George Lucas

George Lucas Jr. was born in Modesto, CA 1944 to parents Dorothy Lucas and George Lucas Sr.

Youth and schooling On June 12 th, 1962 George was in a near-fatal car accident that led him to deviate from his goals as a race-car driver. In 1963 George Lucas transfers to USC's School of Cinematic Arts. Lucas' work at USC as a student centered on pop culture obsessions of his youth. In 1966 Lucas Graduated from USC and was hired as a teaching assistant to train cameramen; this occurred only after being rejected from being an Officer in the Air Force due to his prior speeding tickets. University of Southern California

Late 1971: Lucasfilm Ltd. is founded by Lucas 1975: Conceives the basic story of Star Wars. Divides it into two trilogies. Chooses the second, the one that revolves around Luke Skywalker, because it is the most exciting of the two 1976: The book version of Star Wars is published and Lucas is credited as the author until it's later revealed ghostwriter Alan Dean Foster wrote it. While composing the script for Star Wars Lucas studied fairy tales, ancient mythology, and theoretical works of Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell

Motion Control Camera Digitally controlled camera performs Complex & repeatable motions around Models Process films several elements using the Same camera motion and then composites The elements into one single image Earlier attempts to use this technology were made in the 1960s but they were small scale Lucas advanced the technique and used it on A much larger scale 1977: Lucas was the first to use large-scale use of Motion Control Camera in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Dkykstraflex Dkystralex was the name of the motion controlled camera that Was used to make Star Wars Enabled greater complexity in the spaceship-battle scenes.

Through the 1970s-1980s Lucas brought the use of stop-motion animation Into mainstream cinematography; the advanced art technology had been used Before but not extensively It was used in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Stop Motion Animation: is technique used to physically manipulate an object to make It look like it is moving on its own The object moves in small increments between individually photographed frames; then They are played in a continuous sequence so it looks as if the object moves on it own

In 1975 Lucas founded Industrial Light & Magic, which has gone on to produce major advancements in a multitude of different sectors of cinematography From working through ILMs computer animation Pixar was formed Pixar was formed in 1984 And uses computer animation to make feature films and short films

John Knoll worked under George Lucas at ILM As a visual effects supervisor and a motion Control operator From ILMs photo editing software that Lucas used John Knoll was inspired to co-create Photoshop, it became licensed in 1988 Photoshop is a graphics editing program that uses editing techniques to create an illusion Photoshop is now used today in journalism to persuade or give deceiving views also used to enhance story telling

George Lucas: Impact on Pop Culture With the creation of Star wars Lucas has had a huge impact on American Pop Culture Since the late 70s and early 80s Star Wars has helped launch an interest in Science Fiction Darth Vader has become an iconic villain From over 250 million action figures were sold as a result of an interest in Star Wars Pop Culture It has sparked many spoofs in shows such as; Family Guy & South Park and even song parodies, such as the one from Weird Al Yankovic

Led to Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to have an exhibition called Star Wars: The Magic of the Myth Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum Also has an exhibit in Seattle, Washingtons Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame