The Force Digitally Altered

George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars saga, has been unusually visible recently appearing on Entertainment Tonight, and in In Style magazine, at the Golden Globes Awards, the Grammy Awards and last March at ShoWest, where he joined distributor 20th Century Fox in announcing that the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace release date would be advanced two days to May 19.Lucas has been praising the benefit of digital production and post-production as a new non-linear filmmaking paradigm for the 21st century. Lucas explains that roughly 95 percent of The Phantom Menace has been digitally altered, and that it is the first non-animated film in history to have its entire negative mastered digitally. And, as reported previously, is mounting a technological offensive to electronically project his new work in some theatres, and to use HDTV cameras to shoot Star Wars Episode II. (See ShoWest Technology Demonstrations Show Digital Projection Picture Quality, Todayís News, March 14.)The end result of Lucasí use of digitally altered production techniques can soon be experienced at a ""THX-certified"" theatre near you. And while technology for technologyís sake is not Lucasí focus, his shift to digital production and post-production is certain to have a profound impact on the future of filmmaking, opening the possibilities for a new creative era of computer-generated imagery.