Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy

In true George Lucas fashion, there are 3 different versions of this Kevin Burns documentary, produced by Prometheus Entertainment. The first, running at 2:31:00 (in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio framed as 4:3), available only in the original 2004 Special Edition DVD release, in monoaural audio. A second version, intended to be broadcast on A&E to promote the release of the Special Edition DVD trilogy, that cuts down 1 whole hour of content, yet has commercial breaks planned, a fast paced beat, it retains only key interviews, and features a 2.0 Dolby Stereo track (that actually kicks-ass), and the framed 4:3 aspect ratio. The third version is available on the US version of the Blu-ray 2011 release (those box sets with the extra content disc), and it only cuts half-hour of the original content and yet adds some new visual snippets and bits (like some shots featuring world-class swordsman Bob Anderson without the Darth Vader mask in the fencing sequences, a role that Lucas never acknowledged he performed until Anderson's passing), but sadly isn't available on HD (Burns used a 720p Hi-Def video camera for the archival interviews and made a 720p cut, but Lucasfilms had the dumb idea of cramming 8 hours of content on a single dual-layer Blu-ray, so they had to keep it at 480p with 2.0 Dolby Stereo), but it restores the original 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The original 2004 version is an excellent general-interest documentary (a must-see for anyone interested in the art of filmmaking), with the added bonus of being mastefully narrated by Robert Clotworthy (Jim Raynor in Blizzard's StarCraft video game series, Marshall Law in Tekken 5 and the soothing voice in the otherwise crazy History Channel's Ancient Aliens). Gosh, I would love to watch a 720p 1.78:1 version of it, some day.

Whether you like George Lucas and/or his movies you have to admit he is a genius who had a lot of foresight and believe in what he was doing. He changed the industry, although he himself admits by doing so he became the very thing he fought. In the early days success was anything but a given and he was often flying by the seat of his pants. He didn't do it alone of course and many household names of today started together with him, inventing the things filmmakers today have at their hands.
So, of course this is mainly about the creation of Star Wars but if you are interesteed in filmaking in general this could also be of interest.