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Droidmaker: George Lucas And the Digital Revolution Hardcover – October 24, 2005

by Michael Rubin (Author)

4.5 68 ratings

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The inside story of George Lucas, his intensely private company, and their work to revolutionize filmmaking. In the process, they made computer history. Discover the birth of Pixar, digital video editing, videogame avitars, THX sound, and a host of other icons of the media age. Lucas played a central role in the universe of entertainment technologies we see everyday.

Length

518
Pages
Language

EN
English
Publisher

Triad Pub Co
Publication date

2005
October 24
Dimensions

7.5 x 1.5 x 9.5
inches
ISBN-10

9780937404676
ISBN-13

978-0937404676
See all details

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...what the evolution of technology means for our culture, and the human story of how we got here." -- Steve Silberman, Contributing Editor, WIRED magazine

"Brilliant... a detailed glimpse under the hood of Lucas digital skunkworks." -- Thomas Dolby, Musican & Technology Entrepreneur

"The ultimate insider guide to the making of cinemas greatest saga" -- Dan Dubno, Producer, CBS News

"This is a compelling introduction to a revolution in visual communication and story telling." -- Andries van Dam, Chairman, Brown University Computer Science Dept.

"Wow. I love Rubins ability to interweave a story about business, technology and moviesthree of my favorite things!" -- Reed Hastings, CEO & Founder, NETFLIX

From the Publisher

This book ventures in territory never explored, as Rubin-a former member of the Lucasfilm Computer Division-reconstructs the events in Hollywood, in Silicon Valley, and at Lucas' private realm in Marin County, California, to track the genesis of modern media. With unprecedented access to images and key participants from Lucasfilm, Pixar and Zoetrope-from George Lucas and the executives who ran his company, to the small team of scientists who made the technological leaps, Rubin weaves a tale of friendships, a love of movies, and the incessant forward movement of technology. This is a compelling story that takes the reader into an era of technological innovation almost completely unknown.

From the Author

*We can all agree that Pixar is a fantastic company. Every single project they have embarked upon for more than 25 years has been successful, both financially and creatively. Few companies have created a product so consistently good for so long. All the elements that made them great were present at their inception. But the path to that instant was complicated. * *The story of Pixar begins with George Lucas. * *Pixar was founded as "The Graphics Group", one-third of Lucasfilm's Computer Division, in 1979. But the question should be "WHY?" Why would rebel filmmaker George Lucas have spent a disproportionate amount of his newfound wealth to hire computer scientists and what were they charged with doing? What was it like in this kernel within the secretive Star Wars environment? Caught in the swirl between two competitive friends, George Lucas and Francis Coppola. * *If you like computers, Star Wars, Pixar or just movies, you have to read this story.

From the Inside Flap

Money can buy a lot of privacy. But little in the film business was ever more private than George Lucas Computer Division, the fog-shrouded Marin county laboratory where he used his Star Wars windfall to forever change what we see on the screen, and how we see it.

Why did Lucas spend so much of his new-found wealth to reinvent filmmaking? What was he trying to do? What did he really accomplish? And why did he suddenly stop?

DROIDMAKER is an insiders chronicle of Lucas uneasy role between business, technology and entertainmentwith parts played by Francis Ford Coppola, Walt Disney, The Grateful Dead, Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg, Michael Crichton, Stanley Kubrick, Ross Perot, Robert Moog, Steve Jobs, The Doors, Steven Soderbergh and many others. Their stories woven into a tapestry of backdrops: USC, Atari, Sun Microsystems, CBS, America Online, Amadeus, the University of Utah, Tron, Xerox, Twilight Zone, Pixar, Jurassic Park and, of course, Skywalker Ranch.

DROIDMAKER goes behind the scenes of how movies are really made. It follows Lucas and his dynamic relationship with Coppola. Explore the universe of Star Wars and how a filmmaker came to rely on computers to make tangible his imagination. The very nature of media today is in part due to Lucas passions. The films, products and experiences that trace their lineage to his scientists make an extraordinary list; his companys secretive research spawned billions of dollars in new companies and gave birth to whole new industries. Only a success on the magnitude of Star Wars could eclipse what are likely Lucas most significant cultural contributions.

If you enjoy movies, or use computers for video, music or games, you are living in a world imagined by George Lucas from behind the walls of his hidden fortress. DROIDMAKER takes you inside those walls for the first-ever look at the secrets, the myths, and ultimately, the reality of Lucasfilm.

About the Author

Michael Rubin has had a diverse career. Initially he spent a decade evangelizing the use of computers for filmmakers and, later, consumers. During this time he was involved with editing both television and feature films (Lonesome Dove; The Sheltering Sky). He has written and published a dozen serious books (Nonlinear; The Little Digital Video Book) and a few humorous ones (Defending the Galaxy; Computer Gardening Made Simple). Rubin has been both a founder and a participant in start-up companies. His experiences range from bricks-and-mortar retail to high tech. He continues to be a vocal advocate for individuals to create and distribute content independently, from movies and music to books and software. He's a student of industry disruptions. He loves photography. Rubin's business background includes Lucasfilm, where his career began, and Netflix. He spent over 10 years as the cofounder and CEO of Petroglyph Ceramic Lounge and helped launch the you-paint-it ceramic industry. After Petroglyph and before Netflix, he stopped to write and publish Droidmaker. Most recently he's an accomplished product creator, developing new web and mobile applications, including Pingster, MapOmatic and MedChart. He's passionate about product simplicity. Rubin hold an ScB in neuroscience from Brown University.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0937404675
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Triad Pub Co; 1st edition (October 24, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 518 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780937404676
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0937404676
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.6 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,562,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #164 in Movie Industry
- #210 in Cinematography (Books)
- #277 in Performing Arts Reference

Customer Reviews:
4.5 68 ratings

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Michael Rubin
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Michael Rubin
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Michael Rubin has had a diverse career. Initially he spent years evangelizing the use of computers for filmmakers and, later, consumers. During this time he was involved with editing both television and feature films (The Twilight Zone; Lonesome Dove; The Sheltering Sky). He has written and published a bunch of serious books (Nonlinear; The Little Digital Video Book) and a few humorous ones (Defending the Galaxy; Computer Gardening Made Simple). As an entrepreneur, Rubin has been both a founder and a participant in start-up companies. His experiences range from bricks-and-mortar retail to high tech. He continues to be a vocal advocate for individuals to create and distribute content independently, from movies and music to books and software. He’s a student of industry disruptions. He loves photography.
Rubin’s business background includes Lucasfilm, where his career began, Netflix, and Adobe. He spent almost 20 years as CEO of Petroglyph Ceramic Lounge and helped launch the you-paint-it ceramic industry. After Petroglyph and before Netflix, he stopped to write Droidmaker. Most recently he’s dedicated to teaching photography and shooting. He's the author of "The Photograph as Haiku" (2023).
Rubin received an Sc.B. in neuroscience from Brown University. But summers at Camp Shewahmegon changed everything.
See more on the author's page

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Andrew Myers

A fascinating story of how the digital revolution kicked off.

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2010

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Michael Rubin has written a well researched book into the early days Lucasfilm focusing on the developing uses of computers for computer graphics, video and sound editing. From interviews with over eighty Lucasfilm employees, including George Lucas, the story is told over three 'Acts', from Lucas' days at USC in the late sixties through to the mid eighties when much of the research and development at Lucasfilm had been divested; the computer graphics group's setting up of Pixar being the prime example. This is not a book of the latest in special effects and moviemaking. Its more the story of how things moved from the old analog film making processes to where we are today.

Act One tells the story of Lucas and Coppola and American Zoetroppe. As Rubin says, this story has already been covered in many books and documentaries. The focus however is one of the difficulties of traditional film making and in particular the editing process which was very mechanical. The lower resolution video was hoped to improve the situation, but film and video did not play together nicely. Rubin relates the story of how Coppola was able to create a rough cut of a sequence from Apocalypse Now using video, but there was no easy way to use that to cut the original negatives since there was no way to tie the video time codes to the film reel and frame number. Both Lucas and Coppola knew there had to be a better way and from their early film successes they were able to fund research into new equipment.

I have been working in computer graphics for over twenty years. So for me this was an engrossing look into the pioneering work of people like Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith. Act Two kicks off with the story of Alex Schure and the New York Institute of Technology where much of the early CG work was starting the late 70s to look at ways of using technology to improve film animation. Schure was able to purchase the then expensive equipment (in 1978 an 8 bit frame buffer cost $60,000 - four were needed to create a red, green, blue and alpha image) to allow the researchers to play with paint programs and 3D graphics. That was until they got the call from Lucasfilm, which anyone who was a fan of Star Wars would have loved to get ... "George Lucas wants to set up a research group ..."

The final Act takes us through the growing pains as some projects did not come to fruition and the company needed to decide how to manage the various groups which did not necessarily fit into their core film making business. The book is as much a look at some of the technical breakthroughs as it is about the organisational and business life cycle of a privately funded research and development group. This is something I wold normally find very dry, but Rubin has found a way to express the drama that no doubt occurs.

Rubin has an engaging writing style which brings together numerous anecdotes where the participants talk about various pivotal technical ideas (Rob Cook's use of sampling to solve the motion blur problem) and encounters with the big names that were continuously paraded through the offices to look at George's toys (Slyvester Stallone's attempts at using the paint programs).

The book could have been improved with a bit more rigorous proof-reading. There were a few too many typographical errors which interrupted the otherwise great narrative. Although referring to software to remove noise from old analog recordings as "de-nosing" was amusing. Do the recordings smell better after that?

Overall though, its a wonderful in-depth look at how someone like Lucas, with a passion for film making and independence, can use his resources to allow smart people to experiment with new ideas on the off chance that it might pay off one day. I wish I'd been there.

4 people found this helpful

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Edward Giardina

Great read if you care about the history of computing, animation, or filmmaking

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2013

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This is a great book if you want to learn about the genesis of some of the most important technologies and companies of the last 30 years. The book starts with a breakdown of George Lucas' first filmmaking efforts, his friendship with Francis Ford Coppolla, and commercial success. Then, the book shifts tone as George invests his massive movie profits from Star Wars and subsequent films into blue-sky style research into computer audio and video, filmmaking technologies, and theater experiences like THX. Then the book starts to talk about how Pixar formed out of the computer research group.

It's a wonderful look at the unsung heroes of tech work. Computer engineers, animators, film editors, people who help make the things we enjoy in entertainment and art.

The only drawback to me is that the section initially talking about the research division for computers was sort of dry and had a lot of 'actors'. Hard to keep track of everyone. However, once through that I found the book picked up pace. If you can learn that not every name is remember-able for each time, it's a great read.

2 people found this helpful

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Perry Harovas

I built two college courses on the history of Computer Graphics around this book. Buy it immediately if you have any interest!

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2017

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Not only is this book exhaustively researched, vetted and verified by all the interviewees and incredibly well written, but it is also an essential read for anyone who wants to understand the rise of digital technology in movies and TV. I have spent 26 years in the VFX industry, I have worked on films, directed animated TV shows, even written a book on the bestselling animation software Maya, but the thing that I think makes me most qualified to recommend this book to you is that I started 2 full college programs that taught VFX and animation and used this book in both programs to perfectly enrich and teach the history of computer graphics. My students may not have thought of George Lucas much beyond bringing Star Wars to life, but after that course, where they were required to read Michael's book, they know his place in the history of Computer Graphics (and indeed in digital sound editing, laser scanning and recording of film footage and non-linear editing). The students enjoyed reading this book and were all amazed to know how digital visual effects and editing came to life and that George Lucas was a key component of that birth. Highly, highly recommended.

3 people found this helpful

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Brian Brown

Terrific read

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2008

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I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book. If you have a passing interest in modern movie making, the history of Pixar, or are a fan of Star Wars/George Lucas, you really have to read Droidmaker. The first half, dealing more with Lucas and the history of Star Wars is probably a little more accessible, but the back half, with its detailed telling of the evolution of Pixar and other Lucas-driven technical innovations, is equally fascinating. Oh, did I mention all the stuff about video games? Seriously, this is among the best books I've read in the past five years.

2 people found this helpful

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Shawn

More of a textbook that I was looking for but I learned a ton!

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2017

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Reads a bit like a textbook but it is full of great information. I've had to put it down several times and come back to it. There isn't much of a linear story and it name-drops a new person every other sentence so it isn't the easiest read in the world. If you're a student of the industry, this book will leave you really well informed.

One person found this helpful

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jb

Just like George Lucas: Powerful but overly long winded.

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2013

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This book is 90% the boring parts of how George Lucas took the money from Star Wars and used it to create the 'Think Tanks' that would give us Toy Story and CGI in every movie we see today.

It's an informative read, but it's more a tech manual than anything interesting about George Lucas and/or Star Wars.

One person found this helpful

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Strictly Amateur

It's a history of the transition from film to digital video

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2016

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I bought this expecting it to be an insider view of the making of "Star Wars", with the usual 'behind the scenes' gossip and perhaps some Lucas biography thrown in. Instead, it's a detailed history of the movie industry's transition from film to digital video, tracing the individuals who developed the technology and the paths they followed. As I'm a "computer type" with an interest in image processing I find it a fascinating read.

2 people found this helpful

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Andrea Anglani

Un'appassionante storia dagli anni '60 a oggi

Reviewed in Italy on May 18, 2013

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Il libro è un interessantissimo racconto che parte dalla fine degli anni '60 fino ai giorni nostri e approfondisce la rivoluzione del digitale, quella che ha permesso ai promettenti registi di oggi di fare un film a costi ridotti, grazie alle scoperte in campo del montaggio, che oggi può avvenire con semplici PC.

Lo scrittore trova nella American Zoetrope, la compagnia di film indipendenti fondata da Coppola e Lucas, la nascita di quella grande rivoluzione che oggi ha portato a questi grandi cambiamenti. Dopo che il suo film d'esordio (THX:1138) non era andato molto bene al Box Office, Lucas decide di proseguire la sua strada da solo e con la LucasFilm realizza dapprima American Graffiti e poi Guerre Stellari. Ma il cammino dei due registi, seppure artisticamente diversi, è accomunato dai loro investimenti nella tecnologia digitale. La divisione ILM di Lucas studia come sfruttare i computer per il cinema, mentre Coppola continua a investire i suoi soldi per velocizzare il processo di produzione e montaggio.

Appare strano che il solo nome di Lucas appaia nel titolo, visto il grande contributo che anche altri hanno dato, insieme al regista di Guerre Stellari, per arrivare alla rivoluzione digitale. Per chi è appassionato di questo mondo, sarà bello leggere i nomi di Ben Burtt, Walter Murch, Ed Catmull, Alvy Ray Smith, John Lasseter e Ron Gilbert, solo per citarne alcuni.

L'opera mi ha conquistato, sicuramente ci sono altri lettori italiani interessati alle vicende.

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Zachary LeDuke

George Lucas Redemption Arc

Reviewed in Canada on October 11, 2019

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You know, for a long time I went around saying that George Lucas has always been a hack. But you know what, this book changed my mind. Really interesting read if you're in anyway interested in computer graphics or editing.

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