[Chefelf]

Effects prize for Star Wars guru
Star Wars creator George Lucas has been given a special award for his work in movie special effects.

Director James Cameron presented Lucas with the Visual Effects Society's first Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony in Los Angeles.

"If I have peers, this room is full of them. I'm pleased to be here because this is a maturing process for the special effects industry," he said.

Cameron paid tribute to the digital innovations Lucas had brought to film.

They included digital desktop editing, digital cinematography, and digital effects.

Lucas told the audience it was only now those involved in special effects were starting to realise how important they were to the movie industry.

"You're starting to find yourself in the industry, you're starting to congratulate yourself, and you're taking your place as an essential part of the cinematic process," he said.

The awards ceremony also included a computer-generated tribute to Lucas, featuring singing and dancing Toy Story characters.

http://news.bbc.co.u...ilm/3507005.stm

I just wanted to see what you all think before I bother chiming in.

[Vwing]

I don't have a problem with it. The man has done more in the industry of special effects, even with the prequels, than most people, and is a great innovator in that field. It's not like this is a filmmaking award, it's just effects, so yeah he deserves it for that. Thanks to his innovations, young filmmakers can make fabulous sci-fi/fantasy films that far surpass hid prequels.

[Supes]

Agreed! This award is not honouring him for his film making ability. Lucas has done a service to the area of special effects by pushing the boundaries and creating options for other film makers to take this technology and blend it where it is needed within their film. Most of them are not stupid enough to get caught up in only special effects - well one hopes anyway.

[civilian_number_two]

I also agree. What Lucas did, really, was to take a group of people who were already working separately around Hollywood and bring them together as a community that shared its ideas and thereby grew in power overnight. What they achieved was not as jaw-dropping as the effects of 2001, but they achieved it in a huge blockbuster that people saw over and over again. When Lucas created ILM he revolutionized the industry by giving filmmakers a single place they could go to for a consistent level of fx quality. For the FX community at large, this was a powerful move. For art, well, it's been pretty negative. The upcoming KING ARTHUR movie wil be chock-full of gasoline-fuelled explosions, following the credo that to be one of the top-ten grossing films of all time, you need an explosion somewhere (unless you're ET).