USC Trojan Family Magazine

Moving Beyond Moving Pictures

Spring 2007

By George Lucas ’66

When Johannes Gutenberg set out to build a printing press in the mid-15th century, the last thing on his mind was starting a revolution. But by taking advantage of the technologies that surrounded him – oil-based inks, bulk paper making, the screw-type press – and putting them together with his own innovations for movable print, he did kindle an evolution in printed communications. That evolution, in turn, served as the catalyst for many revolutions, both literally and figuratively, which shaped the course of human history.

Like Gutenberg, we, too, have arrived at a historic juncture. All the elements are present to push the evolution of communications farther and to shape the technological, economic, cultural and educational landscape for this century and the millennium to come.

The question is, are we up to the challenge?

At the core of this movement are the techniques of the cinematic arts – movies, television, interactive media and formats yet to be invented – that will change the fundamentals of how we communicate on both a personal and a global basis.

While the so-called “digital revolution” is nothing new to anyone who has kept even remotely abreast with developments over the past two decades, what is new, and profoundly so, are the ways in which people of all ages and backgrounds are using these media.

Video and audio software now come as standard issue on most computers – turning them from word processors into mini editing and mixing stations. The resulting output turns up in places like YouTube, which has grown to serve some 100 million videos a day under the tagline “Broadcast Yourself.”

The penetration of these technologies is rigorously charted. A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that on a typical day, more than 80 percent of American children under age 6 use screen media. According to the Pew Internet Project, high-speed Internet connections in the home grew twice as fast in 2005 than the previous year. The same Pew survey found that approximately 48 million Internet users post some sort of content online – from maintaining a Webpage to sharing creative work.

Beyond immediate profit and amusement, what does all this mean? What are the implications for the media themselves – cinema, television and interactive – as markets merge and formats overlap? And perhaps most critically, what does it mean for the stories we tell and the way we tell them?

These are core issues that individual studies cannot fully explore or articulate. They require depth of knowledge and years of exploration, both in theory and in practice, to comprehend fully.

Which is precisely why I recently invested $175 million in the future of the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Like the industry and art form, the School of Cinematic Arts has a long and venerated tradition. USC is home to the nation’s oldest university-based cinema program, begun in 1929 in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. With some 10,000 living alumni, it stands as a testament to the enduring impact successive generations can have when they seek inspiration from their predecessors and build on the achievements that came before.

Over the course of its history, the school has sought to create a unique atmosphere where students are exposed to the full spectrum of ideas and knowledge. Working in atelier-like classes, writers are encouraged to collaborate with game designers to explore what defines “story” in an interactive environment. Critical Studies majors get behind a camera to understand the intricacies of the media they are studying. Directors serve as everything from production assistants to producers, and in doing so glean a sense for what it truly means to be a filmmaker.

Being an alumnus of the program, I am tempted to wax nostalgic about my alma mater. The experience transformed me emotionally and intellectually. My filmic understanding went from catching general-releases in Modesto’s State Theatre to discovering Truffaut, Godard, Fellini and the underground filmmakers of San Francisco. My circle of friends expanded from people who shared a love of building cars to those who had a passion for moving image and sound. USC literally opened the door to some of my deepest personal and professional relationships – from Francis Coppola to John Milius to the guy who did that thing with the big, white fish. (Steven Spielberg)

But nostalgia alone doesn’t cut it. Increasing one’s knowledge and opening up to new partnerships are things students should expect of any good college or university experience.

What makes USC stand out for me is the administration’s drive not only to think, but to act in new ways. Among those key initiatives is expanding the role of the cinematic arts from their traditional realm of entertainment and integrating them throughout the university, and by extension, education at all levels.

Programs such as the USC Institute for Multimedia Literacy, which has a decade of experience with select pilot projects and individual classes, has just been expanded to the university’s General Education courses. In taking this action, USC is equating the ability to master a visual and aural literacy with the ability to master a written literacy. Students are learning how to construct meaning with fundamental cinematic elements – still and moving images, audio clips, animation, as well as textual elements. Just as verb/subject agreement and proper syntax were instrumental to previous generations raised in a strictly print-based environment, the IML philosophy seeks to give students fluency in understanding, as well as creating, the structure of a multimedia-based literacy. What does it mean to put image A next to sound B? When is it appropriate to do so, and when is it not?

Time and again, people say that talk of “overthrowing text” is simply wild conjecture and that concepts such as establishing a multimedia literacy smack of pandering to the cause du jour.

To the former, I’d say that no one is talking of tossing text out the window. Rather, this movement is about offering additional dimensions for expression and enabling users to gain fluency in them all. In doing so, they become fully equipped to select the most appropriate form for the task at hand. Incidentally, precedent for this multi-dimensional approach has already been set by the printed word, which joined – as opposed to obliterated – the rich tradition of oral storytelling.

To the latter, I’d simply point to reports like the Kaiser and Pew studies I mentioned earlier, which underscore that this trend is emerging rapidly on its own. On the face of it, educators and leaders must make a choice. Either they dedicate themselves to developing and defining this movement, or they run and hide.

In an interview back in the late ’80s, I was asked what “The Force” is. At the time I said it’s what happens in spite of us, something we can either use or not use. We can fight change, or we can use it: incorporate it into our lives and take full advantage of it.

Today, I believe that more than ever. I’m certain there are those who don’t understand or who have a vested interest in turning their backs on the cinematic arts movement. But I believe it will be just as powerful, if not more so, than the evolution Gutenberg inspired.

A graduate of USC’s cinema program, filmmaker George Lucas is the creator of American Graffiti, the Star Wars series and the Indiana Jones series. The nonprofit George Lucas Educational Foundation, which he launched in 1991, promotes the use of new media technologies in public schools.

Art and Science “USC is where I learned everything I know about cinema,” says Lucas, who after 40 years in the business retains his “passion” for film, “not only as an art form but also as a communications medium.”

Photo by Mark Berndt