Just think about it
Powerful, actionable, simple advice from George Lucas
We’re awfully quick to write things off or give up. You’re riding a bike and see a particularly steep hill in one direction, so you say — NOPE. Your boss hands you a project outside of your skill set — NOPE. You get an invitation to go out with some friends but you’re feeling tired — NOPE.
For me, this impulse comes most often in the rock climbing gym where my family and I exercise. We took up climbing as our pandemic physical activity and two years later we haven’t stopped. Today both my daughter and I can work our way through upside-down routes and hangs that looked impossible a year ago. Fear still lingers. Every time I get up there, I’m afraid. Not just afraid of the fall, which is often a pretty fun thrill, but fear of exertion. Trying! Effort. Sometimes it simply sucks to push harder than you want to.
Maybe you’re tired. You didn’t sleep well. You’ve tried this thing before and it didn’t work out. You don’t wanna think about it.
George Lucas, the visionary mind behind Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and special effects (SFX) factory ILM (Industrial Light and Magic), had a reputation for asking more of his SFX designers than they thought possible. Lucas, not being an SFX pro himself, simply had tons of gonzo ideas rattling around his head for how he wanted his movies to look. Most of the time in the 1970s and 80s, what he could imagine was simply not possible yet on screen.
We take for granted a sequence like that of the Tauntauns on the icy planet of Hoth, seen in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. It looks simple enough.
But this was not simple at the start of the 1980s, not at all. The Tauntaun beast itself was a handheld clay figure, as was the rider. Both were being moved forward step by step, frame by frame, and filmed against a blue screen so that they could be layered onto shots of the icy tundra.
George then asked his SFX designer, Dennis Muren, to look at a high-angle shot of the snowfield, shot from a helicopter. “As the camera approaches its distant target, it tilts down almost directly on top of where the characters would be, creating a huge perspective shift. George wanted Luke Skywalker’s Tauntaun to run across that background.”
Dennis had no idea how to do this. He shot it down quickly. It’s not possible. We don’t have the necessary technology. It’ll break our budget. No! No! No!
George Lucas responded, “Just think about it.” And he walked away. Lucas had a reputation for doing this. A famous control freak and meddler in the work of his staff, Lucas did have one strong trait as a manager. It was to plant seeds of the possible and simply walk away. Dennis Muren was annoyed. He had thought about it and deemed it not possible. Case closed.
But then Dennis thought about it. And thought it about for a few hours. A few days.
Then he had an idea, which you can read about in-depth here.
Muren’s idea was weird, technical, and borderline bizarre to 21st-century people for whom the solution to everything is computers and digital effects. But it worked. The Empire Strikes Back had this groundbreaking aerial shot of a stop-motion character riding an animal across an icy tundra. It only lasted a few seconds on screen. Watching the movie, this shot won’t impress you at all. It looks standard for Hollywood magic.
It wasn’t. It was so hard it nearly broke the special effects team and caused people to quit the movie. George Lucas asked too much of them, they felt.
“Think about it.”
Sure, no means no, but what are you writing off without giving it some consideration and dedicated thought? Our instincts to run from or deny tough or new experiences are just that — instincts. It doesn’t mean they’re correct.
Whether it’s at work, the gym, the dating scene, or helping your kid with a school project, try sharing this. Just think about it.
This is the way.
Thank you for reading This Is The Way. I hope you had a marvelous week and conquered some challenges you’ve been facing. I know for me, I’ve both had a few wins and fallen down a few times in recent days.
Don’t give up. On whatever journey you’re on.
Writing this article today for you was one of those “Just think about it” moments. I got up early do write, and had nothing. After 10 minutes of staring at the screen I got frustrated and was going to walk away and go make coffee. Then I decided to stay another minute. I looked around the room and sitting on the table was a book I’d just finished this week.
George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones. This biography of Lucas was a remarkable read. I started over the Christmas holiday and couldn’t put it down. There are so many lessons to be learned on life from this guy who set out to dethrone the Hollywood establishment, only to become the king of Hollywood himself. But still, he’d tell you today with his billions of dollars that he is a rebel and upstart. George Lucas contains multitudes. He is both an inspiring and frustrating figure. I highly recommend you go get this book.
