No, not George Lucas. The Lucas who really can direct: Tom Lucas!
Regular readers may remember I made with Tom a series of short astronomy videos that were put up on YouTube and Hulu. I just found out they’re up at space.com as well! These are short, professionally-produced videos featuring me talking about cool astronomy stuff like Hubble (how appropriate!), Saturn, and whatever else I felt like talking about.
My personal favorites are the ones about Hubble and Mercury. They were done last, and instead of me memorizing lines, we just had a list of bullet points, and I hit them while extemporizing in front of the camera. I’m a lot more relaxed if I’m not fretting over getting my lines exactly right.
Go ahead and take a look, and if you like ‘em, tell a friend!
May 14th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Phil Plait:
If he reads that, Phil, you won’t be getting any invites to be science adviser on his next film.
May 14th, 2009 at 9:09 am
He’s never had a science advisor on a film before. What makes you think he’ll use one in the future?
May 14th, 2009 at 9:11 am
IVAN3MAN:
I don’t think he had any science advisors on any of his previous films, either!
May 14th, 2009 at 9:13 am
@ Paul,
Well, that explains everything!
May 14th, 2009 at 9:20 am
@ Michael L,
I must check the credits the next time that I watch a Star Wars film!
May 14th, 2009 at 9:20 am
could have been worse (that’s space opera after all
a *screenplay* adviser for the prequels on the other hand…
May 14th, 2009 at 9:20 am
@IVAN — Yes, I am fairly certain that the science in Star Wars has never been much of a concern. They are entertaining works of fiction with much more of a focus on spirituality than science, which is a decision I can stand behind. Sure, there is no sound in space, but the movies would be unwatchable without it. The same goes for the laser weapons and lightsabers. I am a huge fan of the original trilogy, but would never claim that they contain anything even approaching science!
May 14th, 2009 at 9:29 am
There’s no need for a science adviser for Star Wars, could use a better writer and a dialog editor though.
May 14th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Saw the Hubble Images one this morning. Looks pretty good.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:43 am
He MUST have had a science adviser on his films. I mean, look at how accurate he wrote in the whole Midachloryan thing!
May 14th, 2009 at 11:57 am
“No, not George Lucas. The Lucas who really can direct”
*grumble*
[Methinks IVAN3MAN made a good point in comment #1, BTW.]
May 14th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Stop it! All of you!
Don’t make me come back in here!
May 14th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
TS wrote:
Even a writer or dialogue editor ought to know what the terms mean, or he won’t be able to use them (or evaluate their use) properly. George Lucas could have used even a junior high school student who had read just a little bit about astronomy. “It’s the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs” is possibly the most cringeworthy line in any sci-fi/space fantasy movie ever made (or at least in the top 10), in spite of the fact that it was a glorious movie for the most part otherwise.
~David D.G.
May 14th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Phil:
You’ve found the great secret of video production: use an outline instead of a script with untrained talent. A script is OK if you have a trained actor using a teleprompter, but otherwise just speak casually and shoot documentary style and you’ll be fine. It’s how Astronomy Cast sounds: relaxed and conversational. It’s fun to listen to.
Rich
May 14th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
“No, not George Lucas. The Lucas who really can direct”
Yeah, I beg to differ. THX-1138 and Star Wars are 2 of the finest directed films of all time.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:36 am
“Yeah, I beg to differ. THX-1138 and Star Wars are 2 of the finest directed films of all time.”
Lucas seems to do much better when his budget is limited… or in the case of “Empire Strikes Back”, he had minimal hands on the directing and writing.
Some Trivia: Some of the footage of the final chase scenes in THX-1138 were shot in the local structure “Alameda Tube”. I could never figure out whether they washed the tile or used some high contrast film stock to make tunnel look so white. Driving through that now, I can barely imagine the tiles are actually white in color!