To celebrate that occasion, the film will be available for download on iTunes for the first time ever. It's on sale today, so check it out here. (And unlike certain other filmmakers, this re-release is exactly how you remember it - no new musical numbers to be found.)
GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE is one of my favorite short films ever, if not my absolute favorite. Written by Joe Nussbaum, Timothy Dowling & Daniel Shere, and directed by Nussbaum, it is everything a short film should aspire to. It's got a brilliant premise, it moves fast, it's funny and the acting is solid. It feels like a lot of young filmmakers today try to catch attention with fan films of some sort, but I have seen few as purely savvy and creative as Joe Nussbaum's GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE.
So when the opportunity arose to actually get an interview with Nussbaum, I couldn't say "yes" fast enough. In the intervening years, Nussbaum has directed the feature films Sleepover, American Pie presents The Naked Mile, Sydney White, and Prom, and has also worked in TV on a number of shows including Awkward, Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous and Surviving Jack. But it all began fifteen years ago with a memorable short film...
Joe, first, congrats on the 15th anniversary of GEORGE
LUCAS IN LOVE! I think some of my younger readers have grown up with YouTube
and an era of short films being easily accessible on the web. Can you take us
back to 1999 and talk a little about what it was like to make a short film -
and specifically a STAR WARS fanfilm - around then?
Joe Nussbaum: In the pre-YouTube era, it was all about VHS tapes. I
worked as an assistant in film development, and my boss and her colleagues
would get these short films on tape from agents trying to promote new
directors. I would look at the stack of tapes and think, “I want a tape in that
pile”. So I got together with some friends from film school and set out to make
a short film that would get me noticed as a director.
The hybrid short already existed before us (what would today
be called a ‘mash-up’) and we knew these were more likely to be watched. Shorts
like Troops, Swing Blade, Eating Las Vegas, and Saving Ryan’s Privates were
more likely to be put in the VCR than say, ‘Dancing to Oblivion’ or something
like that. So being the calculating mofos we were, we dreamed up a hybrid of
Star Wars and Shakespeare in Love and hoped it would work. Lucky for us, it
did.
As for being a Star Wars ‘fanfilm’, I had not only never
heard that word, I didn’t even know such a thing existed. I never thought I was
making this movie as a fan (though I was a fan) I was always making this movie
as a sample of what I could do.
STAR WARS is pretty ubiquitous these days as a source for
fan films. Was that the case in 1999? I definitely have strong memories of
TROOPS becoming an internet hit around the time of the Special Editions, and
going back further there is, of course, HARDWARE WARS. Did you have any reason
to think that GLIL could become popular to the degree it did?
JN: Popularity was the furthest thing from my mind. I really
didn’t think anyone outside of Hollywood would see it. I just hoped that the
people who could hire directors (like my boss) would see it and give me a shot.
In your mind, what are the components of a successful
short film?
JN: Mostly I think what makes a successful short film is the
same as what makes a successful film of any length, but beyond that, specific
to a short would probably be the need to capture the audience immediately
(first scene, first seconds even), move at a very brisk pace, hold some
surprises, and end strong. A successful short should also have strong stylistic
elements. It should have a point of view when it comes to style.
Can you give us an idea of how thoroughly you developed
your strategy for using this film as a calling card? This was a time before
YouTube metrics and Twitter tastemakers were able to get a lot of eyes onto
something. Obviously people responded to it once they saw it, but making sure
they watch the film probably was the hard part. When you sent out a DVD or VHS
of the film, how did you make sure it didn't end up in the "unsolicited
submissions" pile?
JN: I was fortunate that the people involved in making the
movie were all already working in the Hollywood machine. I was an assistant at
a production company, producer Joseph Levy had been an assistant at a big
agency and was working with a manager, and Gary Bryman, one of our executive
producers, was floating around in legit development circles too. So when we
finished the movie we had a network of ‘underlings’ in Hollywood who, if they
liked it, could move it up the chain to their bosses.
Gary quickly showed it to a manager and I signed with him
right away. This manager then paved my way toward an agent, and all our
submissions were legit.
If you were making something like GLIL today, do you think
it would be as successful? Should today's young talent be trying to make their
own standout fan films?
JN: I hope GLiL would be just as successful today. I think
when people like something they like it regardless of how much other noise is
out there. I think if anything, with Facebook and Twitter and reposts, the
short would have spread 100 times faster than it did back then (assuming people
liked it).
As for today’s young talent, they should make whatever they
would want to see. Yes, we were calculating when we decided to make GLiL, but
we also loved Star Wars and loved the idea and thought it would be really
funny. I’m certainly not the first person to say this, but make what you love
and it will come out way better. If that’s a fan film, then do that. If it’s
something original, do that. Make what you think you can make great and
special. That’s the only chance that it will work.
You shot GLIL on 35mm film which is significantly more
complicated and difficult than it would be to shoot and edit on digital today.
Do you have any thoughts on how the short film community has been impacted by
the greater availability of HD cameras and editing equipment, as well as easy
distribution via YouTube and Vimeo?
JN: I’m not really tapped into the ‘short film community’
enough to know the answer to this question, but my guess is that everything’s a
lot easier, and a lot cheaper, and there’s probably a lot more really
unwatchable stuff because of it. Which is actually good news! Because then when
you make something great, I’m sure it can still cut through.
The DVD behind-the-scenes has a great story involving
Steven Spielberg. Can I ask you to recount it here?
JN: So one of my good friends, Jim Ryan, has worked at
Dreamworks Animation since it opened. And when we made GLiL, we gave him a tape
and he showed it to some of his co-workers there. Well, they liked it, and soon
more of his co-workers wanted to see it. Apparently, word spread fast, and soon
Jim was doing hourly screenings for everyone in the building. Somehow, the
producers of the movie Jim was working on, Prince of Egypt, heard about the
short and said they wanted to see it, so Jim gave them his tape. It turned out
that they liked it so much, they gave the tape to Jeffrey Katzenberg. And
apparently Katzenberg liked it enough to send it to Steven Spielberg.
Then, from what I’ve heard, Spielberg watched it, laughed
very hard at it, and proceeded to call George Lucas and begin describing the
short to him in detail. He then, according to the story, sent Jim Ryan’s copy
of George Lucas in Love to George Lucas himself. Lucas wrote me a
congratulatory letter less than a month after we finished the short, and the
first line was “Steven Spielberg sent me a copy.” Definitely surreal and very
very cool, and yes, the letter is framed on my wall. And yes, Jim got another
copy.
You have directed 4 feature films and a lot of hours of TV
in the last 15 years. I'm sure it's not as easy as "direct a good fan
film, get a feature" so give us an idea of what was involved in making
that leap from GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE to directing SLEEPOVER just five years
later?
JN: It’s funny that you say “just five years later” because
at the time, it felt like forever. I was fortunate because GLiL proved to be
such a well received directing sample that I was attached to direct my first
feature within three months. That movie never got greenlit. But then there was
another. But that never got greenlit either. And then there was another, and
another, and another. Sleepover was, I believe, the 7th studio feature that I
was attached to direct.
Getting a movie off the ground and into production is
amazingly difficult. It could be casting that kills a movie, or a poorly
received rewrite, or a regime change at the studio, or simply the whim of a
studio head on any given day. Ultimately, there wasn’t really anything I needed
to do directing-wise beyond the short in order to get a movie, I just needed
the planets to align to get one into production.
It seems like - for the most part - your resume has a lot
of projects aimed at the teen audience. Is that by design? Are there things
about that particular genre that you really thrive on?
JN: I feel like it’s more a result of the twists and turns
of fate than by design. I do tend to love teen movies though and think that
high school is a fertile ground for both comedy and drama, but I’d be more than
happy to ‘graduate’ as well.
When you watch GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE today, what does that
film tell you about the 26 year-old guy who made it?
JN: This is such a great question and one I’ve never thought
about before. I think it tells me that guy was very passionate and had a strong
enough belief in himself to risk his life savings on his own talent. I wonder
if I would have the guts to do that today. I also see someone who was lucky
enough to have an amazing group of friends willing to pour their hearts into a
project to try and make it great. I wish I had as much chance to work with my
talented friends over the years as that guy probably thought he would.
So in the last fifteen years, have you gotten the chance
to meet the man himself, George Lucas?
JN: I did. It was five years after GLiL and I met George at
the Telluride Film Festival where he was premiering the remastered THX 1138. I
made friends with some volunteers at the festival who knew I had made the short
and they helped smuggle me up to him before the screening. I quickly introduced
myself and said that I made George Lucas in Love. Then the most amazing thing
happened, George’s eyes lit up, he gave me a firm handshake and he said,
“Thanks for making me famous.” I was speechless.
Then his kids, who were there with him, chimed in how much
they loved the short. It was unbelievably cool.
And finally, as a STAR WARS fan, what are you hoping for
from the new trilogy?
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Once again, you can find the film on iTunes here. The official website is here, and there's even an official twitter account at @GLucasInLove.
Press Release Below:
In the fall of 1998, four friends and aspiring
filmmakers, JOE NUSSBAUM, JOSEPH LEVY, DAN SHERE and TIM DOWLING began
discussing making a short film in order to launch their careers. The
group went on to make one of the most notable, widely
seen and profitable short films in the history of the genre.
The film, which was produced in less than two
months with only two days of actual filming, hit Hollywood on the
morning of May 24, 1999, and within several hours, copies of the film
started being passed around town. The film gradually
worked its way up from assistants to executives, eventually ending up
in the VCR’s of such moguls as Mike Ovitz, Jeffrey Katzenberg and George
Lucas himself, whose copy was personally sent to him by Steven
Spielberg. It wasn’t long before the press picked
up on the story of the film which was trailblazing its way through
Hollywood. The film’s success was reported in such publications as
DAILY VARIETY, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES,
PEOPLE MAGAZINE, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and USA TODAY.
The story went on to reach publications in nearly every continent of
the globe. Television news media also reported about the phenomenon on
such outlets as NBC’s TODAY SHOW, CNN’s SHOWBIZ TODAY, MSNBC’s MORNING
LINE, Fox News channel, CBS, CNNfn and many
more.
In September, 1999, the film made its internet
debut on MediaTrip.com. Within weeks, the film was reported to be the
most viewed short film in internet history, eventually being watched
several million times by internet audiences around
the world. GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE is currently taking its position in a
permanent exhibit on the history of film on the internet at the
prestigious Museum of Television and Radio in New York and Los Angeles.
Approximately six months after its world premiere
and internet debut, GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE was made available for purchase
on home video through Amazon.com. Within its first 24 hours of sale,
the nine-minute video became the top selling
VHS film on Amazon, placing it ahead of “Star Wars Episode 1”. GEORGE
LUCAS IN LOVE retained its number one position for nearly three months
straight, just before the film’s release on DVD and broad expansion into
traditional brick & mortar retail markets
such as Tower Records, Barnes & Noble and Blockbuster. At the same
time, the film was being licensed for television, airline and
theatrical exhibition around the world in numerous countries and
languages.
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