How George Lucas Became a Billionaire Dollar Storyteller
The following chapter is from EPIC: 101 Short Stories, Essays, and Insights to Improve Communication Skills
I sort of watched Star Wars, but not really.
I saw some movies out of order, but never saw it from the beginning.
Despite never watching Star Wars, I am a fan of the way that George Lucas (the creator of the series) thinks.
His view of storytelling is very practical.
He has a Birdseye view of the field.
His view is that you should know a lot about a lot of subjects.
The more you know, the more you can connect a variety of subjects to produce something unique.
Even though his movies have a lot of special effects…
He never lost sight of the fact that the technology serves the story, not the other way around.
George noticed a drawback of being a pioneer.
‘What was that, Armani?
Plenty of people lost sight of the big picture of storytelling.
Once George made Star Wars a hit, different studios were like:
‘We need to make a film like that.’
Studios hired different filmmakers and unleashed copycats to recreate a similar film.
These studio heads believed that the special effects were the reason Star Wars was a hit.
However, those copycat movies fell flat.
‘Why?’
Because those movies were leading with the technology first, not the story.
When asked what Star Wars was REALLY about, George said:
‘It was about politics, psychology, and human nature.’
That’s why the audience resonated with the film.
The special effects simply served as an amplifier.
Those copy cats who were trying to mimic him didn’t understand that.
They saw the surface level but missed the heart of the film.
One of the toughest things for George was selling the Star Wars series to Disney.
It’s because Disney cared more about delivering a hit rather than making a great tale.
He hated the Star Wars remake that Disney created.
He felt it lacked depth and moxy.
When you do too much market research, that’s when creativity plummets.
Creativity is born through failure and risk.
Disney saw what worked in the past with Star Wars and decided to go the safe route.
^ This was George’s opinion at least, I didn’t watch it.
It was like his past was making a return to the present.
The same copycats who were mimicking him back in the days were now the same copycats who had the rights to the series.
The main thing I learned from George was to focus on the story and make that the king.
When you lead with the tale, you don’t look at the end goal of making a hit first.
Rather, you focus on the plot, the subtle messages, the unique characters, etc.
By doing that, the hit is a possible reward.
But it must never be confused as the goal…
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