All these are stunning and I have seen them, well, thousands of times. It is a testament to George’s genius, and to the talent at Lucasflim that he put together to work on his films. George was just great at picking great people to work for him, this was his greatest talent. He was a good man, a great man, and a visionary and he is terribly missed.
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All art directors at Lucas were very strong. The other company i know of with really excellent art direction is Pixar, a legacy of excellence. And this was only because of peer pressure. Meetings at Lucas were essentially a committee picking everything in a scene apart. A weak art director would never last long, i’d say the greatest and real form of meritocracy i have seen in a company. Every artist that joined the team was handpicked and went through grueling round of interviews where everyone pretty much needed to weigh in if the candidate is worthy. Every art meeting was also a committee where everyone got to see everyone else’s work so the peer pressure was enormous. The equality of the art reflects exactly that great meritocratic process. In other words, if you sucked – you were out.
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