The Man Who Brought us ‘Star Wars’
I originally posted this on my Tumblr Blog, but thought it might help to post it here. If you read it and like it please share it. Heck, share it even if you don’t like it. I wrote this because it seems to me that some fans of the Star Wars franchise–which in my opinion has defined an entire generation and their children–need to be reminded of just what George Lucas did. Who knows, some film industry folk may even read this and go: “Oh yeah, he did do those things.” So here it is below. Enjoy!
A Few Words About George Lucas
After reading an article on The Hollywood Reporter website in which George Lucas says, ““I’m retiring. I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.” (The Hollywood Reporter Erin Carlson, 1/18/2012) I became dismayed that a man who has greatly contributed to the film industry as it is today would feel the need to stop. Further disappointment set in as the reported reason for this decision is the constant negativity and outrage from fanboys and girls aimed at him for making changes to HIS films that are blasphemous in their eyes. I’ve added the link to the article for those who wish to read it: “Star Wars” Creator George Lucas Fires Back at Fanboys’, “Red Tails” Snub.
The idea that individuals who are fans of one of the greatest sci-fi franchises in the last thirty-five years would be so willing to be hateful towards the creator of that franchise is mind boggling. Are these “fans” so wrapped up in their own narcissism that they can’t see the value in what George Lucas has done by adding to the Star Wars films and making the Star Wars prequels? Are they really that upset because he wanted to make the films what they were originally intended to be? That’s like getting mad at Domino’s Pizza for improving their pizza or Infinity Ward for making yet another multi-player map pack to Modern Warfare 3.
The point is that George Lucas made those changes and added scenes because he wanted the fans to get the full product not just an incredibly close representation of it. Consider also that he mad the films despite not having the technology he needed to make them the way he had originally intended and the result was mind blowing. Not only did Star Wars define the “blockbuster film”, but George Lucas and those who were on his visual effects staff had to invent methods for achieving certain effects. Thus, ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) was born.
Today, ILM has helped to create the visual effects in numerous science fiction films and continues to be innovative in that respect. Some of the films that ILM has worked on includes: Avatar, The Abyss, Back To The Future Trilogy, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and the Harry Potter movies. For the entire list, go to http://www.ilm.com/ If it hadn’t been for George Lucas and his desire to create spectacular visual effects and do it in ways that others weren’t at the time, Industrial Light and Magic may never have existed.
Besides ILM Lucas created THX and Skywalker sound simply because he wanted the audience to experience the best in sound quality while watching his movies. If you remember, THX sound became the standard in theater audio and still is to this day. Is it any stretch of the imagination to think that by creating THX George Lucas paved the way for Digital Surround and IMAX?
The long and short of it is that George Lucas is an innovator. He invented Star Wars, thought up Indiana Jones, was brave enough to change the way special effects were created—also put the credits at the end of the movie instead of the beginning—and made it possible for the audience to “feel” like they were in the middle of the action because they could hear every blaster sound, x-wing engine, light saber ignition and explosion in clear pristine audio. Best of all, George Lucas inspired an entire generation of filmmakers, video game developers and novelists.
His Star Wars franchise is one of the largest in the world and we have enjoyed the Star Wars universe at the movie theater, in the books we’ve read and the video games we’ve played and do we show him the respect and admiration he deserves? Well, there are millions of us who do, but it seems that some “fans” are hell bent on ruining it for us and the man who invented the franchise these fanboys love so much.
To the fanboys: Give respect where respect is due and leave your negativity and narcissism to yourselves.
To George Lucas: I would sure hate to see you retire under these circumstances and I am sure there are millions of fans and many filmmakers who share that sentiment.
Sincerely,
Jonn H. aka Trippyjedi
Hello world!
Welcome to Cinema Peek, a blog where I talk about movies and others can share their own opinions about those same films. I realize there are many other film bloggers out there on the internets, however I hope that my own perspective is unique enough that all who read my future posts will enjoy them as much as I enjoy writing them.
Stay tuned for my first official review which I will post tomorrow and stay tuned for future posts which I will try to place on here once a week. If I had the time, I’d post something once a day, but alas, I have a life outside of blogging and this is only something I do on the side. Who knows, eventually it could turn into something bigger, like an official website.
In addition to my own reviews I will have links to my twitter page and an archive of past writings and I plan to add pages about video games and music to the blog also.
I look forward to seeing how well Cinema Peek does and reading everyone’s responses. Let’s have fun and enjoy our favorite medium.
>In Flight
>I fly through the night on winged engine.
The clouds are an ocean,
this vessel my ship.
I peer through the dimness.
The moon,
rising above the horizon;
Smiles at me
in its dainty way.
This gladdens my heart
assuring me
That good has come of this day.
So now I depart
In airborne flight
To a new but familiar place.
Where I will find
The moon unchanged
>The Wonderful World of Social Networks
>Let me tell you what my experience has been so far with Social Networks.
It really all started years ago when I discovered Instant Messaging and texting. How wonderful it was that I could type a few sentences-or sentence-press or click send and Viola! Someone either instantly sees it in their chat window or on their phone. Beautiful!
In 2000 I was introduced to something called MyFamily.com which is a website that hosts a family web page to which family members and invited friends can post family news, pictures and personal views within the confines of that group. To me, this was an even more convenient way for families to communicate. Yes there was and is still email, but this was something else. It was like having the entire family in one room having a conversation with family members popping in and out having their say or just observing within a few hours,days or even weeks. I never thought it could be done on a global scale. That is, until I discovered MySpace.
I joined the ranks of MySpacers in 2006 when the group I was hanging out with and co workers all mentioned that they had MySpace accounts.I quickly discovered that it was nothing like MyFamily.com. There were similarities in that a person could post pictures and information, but that is where it ended.
MySpace allowed me my own personal page with a background and even a song that I was into at the moment. It also allowed me to post a brief message on how I was feeling or what I was on my mind and I could decide who to share it all with, on a global scale! I was enjoying MySpace and all its intricacies when my sister began telling me about Facebook so, I joined that too.
Facebook has a lot in common with MySpace except that you can’t choose your own background. A major difference at first were the applications. With Facebook one can take a quiz about their personality traits, then share and compare the results with all of their friends. This was eventually picked up by MySpace.
Earlier this Summer I decided to open this blog in order to post film reviews I had written. After doing so, I felt that I needed to get more exposure for my blog.
I began by simply copying the URL and pasting it in my Facebook update. A few days later, I saw that a friend who has a blog had re-posted all of her blog entries to Facebook. Upon inquiry she told me how to link my blog to Facebook. Still curious for other avenues, I researched online and managed to find Triond, a website that lets writers publish and share their writing while gaining a small profit.
It was the sharing part that intrigued me the most and I added myself to Triond. It was through that website that I discovered Twitter and Newsvine, but there was noway to add my articles to this blog or to my Facebook easily. This caused me to quit using Triond and stick with Twitter and Newsvine which have both already gotten me more exposure than either Triond or this blog by itself has.
In truth, all of the social networks have made the world seem smaller and the business of networking yourself easier not to mention your favorite celebrities more accessible.
Social Networking is the wave of the future and hopefully we all learn to ride it soon.
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