Clone Wars: Lucas Gets Involved
Posted: 2007-09-04 11:37pm
From starwars.com
I know there's one bunch of dumbasses who are going to burn the midnight oil spin doctoring this one...Enlisted into The Clone Wars
By Pete Vilmur
When it was first announced that the Clone Wars series was to continue as an all-new CG animated venture, most fans, like me, got pretty excited. Cool, we thought -- we're already sold on the 2-D series, so throwing in some slick CG magic can only enhance the experience, right?
But with every major expansion of the Star Wars saga comes that nagging hint of doubt that stirs from the core -- will it truly reflect the scope and mythos we've come to know from the filmed epics, or will it merely be an addendum inserted between chapters?
There had been some attempts in the past to fill in the gaps between episodes, bearing mixed results to the fan-base core. In the minds of many, there's but one catalyst required to successfully fuse The Clone Wars to the sanctity of the movie saga: George Lucas.
Lucky for us, The Clone Wars has got him.
Really got him. George Lucas loves The Clone Wars. Since production began in 2006, Lucas has become increasingly involved with the series, a direct result of his rising respect for it and those responsible for bringing it to life. Early on, though, when stories, artwork, and characters were still in the concept phase, it was unclear whether he'd be willing to return whole-heartedly to the saga, especially after wrapping up his 28-year movie opus.
"Besides setting up the core concept of the series, initially we weren't clear how involved George was going to be," says producer Catherine Winder. "When I signed-on no one could provide me with insights as to what we could expect in terms of his meeting with us -- it could have been three times a year or once a month was what I was told. Luckily for us we've had the fortune to have him very, very involved, but that sort of crept up over time."
Supervising director Dave Filoni believes Lucas' involvement grew as he became more and more aware of the show's possibilities. "When we started out, I think that his interest level was based on what he first perceived this was going to be. He knew that it was going to be different than the Genndy [Tartakovsky] series, but the original mandate was that we were to use Jimmy Neutron as a basis for the complexity of the series. As soon as George saw that the dynamic could be changed from that model, he said, 'let's make this cinematic, like a movie in its own world.'"
Once Lucas saw the series' potential, and his instinct to push the limits of the art form kicked in, he was hooked. Winder remembers how Lucas progressively became more engaged as the stories and artwork began to come together. "As we moved forward in the series development and Dave would show him his art direction and describe the way he was going to take it from a visual standpoint, George started coming in more and more. Then, as we began editing the shows during the 3D story stage (pre-visualization), he became further and further engaged and excited by what we were doing....to the point where he is now really involved -- not only in responding to our stories but in helping to actually write them. Over the course of the first season, he started coming up with his own story concepts, writing detailed outlines that would then be taken into script by our writers."
Filoni shares one of his early story sessions with Lucas:
"He sat us down and gave us an overview of what Star Wars is, what the Jedi are, and said to forget anything we've heard -- 'I'm telling you what it is. I'm going to teach you how to make Star Wars,' he said. He didn't start off to make more movies, but he said that's just what we're doing -- and he thinks it's
Filoni believes one of the reasons Lucas is so committed to the series is because it allows him to explore the characters more intimately -- something the films did not afford him to do. The characters, in fact, have become such an important priority that production was significantly slowed down at one point to recalibrate the scripts.
"We essentially rewrote the initial 12 scripts in the middle of production as the personal stories just weren't coming through when we got into editorial," remembers Winder. "George said, 'The action is great but that's not just what this series is about -- we need much more dialog, and we need to get to know these characters.'"
While making changes mid-production can be taxing, Filoni recognizes the benefit of Lucas' input. "It would be a lot more disconcerting if it didn't make it better, but I've found that 99.9-percent of the time, after we've gone through the pain to make the changes, it's better."
Supervising editor Jason Tucker, who often works very closely with Lucas editing the episodes, would agree. "Since this is a fast-paced show, it's very important to understand and follow what you're watching," he explains. "This is of course what we always do in editing, but George's genius is definitely something to be witnessed. Even if it's something that you might not particularly agree with as you're creating it, you begin to realize over the course of watching it over and over that it's something that really makes it stronger."
Lucas has often admitted that editing is his favorite aspect of filmmaking, and has enjoyed bringing his love of the craft to Clone Wars. "I've learned a tremendous amount from him," continues Tucker. "We'll have these marathon sessions that last from 9:00 in the morning 'til 9:00 at night. And he doesn't let up -- we get about a 30-minute break in the evening to eat. It's very exciting and very thrilling to work with him and learn his style of editing and how he approaches it. He understands the grammar of film much like a novelist would understand words -- each shot would be a word, and if you put a particular word in front of another you'd change the meaning. He also allows me and Dave and everybody involved to have their say, so it's always very fun to talk film theory and editing with him in that way."
Supervising director Filoni also appreciates the creative spirit Lucas brings to the table, and his drive to truly distinguish The Clone Wars from other genre ventures in television. "We are always pushing the bounds of everything we do -- we never just settle. If you look at a normal TV series, like Babylon 5 or Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica, typically they're based in one place. They're always on this one ship, and if they go down to a planet, they stay inside one room -- maybe there's one window with a matte painting behind it. George will look at the matte painting and say, 'well, I want to go over there.' And I'll tell him we can't go over there because we don't have any of that built. 'Well, the story will be more interesting if we go over there,' he'll say. 'Let's walk over there, and draw everything in between.'"
It's decisions like these that will define The Clone Wars as cutting edge entertainment -- a quality which has always been associated with the Star Wars saga. And Lucas' involvement just brings it that much closer to the genuine article. All lofty aspirations aside, Filoni suspects Lucas may actually have a much more down-to-earth motive for getting involved in The Clone Wars. "He started seeing what we were doing and how we were trying to edit it, and said, 'hey, this is fun.' He'll sometimes come in on Friday and say, 'Dave, I've got 'til midnight. Let's play.'"
