When Rebels Become the System....

When Speilberg and Lucas became the very system they set out against by doing "the kinds of movies they wanted to see" where did it all go wrong as too many are now in the shadows of those giants...

Giants of a different agenda; one that todays writers, filmmakers, creatives, need to be rebel-enough in order to fight against in getting their work "out there..."

If this sounds like you, labouring under their shadow-- What do you think?!?

Um it's never been different...

New generations change the old school ways, if enough time passes they themselves become old school and the new generation takes over... Be it arts, business or politics

reply to post by Swizzy


That's not what I said. My point was how-- well, as George said, himself, in a ton of Star Wars documentaries;

"There was no special effects back then. We had to do it all ourselves. And when I went back to ILM and they hadn't done the shots I needed---" I forget the rest, but he's said that on more than one occassion...

So for a generation to come of age and be on that frontier, the shadow of Lucas and co is the way in which its now become to pursue "the accepted thing to aspire as they did", but they didn't aspire, they WORKED their butts off, which paid off, and now they pull all the levers!!!

Sadly, many go about aspiring like it means something, and many wonder of the sameness of the movies this last decade...

I was part of that crowd of wannabes and its damn-near impossible to defend to the Lucas Empire now....

I remember seing The Thing from 1982 and loved the fact the monster wasnt CGI but a little robot, looks waaaaay better!

Film industry turned to mass production, spewing out the same old stuff with different people/locations.

Indipendant film festivals are something to keep an eye on. I've seen some phenomenal work come out of there

reply to post by Swizzy


I know exactly what you mean!

The thing these days is how the national film agencies still get sizeable checks that reinforce their importance, but in turn, their distribution of such grants to the regional bodies --- where the grassroots voices and ideas really are--- never pans out, And added to it, there's the biased selection process of what constitutes a film, which the regional screen agencies have to maintain to follow "the guidelines" laid out for them to adhere to...

Since you were part of the history of movie making, I would say that you are a "Has-Been", not a "Wanna-Be". I mean that in a good way.

As a has been, you may still get into the game in the future through some idea of yours. Wanna-be's rarely do.

Since you imply that you worked special effects, I have to thank you for your work in the past.

Now, get offa your butt and get out there and do it better!

reply to post by TDawgRex


Oh, God! No, no!!

I've worked in film, yes. But no, I've never worked in special effects. As one of those people who bought into the whole star wars franchise, AND the revival of it, AND the prequels, I'm at the stage of having utterly phased out of it to have such objectivity...

Hence my views that its sad so many of us back then were so much in the shadow of Lucas and co, and many still don't see that its so....

reply to post by Futurcrat1


If I may ask, what was your involvement? Watching the credits has always fascinated me as to how many people are invovled in making a movie (or even a TV show).

Thankfully, I never really bought into the Star Wars thing. I was entertained by the films, but that's about it. But being entertained by a movie is all I ask for so I don't feel my time has been wasted. I'm thankful I didn't pay to see the prequels, but was entertained as they were borrowed DVDs, hence free.


I feel that many flicks these days are wasting my time nowadays. I usually wait a bit and listen to what others say about a particular film before I see it.

The last movie I saw in the theaters was "Star Trek" and the last before that was "We were Soldiers". In both cases though, I was satisfied.

reply to post by TDawgRex


Work-wise, it was construction --- which people laugh at until they finally stop, think it through, and then the penny drops that the nature of a film is actually comprised of such mediocre practical work in the putting-together of it from day one.

And like the trade goes in daily life, jobs come from WHO you know, not necessarily WHAT you know....

And as for being a self-confessed star wars fan-- my only defence is that the Eighties had a profound affect on many born into it. Even those who now deny they ever cared for it great films and classic toys and tv shows!!!

reply to post by Futurcrat1


I'm a history and documentary buff. I would say that off the top of my head, that Speilberg and Lucas have forgotton how to be teamplayers to make their vision a reality.

Now they are just upper tier management and have forgotten how it all starts. Just look at Falling Skies and Terra Nova for example.

IMO Falling Skies has the opportunity to be a great TV show, but Terra Nova just seems to be another cookie cutter.

My sister works Hollywood as a make up artist and can barely make ends meet (L.A. is EXPENSIVE!). Her and her co-workers names do not show up in the closing credits, but their bosses name does, and he never even appeared on the set.

reply to post by TDawgRex


Here in England, its very regional, and the country's carved up in a very fragmentary way. So you can appreciate the crooked sense of competitiveness the screen agencies are under.

Not least as about a year ago, the UK Film Council was supposedly abolished in the spending cuts-- which gained a major outcry, and the likes of Clint Eastwood, himself, made comment on how bad it was given the U.S. gets tax breaks or something when they filmed here ... or they used to...

Now David Cameron said literally the other day, we need to be churning out blockbusters again.

But he's C-L-U-E-L-E-S-S on the industry, and the regional economics, and not least, blind to the fact that his own cutting of all public services expenditure were every council has to make the cuts to their communities to enact his policy-- also means the Arts are on their knees!!!!

reply to post by Futurcrat1


Yep. everybody is looking for a tax break. What they need to realize, is that they need to gamble some of their own money.

Until then, we'll be seeing the same old drivel.

reply to post by TDawgRex


And drivel is precisely the irony that some of the big franchises out now, cite each other as inspiration...

Or they mirror each other so much, they practically are the same product...

Even certain sequels are blatant rewrites of the original.

Twilight's gone like that, and is now on shaky money-making territory than many fans I know openly talk of...

Star Wars went the same way, which is why the running joke with fans of that is how Lucasfilm have yet to release an official timeline of that project. Even Wikipedia's entry makes comment on that!

Funny that.