Sign In

George Lucas Predicts Fanediting Back in 1989 (Seriously)

Author
Date
Author
Time
Post link

In the midst of listening to the hour-long Academy of Achievement interview with George Lucas, I had to pause the video to make sure of what I had just heard. When discussing the future of cinema and the digital filmmaking revolution, George Lucas quite literally predicts fanediting as an art form, and that it will inevitably will emerge with the internet age and computer technology. I immediately thought to myself, “how could he have possibly had the foresight to predict all of this back in 1989?”. My mind was blown.

George was heavily involved not only with revolutionizing CGI and digital cameras, but also digital editing software with the creation of EditDroid. It’s hard to comprehend just how much of what we do in today’s industry is directly because of his contributions to culture, cinema, and technology. None of what we do on this website could even be remotely possible without him.

Go see for yourself, and let me know what you think!

George Lucas, Academy Class of 1989, Full Interview:
https://youtu.be/djBSxW4PrmY?t=2461 (Skip to 41:01)

I pose a question to all of you: what are some other George Lucas predictions that came true, and some that didn’t?

Author
Time
Post link

Fascinating little snippet. I wonder if it’s sort of all fun and games until it happens to oneself, as his sentiment about looking forward to seeing how people ostensibly remix existing films using the Internet did not seem to carry over into The Phantom Edit.

I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently.

Author
Time
Post link

Hal 9000 said:

Fascinating little snippet. I wonder if it’s sort of all fun and games until it happens to oneself, as his sentiment about looking forward to seeing how people ostensibly remix existing films using the Internet did not seem to carry over into The Phantom Edit.

I mean, did Lucas ever publicly complain about that? I haven’t seen every one of his interviews, but it seems like he stayed fairly quiet when it came to the prequel editing scene. Plus, he clearly took the main selling point of that edit to heart by drastically reducing Jar-Jar’s presence in AOTC.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

Author
Time
Post link

Good point. I recall some ‘official’ condemnation of it, but I can’t say I’m aware of anything that came from GL personally.

I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently.

Author
Time
Post link

Lovely video but I doubt this is from 89, looks closer to 97, somewhere around TPM production.

Here’s George in 89, shooting Last Crusade for comparison.

s

Or him dressed in the Emperor’s robes from ROTJ, also in '89, which is just here cause I thought it was fun.

robe

Author
Time
Post link

Bobson Dugnutt said:

Lovely video but I doubt this is from 89, looks closer to 97, somewhere around TPM production.

Love the photos, and yes, that makes sense. I tried to do some research on the Academy Achievement interview to fact check if it really was '89, but I can’t seem to find confirmation. Anyways, I still think his foresight is very impressive even if the interview was taken just before or around TPM’s production.