A trip down Modesto lane

A doll's arm like the one we found on the asphalt, steps away from the site of George's fateful 1962 car crash in Modesto. Scholars could spend days discussing the metaphorical implications of our discovery.

A doll's arm like the one we found on the asphalt, steps away from the site of George's fateful 1962 car crash in Modesto. Scholars could spend days discussing the metaphorical implications of our discovery.

I spent the bulk of last week reviewing the footage we shot in California. After Comic-Con and before WorldCon (see my last two blog entries), we drove up to Los Angeles to tie up a few loose ends. We sat down with iconic fan filmmaker Kevin Rubio (TROOPS) and documentarian Dennis Przywara (STARWOIDS), staged a heated debate with the supremely entertaining Nar and Boo Williams (how often do you meet married people whose single-syllable names put together sound like a planet from the STAR WARS universe?), dug deeper into film preservation issues with Anthony Slide (former resident film historian of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences), and picked the encyclopedic brain of pop culture expert Henry Jenkins during his first day at USC (he was still unpacking boxes). We also drove up to South Lake Tahoe to finish the interview we started with Daryl Frazetti in San Diego, took a quick detour through Marin for another interview that I’d rather keep confidential at this stage, and spent a lovely afternoon in Modesto shooting B-roll footage of GL’s childhood home and high school with vintage Bell & Howell and Keystone k-8 8mm cameras (in addition to our trusty Sony EX1, of course). We also visited the subdued and elegant AMERICAN GRAFFITI memorial that was erected on Lucas Plaza a few years ago.

It was a hot day, and we eventually made our way to the site of George’s fateful June 1962 car crash right around magic hour. It took us a while to find the exact location, because the driveway where the accident occurred no longer exists. We filmed primarily abstract, experimental shots of the glistening asphalt; of the street sign’s shadow, which looked like an eerie cross on an old wooden fence. And steps away from the estimated spot where George reportedly met his destiny and subsequently changed the course of history, Robert found a doll’s arm lying there on the road. A strange, compelling image, the metaphorical implications of which we contemplated for a while. When our cameras screeched to let us know that we were out of film, we hit the road back to LA, hungry for more adventures.

Before our trip to Montreal, Luis Lecca and Jason Nicholl of Nuke the Fridge (a site that has been extremely supportive of our efforts) planned an entire day for us at the Frank & Son Collectible Show, where we had the opportunity to ask Howard the Duck himself (Ed Gale) a few questions about Jar Jar Binks. Now, if only we could talk to Ahmed Best and get him to return the favor and share his true feelings about Howard, we’d have one heck of a DVD special feature! An endeavor worth pursuing, to be certain.

We’re now back in Denver–at least for another three weeks. The editing process is moving slowly, but surely. We’re pretty much slammed with new fan submissions and recently discovered footage, but the narrative of our first sequence is starting to take shape, and I’m encouraged by the strength of the emerging discourse resulting from the dynamic between strong, equally convincing and opposing viewpoints. The debate is on, and it’s also giving birth to a number of additional “special projects”, which we fully intend to incorporate into the film throughout the post-production period. There will be a George Lucas poetry slam in the Fall, for instance (we’ll be covering the event with 3 or 4 cameras); and our recent introduction to the world of fan vidding, which spawned many more submissions and interviews, opened yet another can of worms most definitely worth exploring.

I’ll write about fan vidders, fan filmmakers and faneditors in my next blog entry. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and go watch INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. Best. Damn. Movie. Of. The. Year.

Neil Gaiman weighs in @ WorldCon

Robert shoots B-roll of Neil Gaiman at WorldCon, two days after the creator of Coraline and Sandman shared his perspective about George Lucas and his fans.

Robert shoots B-roll of Neil Gaiman at WorldCon, two days after the creator of Coraline and Sandman shared his perspective about George Lucas and his fans.

Robert and I left Montreal this morning, sleep deprived, and returned to Denver with an additional 150GB of footage from WorldCon. We’ve been on the road since Comic-Con, and there’s so much I want to share that I will have to retroactively write about Los Angeles, Marin and Modesto in my next blog entry. In the meantime, here’s what happened in Montreal…

The 67th WorldCon–aka Anticipation–kicked off last Wednesday evening at the very cool Palais des Congrès, which offered multiple opportunities for visually arresting interviews. We stayed in Westmount, in the beautiful apartment of my distant Canadian cousins, who won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Les Invasions Barbares in 2003. It sure beat the Virgin River Casino in Mesquite, NV, where we stayed on our way to and from California.

After reconnecting with Lawrence Schoen, director of the Klingon Language Institute (whom I interviewed for my 2004 doc EARTHLINGS), we started our inquisition with three more contributors to STAR WARS ON TRIAL: Don DeBrandt, Lou Anders, and the inimitable John C. Wright. Lawrence also answered a few questions, and shared his definitions of George and Jar Jar in Klingon.

After two years of email correspondence, we finally met and interviewed the legendary JoBlo at his way cool home (he’s a big fan of A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and owns the most amazing movie-inspired original paintings I’ve ever seen). The following day, Lawrence arranged another interview with Howard Tayler (Hugo-nominated creator of Schlock Mercenary, who subsequently promised he’d create an original George Lucas cartoon for the film); and we also talked to famed science-fiction (and five-time Hugo Award-winning) author Joe Haldeman (who actually worked with George for a couple of weeks between ESB and ROTJ on developing a ride for Epcot Center), and with guest of honor Elisabeth Vonarburg.

WorldCon also kindly organized a panel in support of our project (George Lucas: Savior or Destroyer?). We filmed it, of course, and later staged another heated 90-minute debate with five passionate fans from Montreal. We crashed a room on the convention floor at 9pm, and captured the magic as it unfolded.

So what was the highlight of our trip..? I’d be hard-pressed to argue against Neil Gaiman. After filming a press conference with him last Thursday, I approached his publicist, introduced our project, and requested an interview with him. It was granted the following day (she even adjusted his schedule to accommodate us), and we had the tremendous honor to pick Neil’s brain about STAR WARS as a story, and talked about whether George Lucas owes anything to his fans, and to what extent the creative process can/should be influenced by his fan base’s expectations. Considering how slammed he was during the convention (he even admitted to being “fried” prior to our interview), I was particularly impressed by his generosity of spirit and genuine interest in our project. It was a far cry from Comic-Con, where even “actors” who ended up on George Lucas’s cutting room floor had the gall to charge twenty bucks for an autograph. Neil Gaiman had several signings scheduled at WorldCon, and when we approached him again yesterday to shoot some B-roll, we realized that he didn’t charge a thing for his autograph (up to four per person, actually). Throughout the week, he showed nothing but patience, love and respect for his fans. He was, truly, everything you’d expect the great Neil Gaiman to be.

AOP

Neil Gaiman Weighs In @ Worldcon

Sci-fi authors took center stage in Montreal, where we interviewed the likes of Joe Haldeman, Elisabeth Vonarburg, John C. Wright, Lou Anders, and, yes, famed literary “rock star” Neil Gaiman (CORALINE, SANDMAN, AMERICAN GODS), who spoke candidly about George Lucas, his fans, and the story of STAR WARS.