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George's directorial style

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This is a thread to talk about different aspects of Lucas' direction that run through all of his Star Wars films.

I'll start with one that really sticks out to me- George Lucas always directs actors with belts on to put both of their hands on their belt. Obi-Wan does it, Darth Vader does it, Count Dooku does it in the arena in II- even look at the deleted Jabba the Hutt scene from SW- Jabba does it. Palpatine does it several times in the PT. It would be a coincidence did it not happen so many times when he directed.

Any others?

Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side

Emperor Jar-Jar
“Back when we made Star Wars, we just couldn’t make Palpatine as evil as we intended. Now, thanks to the miracles of technology, it is finally possible. Finally, I’ve created the movies that I originally imagined.” -George Lucas on the 2007 Extra Extra Special HD-DVD Edition

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LOL. Here's another.

Each film features a scene of severance, both physical and thematically. Someone loses a limb in each film and in most of them there is a separation of sorts, a severance from one's life or loved ones. Luke 'severs' his ties with Tatooine, Han is 'severed/separated' from his friends, Luke & Leia are separated from their friends in 'Jedi' and so on.

Physically the choices are obvious - Walrus Man's arm, Luke's hand, Vader's hand, Darth Maul's torso, Jango's head, Anakin's arms and legs. The list goes on and on.

I think that the severances in the Star Wars Universe are really thematically interesting and symbolic of many, many things taking place in the context of the films.
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I personally love the darkness and texture he brought to The Empire Strikes Back. Oh wait ...
I am fluent in over six million forms of procrastination.
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one lucas directorial touch i never get sick of are the close-ups during the lightsaber battles. at some point during every one, there's a tight close-up of the faces of the combatants as they push their blades into each other. always gets me going.
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GL hasn't got a directorial style
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Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side

Emperor Jar-Jar
“Back when we made Star Wars, we just couldn’t make Palpatine as evil as we intended. Now, thanks to the miracles of technology, it is finally possible. Finally, I’ve created the movies that I originally imagined.” -George Lucas on the 2007 Extra Extra Special HD-DVD Edition

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Balony.

Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side

Emperor Jar-Jar
“Back when we made Star Wars, we just couldn’t make Palpatine as evil as we intended. Now, thanks to the miracles of technology, it is finally possible. Finally, I’ve created the movies that I originally imagined.” -George Lucas on the 2007 Extra Extra Special HD-DVD Edition

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no it's true, look at the bad editing in AOTC, look at his films after Star Wars.
"A Jedi can feel the force flow through him".
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just because the prequels are bad movies doesn't mean they were poorly directed in terms of shot composition, angle, etc. they may be, but if so, tell us why.

one annoying thing he does (at least to me) that he does a ton in the prequels is the master shot with the slow zoom in on the action. in fact, many if not most of his shots of every type feature some kind of slow move in on the subject. it's like the camera just can't sit still.
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Originally posted by: DarthAstuart
just because the prequels are bad movies doesn't mean they were poorly directed in terms of shot composition, angle, etc. they may be, but if so, tell us why.

one annoying thing he does (at least to me) that he does a ton in the prequels is the master shot with the slow zoom in on the action. in fact, many if not most of his shots of every type feature some kind of slow move in on the subject. it's like the camera just can't sit still.


I don't blame Lucas so much for that one as I do the CGI artists. That's a gripe I have with most CGI establishing shots- in an attempt to make them seem more 'realistic' or dynamic, the digital artists tend to over-do zooms and pans. I personally believe its a fear that if the 'camera' doesn't move then the audience will figure out the shot is not 'real'- sort of a self-fullfilling prophecy IMHO.
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Actually, the Star Wars Episodes I-III move a lot slower than many contemporary 'FX' films. The cuts last a little longer, more in style with the originals.

Television pretty much ruined the public's attention span. In a 30 second commercial, there's usually a cut every second. We have become accustomed to processing visual information at an alarming rate, and this has carried over into movies. Take a look at a chase scene in a contemporary film, then look at some of the 'fly-by's' in any one of the Star Wars prequels. You'll notice a huge difference.

I agree that the FX master shot has become overdone. I remember fans on the 'net heaping tons of praise on Peter Jackson for his reservations at using the sweeping FX shot and how better he was than Lucas for not showing off digital FX. Well, I go to see 'Fellowship' and there it is - the 'camera' flies in from a high overhead shot, sweeps down through Orthanc as Sauron's army constructs the tower...I mean, it was pretty but not necessary and make no mistake - it was WETA showing off.

I think people really need to be careful not to hang Lucas out to dry. He's given a lot of fillmakers the tools to do what they envision, but it's up to them eventually. Yeah, Lucas's ILM technology created The Hulk, but I don't see anyone criticizing that monstrosity of a film.

I'd like to ask many of you a simple question - Why is it, exactly, that you feel the need to question Lucas more than any other contemporary filmmaker, especially with such venom and spite?
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i get what y'all are saying about the FX shot, but I'm thinking more of just an average medium or close-up shot, where the camera will just start sloooooowly creeping toward the person speaking. happens all the time in ROTS--i recall it in the Palpy/Anakin scene in the opera, for some reason, although memory may fail. maybe that's an FX trickery bit too, to keep the shot in motion for the background or something? but you can't even see much of the background. maybe I explained it poorly, too--the camera's actually static most of the time; it's just the shot that changes.

as for questioning lucas with venom and spite, i didn't come to this thread to do that--i'm honestly interested in discussing him as a director and solely that. i do have plenty of venom and spite for him, because i think the prequels are mostly horrible movies that demonstrate lazy filmmaking, great hubris, and a mysterious lack of ability on Lucas' part. that doesn't have much to do with this discussion for me, though--like I said, a bad movie doesn't necessarily have to be poorly directed. in fact, my biggest gripes with the prequels probably have more to do with story and plot.

another directing choice I liked quite a lot--those faux handheld camera shots in the geonosis battle in AOTC. clever stuff, very visceral.
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I'm sure a lot of posters here have problems with other directors as well, but you have to remember the purpose of this site and these forums. A lot of the people who do have venom and spite against Lucas will end up coming here, obviously. And, most of the time, it isn't really relevant to talk about whether or not some other director royally screwed something up.

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How about some of the themes that constantly reappear in all his films?

----Would-be hero is stifled at home, so he leaves or is propelled by outside forces to embark upon a journey to fulfill his heroic destiny. (explored in THX-1138, American Grafitti, Star Wars: The Original Trilogy, Howard the Duck, Willow, Young Indy and Star Wars: The Prequel Trilogy)

----The high-speed chase and/or race. (featured in virtually every single film he's had anything to do with, including the films mentioned above.)

----Technology's effect on Humanity, and it's eventual failure to suppress the Human spirit.

----The aforementioned loss of limbs. Makes you wonder, for all his derring-do, why Indy never lost a leg or something.

----Little people being underestimated and eventually triumphing over impossible adversity. (Little Anakin, R2-D2, Yoda and the Ewoks, Willow, Howard the Duck, Short Round in Temple of Doom, and "Aren't you a litttle short for a Stormtrooper?")

These are just a few. Can anyone think of any more?


----

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Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
I personally love the darkness and texture he brought to The Empire Strikes Back. Oh wait ...

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