What George Lucas thinks about Digitals filmakings future

[futurereduser]

Link(Restored) http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB118193734971637036.html

[number6]

Deleted

Why??

[Adrian T.]

Whazza? :glare:

[Steven M. Bailey]

This thread is going nowhere at the speed of light.:gun:

[number6]

This thread is going nowhere at the speed of light.:gun:

No light escapes from a black hole...

[Jaime Vallés]

Thread deleted in less than 12 parsecs...

[Sam Druckerman]

Here's the missing link....


http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB118193734971637036.html

[Priyesh P.]

He and his companies shaped Hollywood and filmmaking in lots of areas and really brought movie-technology forward.
But nonetheless I lost all respect for him after episode 1 because right before that, he made a wonderful statement about vfx ( around the time of jumanji I believe ). He said that effects are a tool to tell stories better and improve a film. What he actually did when vfx technology got fully developed was the exact opposite. He stuffed digital things into places where none was needed, even worse he partially ruined the old star wars movies and pretended they were the finalized movies, like he reworked them now.

Negative examples for too much technology-mindedness, in my very personal opinion.

[Andreas Fernbrant]

These words doesnt sound like lucas at all...

[Robert Sanders]

And the Jar Jar flaming begins.

[Joel Kaye]

Sounds like is he's right on the money:

"MS. SWISHER: How would people get paid in that medium? Do you ever see it developing as a way of distribution?

MR. LUCAS: Everybody's talking about the fact that eventually it is going to be monetized, and it will be. It will be the best delivery system, which is why I'm going into television. Instead of having six hours or 12 hours of film, I can have hundreds and hundreds of hours of film.

Hollywood's Future

MS. SWISHER: What happens to [Hollywood]? They have so many systems -- of distribution, gating, controlling the money, controlling distribution -- which are falling apart.

MR. LUCAS: The money doesn't exist. They borrow the money. The last thing you want to do is invest in the film business. It's the absolute worst. Hedge-fund guys -- we call them the sucker of the moment. They're convinced that they're going to make money at it. I'll guarantee they won't. They just want producer credits. They want the girls. They're going to find out that it's a very expensive way to go about that situation.

But the real issue is that it's not an economic model. It doesn't work, especially theatrical films. And as the DVD is drying up, the only profit margin they have is drying up with it. TV isn't suffering from the same thing. But [with] TiVo, and recording the material, and taking the commercials out, [TV's] going to end up with its own Rapture."

Movie costs will have to plummit eventually. It's already happening with star salaries coming down.

[Clint Johnson]

These words doesnt sound like lucas at all...

Lucas' been saying this stuff for several years now actually.

As for the folks bashing of episodes 1 through 3... if they had all come out at the same time they would have been the celebrated films rather that 4 though 6. When I take the little kid who saw it in the theatre out of the equation I can say that the old films had as many problems as the new ones and fewer wow moments. It is just that we have had a couple decades of cinema going to become more knowledgeable about film and more jaded about what we see up there.

With Lucas' move to television, I agree with the monetary side of it... it is also really nice that I would prefer to work there anyway because I am a storyteller who has longer stories to tell than can be told in 1.5 or 2 hours. With feature films you can craft every single second and make some incredibly beautiful moments- it is just that they ring hollow compared to how invested I can get in the characters on television. I've spent hundreds of hours with Buffy and Angel and I am far more invested in them than I could ever be with Luke Skywalker. If the Star Wars television series is done really really well, I may grow to care about them as well.

Hell, I'd like to help George make that series as good as it could be... you out there George? Drop me an PM eh?

Hello?

Hello?

[Joel Kaye]

With feature films you can craft every single second and make some incredibly beautiful moments- it is just that they ring hollow compared to how invested I can get in the characters on television

It's a good point. Star Trek vs. Star Wars. Sopranos vs. Goodfellas.

Plenty of room for both actually.

[Jaime Vallés]

Plenty of room for both actually.

Words of wisdom right there.

[Ace]

Television is becoming more than it used to be.

I find myself more often excited by a new episode of Lost each week than most cinematic films that are released each week. The cost of production and speed of work flow that has emerged in the past 5 years has allowed the quality of series to jump dramatically. This trend can only continue as more Hollywood producers seek advertising dollars instead of ticket sales.

[Tom Lowe]

Lucas' been saying this stuff for several years now actually.

Exactly. I worship Lucas and follow his "teachings" closely. The only new thing he's really talking about here is television, which I don't really get, but hey, he's Lucas, so I guess I'll take his word for it.

[Clint Johnson]

Plenty of room for both film and television yes... and I've even been thinking of hybrids. Easier, quicker and cheaper theatre showings with digital projectors would allow us to show serialized material in the theatres again. If you had an big enough series I really think that it could fill seats for a theatrical release the week before it had a network airing. We're not talking 4000 screens or anything like that- but forty or fifty screens in North America might be able to bring in another hundred grand per episode if it had a good following.

The series I'm trying to get going right now is set in the current civilian space race and I think that it could be epic enough to work on the big screen. It could be staggered with a theatrical release, say on a Wednesday, with a network airing the following Tuesday.

I think that at the very least it is an experiment worth trying.

And I can remember Lucas talking about concentrating on television even before he was finished with Episode 3. He felt that the technological advances had (or would shortly) allowed television quality to be almost indistinguishable from feature work and if he were to get the budgets in line he could make a hundred hours of Star Wars television for what it cost to make an hour of Star Wars feature film. He felt that the television ROI would be much higher than features.

He's been talking about a million dollars per episode though and that strikes me a pretty damn skimpy for a Star Wars series. Even the online only series Sanctuary (http://sanctuaryforall.com/) has a budget of about $550,000 of every fifteen to eighteen minute episode so that works out to about $1.5 million for the equivalent of an hour drama. You'd think that Star Wars: the Series would need a bit more than that... I'd think >$3 million would be more in line.

[Gbabymogul]

Interesting.

Horse for the course, IMO. What matters most is creating resonance, whatever medium or art it is.

[Kenn Christenson]

Plenty of room for both film and television yes... and I've even been thinking of hybrids. Easier, quicker and cheaper theatre showings with digital projectors would allow us to show serialized material in the theatres again. If you had an big enough series I really think that it could fill seats for a theatrical release the week before it had a network airing. We're not talking 4000 screens or anything like that- but forty or fifty screens in North America might be able to bring in another hundred grand per episode if it had a good following.

The series I'm trying to get going right now is set in the current civilian space race and I think that it could be epic enough to work on the big screen. It could be staggered with a theatrical release, say on a Wednesday, with a network airing the following Tuesday.

I think that at the very least it is an experiment worth trying.

And I can remember Lucas talking about concentrating on television even before he was finished with Episode 3. He felt that the technological advances had (or would shortly) allowed television quality to be almost indistinguishable from feature work and if he were to get the budgets in line he could make a hundred hours of Star Wars television for what it cost to make an hour of Star Wars feature film. He felt that the television ROI would be much higher than features.

He's been talking about a million dollars per episode though and that strikes me a pretty damn skimpy for a Star Wars series. Even the online only series Sanctuary (http://sanctuaryforall.com/) has a budget of about $550,000 of every fifteen to eighteen minute episode so that works out to about $1.5 million for the equivalent of an hour drama. You'd think that Star Wars: the Series would need a bit more than that... I'd think >$3 million would be more in line.

Maybe Lucas is betting he can pay people less for the privilege of working at Lucasfilm. After all, Disney did the same thing.

[Priyesh P.]

Serials in theaters could also lead to some sort of subscription model. I mean like subscribing to let's say season 3 of Lost. There are so many new exiting models for theatrical programs.

[Clint Johnson]

If George Lucas were to strike a deal with Mark Cuban to show Star Wars: the Series in Landmark's digital theatres the week before airing on television... even in your most pessimistic projections can anyone see them clearing less than a million apiece for each episode? That right there would be about a third of the way to paying off what I think the episodes should cost to make. This would at the very least allow them to spend a bit more on the writing, talent and FX.

With digital projectors, putting the show up on the big screen will be barely more difficult or expensive than it is to get it up in my living room. Somebody really should do some matchmaking here.

[Clint Johnson]

Maybe Lucas is betting he can pay people less for the privilege of working at Lucasfilm. After all, Disney did the same thing.

I'm not a rich man but I could afford to pay George Lucas a couple thousand dollars an episode to work for him... for a few months at least.

I can just see it- eBay auctions for positions on the cast and crew. He could end up with a profit before he even tried to distribute it!

You think there might be some union grievances filed?

[Kenn Christenson]

Lucas has already run afoul of the unions with his second SW picture - no opening credits - BIG no no with the DGA. I believe Lucas quit both the DGA and the WGA over the incident.

[donatello b]

anybody know the $$$ results of Cubans release on the movies they released in theater one week followed by on 2nd day DVD's for sale in theater followed by shown on HDnet the following week and also availble for rent ?

[Joe Carney]

I'm thinking of getting a good 1080p front projector instead of a lcd or rptv when I upgrade my home theater system. Prices are coming way down. Best way to recreate the commercial theater experience imho.

[Clint Johnson]

The money returned for the (almost) closed window release of Bubble was negligible but that is due more to the limited appeal than the release schedule. Bubble opened in 32 theatres and it was making about $2000 a screen before it came out on HDNet and DVD... not that many people bothered with it there either.

But even Bubble ended up grossing about $150,000 in those theatres so I can't see how Star Wars: the Series couldn't do at least twenty times that number.

As for the 1080p front projector- I've been following the progress for a while now and the consensus seems to point to the Panasonic PT-AE1000 as being the cream of the current (relatively) low cost crop. The prices seem to be hovering around the $3,500 to $3,800 and this is the one that I am recommending to my sister and brother-in-law for their new house.