10 Highly Questionable Actions Committed By George Lucas
4. Shooting The Prequels Mostly With Green Screen
George Lucas has always been a proponent of technology, especially when it comes to visual effects. The original Star Wars trilogy certainly moved the baton forward when it comes to effects work, much of which holds up to this day. George has often said that he put off doing Episodes I-III because he was waiting for technology to catch up to his vision. When the realness of CGI finally reached his standards, he moved forward with the prequel trilogy and viewers were curious as to what he would do with all of this new technology.
Well, what we got was essentially devoid of real sets and, sometimes even, characters. George used green screen for the bulk of the movies, opting to digitally create locations, vehicles, and everything else. By doing this, George took away much of the believability of the original trilogy. We are almost always painfully aware that we are staring at rendered models of things instead of thinking Wow, Jabba the Hutt looks grotesque!. And you had better believe this affected performances. It is a lot harder for actors to interact with people they cant see, or run from something that doesnt exist. Yes, it is an actors job to make the imaginary seem real but having something tangible to work with truly does wonders for being in the moment.
To me, the heavy reliance on green screen reeks of laziness. Instead of having to travel around and get back into the swing of, you know, actually MAKING a movie, George thought it would be just as good if they shot in front of green walls and have the computer geeks take care of it.