George and his team truly were the pioneers of modern VFX

I'd love to see that rough-cut, goofy version of the film with all the editors and assistants as stand-ins.

I used to watch these so damn often. These old AOTC documentaries are so relaxing to me that they almost feel like a lullaby.

Would love to see a version of the full film made completely with the footage from the cheap video camera using old props and editorial assistants as actors.

I got my girlfriend to agree to watch star wars by watching the ‘empire of dreams’ documentary! She actually said “well now we have to watch it”. She actually seems excited. I’m stoked

9:27 "And to stop at the dialogue at that porn"

George is a visionary.

Something I've noticed, but haven't seen anyone point out. Anakin's evolution is marked in 4 movies by a vehicle based scene. In ep1 it was the speeder race, in ep2 the civilian speeder chwse, ep3 the Jedi fighter opening scene, episode 4 his tie fighter chase in the trench run sequence.

Somehow this became one of my favorite Star Wars movies.

Not only were the prequels groundbreaking technical achievements, but they expanded the Star Wars universe more than any other installment in the saga. I wish Disney learned something from them instead of throwing out everything and creating the blandest story they could think of.

What is Rick McCallum's obsession with lunch?

Episode 2 is the most visually stunning episode for me.

The VFX of these films still look amazing in 2022

I love real Star Wars. underrated movies for sure

Fun Trivia: Peter Jackson around the same time Lucas was starting to use Pre-Vis, Jackson had to splice shots together for the effects and miniatures department and used one of the Helms deep models along with purchasing every plastic soldier on the New Zealand Island to recreate the shoots he needed. And it to was made shot for shot.

Say what you will about the prequels but this is amazing. Its like a big budget indie flick

"Huge Plasma Screens" = About the size of a postage stamp when compared to 2019.

I always enjoyed the prequels.

I MAY HAVE THIS ON DVD BUT I STILL WATCH IT.

Today's technology will give you everything, but it all boils down to the person telling the story, and that would be George Lucas...

Watching this after reading the Glassdoor employee reviews of Lucasarts is slightly upsetting.

Look at the technology they had then and compare that to the final product of AOTC. I don’t care what anyone says, this movie was a masterpiece.

Episode II ranks number ONE for me!

There were some truly epic scenes in the clone war. There’s one scene of a bunch of storm troopers from behind, firing into basically haze, that is just *it*. They really kicked some ass on that.

The prequels are the story of George Lucas building a billion dollar animation company.

Episode 1-3 are the best films

The ending was so cool haha

It had to be so stressful

I really hope all the content on the PT DVDS get upgraded!!! Best special features EVER!!!

It’s funny to think people were so critical of the prequels using so much CGI over practical, yet now, a lot of big budget movies use just as much or more CGI (especially marvel movies). I’ll always prefer practical to CG, but there’s no denying that George was way ahead of Hollywood again with the prequels

I kinda like Pre-Vis Anakin and Obi-Wan.

What was I doing 7 years ago, I love this channel how did I miss it

4:03 is it just me or does lucas have a longer neck

For everyone wishing they could see an entire star-wars movie worth of goofy pre-vis and stand-ins: go check out Star Wars: Uncut. It’s the closest we’re likely to get.

This stuff fascinates me because I am was way mental rather than visual. I think the most powerful sfx are the ones you can create by tapping into the million bit graphics processors every audience member has built in.

“Then we put HUGE plasma screen TVs in front of the actors” *shows 42 in tv*

Really impressive. I like that.

It's SO dense.

People may have mixed opinions about the prequel films, but I was blown away when I saw Yoda fight with a lightsaber for the first time. Love all starwars films that Lucas made 1-6. Disney trilogy I have mixed feelings for those movies.

I love Attack of the Clones - IDC if you disagree my opinion

So for previs of the Coruscant speeder chase, the speeder Anakin and Obi-Wan ride was Luke’s XP-34 landspeeder from “A New Hope”? That’s incredible! Wonder what happened to that vehicle after they finished making this film.

Fucking epic work!!!

6:40 classic indian FX

Everyone hated on George even though his actions laid the groundwork for all movies of today.

imagine if george did the sequels with all the modern technology disney had. that would be (once again) truly mind blowing

".... And to have dialogue at that porn". Hell of a Freudian Slip. Perhaps he was sending a message to fans about what he was going to be directing after he got done with Star Wars.

The prequels are very beautyful movies. Well made with heart. The aestetics are absolutely sublime. This kind of deep thinking we do not get from the morons in Disney. They lack heart and mind and have noting personal invested. In short they do not give a shit except for money.

You ever see George Lucas hurtling across the Tatooine desert in a pod racer? 2:40 Ya have now!

Working 20-22 hours a day staring at those horrible old CRT displays. Makes my eyes hurt.

" The kinetic energy of the movie had picked up to the point where we were starting to get some momentum, and to stop and have dialogue at that point just didn't work". Wish he had thought that more often

2:05 this gave me chills

George’s innovations in vfx allowed us to get stuff like The Mandalorian.

That Rick McCallum gained like 30 kilos Per movie

its kinda crazy, i feel like if he had waited ten years VFX would have been at the level that i think these films deserved. imagine the new trilogy level of VFX with George's prequel story.

"It's an enormous tool.." Rick McCallum

lol at the end xD

8:10 “Huge plasma screens” 😂😂😂

"What George does, then Jim Cameron will do, and that'll turn everybody and make it even bigger then Spielberg will do it and Zemeckis and Ron Howard..." Damn, Rick was pretty damn close. Attack of the Clones The Golden Compass Avatar Solo: A Star Wars Story

Awesome, thanx,be blessed,saved and alll in Jesus shalom

I love original trilogy,I like prequels. Original trilogy is amazing,especially when we know that they are made in 1977-1983. I love models,and sets that are real. The Phantom Menace is my childhood movie,so I just can't hate it. I think Attack of the clones is the weakest of all of the 6 movies,but I love last 30 minutes. We finally see some jedis in action. Revenge of the sith is amazing by it self. But I want to be movie director,and if I ever become,I will try to use real sets,prostetics and models more than CGI. Why? Well,I want to filming be interesting,for actors and for everyone. Because it is just there. CGI in star wars looks great,but just because of the actors and crew,it is much better to use prostetics and real sets

Please George buy Star Wars back from Disney!!

my dream agency

Can somebody please tell me what just happened in the credits?

wow, 22 hour days? i'd heard these films were hell to work on, but jesus christ....

Attack of the clones soundtrack is vibin the prequels the best films

As much as everybody's a fan of the puppets and all that, I think the prequels were the perfect movies to start visual effects.

Found it! Rick says lunch right here: 7:15

How has Muscular Yoda at 22:55 never been shared around

some of the extremely fast shoot shows in the final product.

I want them to see, things they’ve never seen before! Too much CGI? The blend of practical SFX and CGI is difficult to master but it works best imo.

9:29 , did he say porn? xD

There are not a lot of movies I have ever seen with environments dominated by CGI. The only two non Star Wars movies I know of like that are Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and 300.

that rough "acting" and cgi is better than anything in the sci Fi channel lol

Real Shit™

Prequels+Originals>>>>>>>>>TFA and TLJ

I read Pre Viszla haha

Pre-Viz was used in making the Madalorian but only in Pre-Production. Actual filming used Practical Affects.

3:01 Gmod Star Wars.

It just shows that you can have ground breaking technology, clear cut pre-production, and a massive budget but it all comes down to a well written script. I love George and his amazing imagination but I wish he could have honed his writing skills or allow a script doctor to iron things out.

2:43 BOOMER EMENEMS

I'll have to try watching these movies either muted, or in a foreign language. Maybe that would let me appreciate the good stuff more :P

still better than entire sequel trilogy

Point remember he's American :LaughOutLoud: I'm English so it took me a couple replays

"They were churning out 30, 40 shots a day", says Rick. That, along with other similar language used in this doc, says it all! Fill the screen with bewildering computer generated action scenes for as long as you can people and let's save money. Sorry, thanks for putting in the work everyone but I just don't watch the prequels, anymore. They are as empty as the screen voids they were filmed in, to me

"He shoots like no other director I've ever seen". If this was filmed in 2002, how many directors apart from George Lucas had Rob Coleman seen shoot?

Previz is used by everyone these days. Using Unreal Engine

The Prequels > The Last Jedi and Force Awakens combined

23:08

09:21 "to stop andere have some dialog in that porn" Well that sums up the directorial approach of the prequels.

Interesting to observe that the vfx people who made 1977 star wars looked like bohemian hippies, musicians and artists. The people who made the prequels look like middle management in a faceless insurance office.

I respect George very much for what he has achieved, and certainly this was the beginning of a new way to do cinema. However, when he says "it's like a painting", he forgets that a painter works alone. Actors need more than a blue-screen to work with. The shot where Sam Jackson jumps from the clone ship and approaches a clone is a pretty bad performance.

I wasn't expecting miracles when ep I and the rest came out, since "New hope" and the sequels had been some of the greatest movies ever made, were complete movie magic and obviously once in a lifetime level of cinema, that even George Lucas said took so much out of him he had to literally be hospitalized for exhaustion after Ep IV... so obviously George put his heart and soul in the first trilogy. Now I wasn't exactly expecting that from eps I-3 since that kind of innovation is more rare than unicorns and the man shouldn't damage his health over science fiction movies, but even so...I was kind of hoping they'd be just a BIT better than they were. Instead the ultimate product? Just MEH., story was MEH, the characters were low key dull and inspired not wonder but tedium, and that fucking Jar jar thing?! ($#%@!!) The special effects were amazing, the essence of star wars, of course, but that's all there was to the movie experience and full stop. You didn't care about the characters, the action, the plot etc. because you CAN'T, the elements just aren't there, and the overwhelming feeling was one of watching beautiful boredom. Effects were awesome, the overall movie experience, MEH. And the ones coming out now in 2019? Cue JAR JAR ABRAMS!

They should have story boarded clone war battle. It looked like a computer game. Needed live action.

"HUGE 720pHD p l a s m a SCREENS in front of our actors" ahaha

These webisodes are all about cg. And still the actors who show up 10% of the time a movie is made get the most cash.

there is more creativity, fun and interesting environments in the prequels than all of the originals. people praise movies with cgi but hate on star wars. who cares the originals had some horrible effects. claymation tauntauns? really? the walkers were good but the tauntauns were Skippy. ewoks? oh gosh I'll take jar jar anyday over children and midgets running around a jungle in carpet

The whole movie was pre viz...

Instead of that crappy 3D rendering they should have done 3D story board in Minecraft gameplay

4 minutes in they talk about everything that went wrong

4:05 is the reason of why Episode I was so rejected by fans and the audience... an extensive abuse of visual effects, too mucho VIRTUAL SHOTS! dont you get it Lucas?