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Post #466342

Author
Bocce_Linguist
Parent topic
Interesting Tidbit from lucas before episode 1 started filming that gave a hint that the pt films were not given the care needed to be great
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/466342/action/topic#466342
Date created
22-Jan-2011, 4:56 PM

TheBoost said:

Given that Lucas has been overwhelmingly a director interested in visuals and technical processes I think it's baseless, bordering on silly, to say that the use of CGI is motivated by greed.

While it indeed might be cheaper to use CGI backgrounds rather than location shooting or extremely extensive sets (since most of the PT locations could not actually be found on Earth), I fail to see why Lucas is

  • obligated to go a more expensive route on his self-funded picture lest he be called 'greedy.'
  • forbidden from using the technology he developed for this very purpose.

 

Also, using the PT to "showcase" his technology kind of ignore the facts that

  1. ILM had been a gold standard of SFX for decades, hiring out to do all sorts of films.
  2. There's nothing that revolutionary in the PT that the industry wasn't already gearing up for and didn't know ILM (and other FX houses) was already capable of.

 

As for your moralizing at the end there, George Lucas made some of the greatest films of all time, including four films already in the Library of Congress and on the AFI Top 100. Nothing can take that away from him. And as for his few extra bucks, the PT made almost 3 billion dollars in box office alone.

So let me honestly ask... if Geonosis had been shot on location somewhere, would the AOTC plots somehow not have sucked? If the Gungan City had been an actual set would Jar-Jar have not been annoying? If Mustafar had been real, would the Anakin/Padme romance have worked dramatically? I think what you're complaining about it meaningless when compared to why the movies were actually not good.

   Your points in debating with haljordan are well taken...

That being said:

One good reason for Lucas to NOT use CGI:  to ensure that the PT at least look like it took place BEFORE the OT, (like a prequel should) and not like it took place AFTER it.     (Or, to paraphrase Howard Kazanjian circa 2005,  the PT looks like 'World War IV' to the OT's 'World War II',  contrary to plans made during the early 80's when he and Lucas had discussed the backstory, in which the PT was said to be like 'World War I'  in technological/visual aspects compared to the CT that they were working on. )