the film didn't need it, and ended up much better for not having it in, made possible precisely *because* the effects just weren't working out. But the way Lucas sees SW is quite different than how it actually ended up, and what fans love about it tends to be the stuff that didn't originate with him . . .

On the subject of sets, I would go with real sets whenever possible, of course. Miniatures and other physical tools to be used where possible--think the scene in ESB where Luke loses his hand, behind the actors there was an actual forced-perspective painting on set for the background, it wasn't even bluescreened, I believe. Then go to cgi for things that aren't feasible by any physical means, and to augment and clean up the physical effects if necessary.