The inside story of George Lucas, his intensely private company, and their work to revolutionize filmmaking. In the process, they made computer history. Discover the birth of Pixar, digital video editing, videogame avatars, THX sound, and a host of other icons of the media age. Lucas played a central role in the universe of entertainment technologies we see everyday.
This book ventures in territory never explored, as Rubin-a former member of the Lucasfilm Computer Division-reconstructs the events in Hollywood, in Silicon Valley, and at Lucas' private realm in Marin County, California, to track the genesis of modern media. With unprecedented access to images and key participants from Lucasfilm, Pixar and Zoetrope-from George Lucas and the executives who ran his company, to the small team of scientists who made the technological leaps, Rubin weaves a tale of friendships, a love of movies, and the incessant forward movement of technology. This is a compelling story that takes the reader into an era of technological innovation almost completely unknown.
High Magic
Author's introduction. Why me? Why this?
1: The Mythology of George
Before 1967 - Let's meet the title character and his young pals.
2. Road Trip
1967-1970 - Coppola, The Rain People
3. Restoration
1970-1974 at American Zoetrope
4. The Star Wars
1975-1977 How it happened.
5. The Rebirth of Lucasfilm
1977-1979 The Aftermath of Success
6. The Godfather of Electronic Cinema
1976-1979 Coppola finishes Apocalypse Now and discovers the Grateful Dead...
7. The Visionary of Long Island
Up to 1974 - The mad vision of Alexander Schure, creator of NYIT, and how he came to discover computers and Ed Catmull
8. The Train Wreck
1974-1977 at NYIT - The lab gets rolling, Catmull's team is assembled, and things go off the rails...
9. Escape from New York
1977-1979 Catmull and team pack out of NYIT and arrive at Lucasfilm for a new project.
10. Inside Wonkaland
1979-1980 Lucasfilm busy place making Empire Strikes Back... and it's into this world that the computer scientists arrive.
11. Flying Free
1980 The rockstars of Computer Graphics begin to assemble at Lucasfilm
12. The Silverfish
1980 Meanwhile, Francis Coppola is also working on the same issues as Lucas, almost competitively, taking a different tack.
13. Sound and Vision
1980 The state of the art in computer audio and video and how Lucasfilm is addressing the problems.
14. Obnoxio
1980-1981 The computer division continues to evolve.
15. Double Suicide
1980-1982 Coppola is pushing on the path to use video instead of film, and pioneers High Def.
16. 1,621 Frames
1981-1982 The graphics group has to prove their inventions can work, and get to work on Star Trek II, the Wrath of Kahn.
17. Queen's Rules
1982-1983 The ongoing saga of a bunch of computer guys intermingling with the guys making Return of the Jedi.
18. A Hole in the Desert
1982-1983 The addition of games to Lucasfilm's computer division (the birth of LucasArts Entertainment).
19. Non-Stop Coffee Pots
1983-1984 The EditDroid and SoundDroid products take form, nonlinear editing becomes possible.
20. These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For
1984 Lucasfilm decides to spin out the Hollywood products as a subsidiary.
21. My Breakfast with Andre
1983-1984 Pixar, the graphics group, takes on its first animation; John Lasseter joins the team.
22. Playing Games
1984 - The Games Group changes things up, and Lucasfilm gets a new president.
23. Rendezvous with Reality
1985 - Things aren't going so well at the company... Lucasfilm is trying to sell Pixar.
24. Stay Small, Be the Best, and Don't Lose Any Money
1985 - The Games Group is holding its own, and invents avatars and the first online role playing game.
25. Into The Twilight Zone
1985 - The EditDroid in Hollywood
26. Esoteric unto Occult
1986 - The DroidWorks closes.
EPILOGUE: Return and Revenge
1987-2005 What happened next...