Is Droid really a word?
I have been slogging though a little 518 page gem called "Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution" by Michael Rubin. Even though it is longer than "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince", it is a really good read. The book ventures in territory rarely 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, to track the genesis of modern media. Rubin has great access to images and key participants from Lucasfilm, Pixar and Zoetrope Studios--from George Lucas and the executives who ran his company, to the small team of scientists who made the technological leaps. What is making this book fun is the human scale of people pushing technology and the almost incestuous connections between the visionaries of late 20th Century filmmaking. Rubin weaves a tale of friendships, a love of movies, and the ever-constant arc of technology. Really I had no idea the interrelationships between Lucas, Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola, Walter Murch and Verna Fields. Many went to film school together, and they all hung out in San Francisco working on each other’s films. In addition, I have been a huge fan of folks like Alvy Ray Smith (who invented computer paint systems and such standards as the alpha channel in graphics) and Jim Clark (who founded SGI and co-founded Netscape.)Of particular note, Rubin points out repeatedly that Lucas hates to write scripts and has a very difficult time scripting dialogue. Funny how some things never change. When sitting though “Star Wars Episode III” I caught myself laughing out loud at the lame dialogue between the characters. Now I understand why. You would think with his resources he could find a decent scriptwriter. Guess it is all about the effects.
Rubin's book is chock full of trivia and Rubin really knits all the disparate parts together. If you have any interest in films, computers, technology or animation, I really recommend this book.
posted by Drew Keller @ Monday, February 06, 2006
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