Les Mayfield (born November 30, 1959) is an American retired film director and producer.
41-571: Shortly after graduating the USC School of Cinematic Arts , Les Mayfield formed the ZM Productions with schoolmate George Zaloom. Until its closure in 1998, the company had produced films and television programs such as Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse , The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes , and The Cape in 16 years. Mayfield made his feature-film debut in 1992 with the comedy Encino Man starring Pauly Shore and Brendan Fraser . It
82-831: A United States Information Agency documentary, about Lyndon B. Johnson ' s 21–23 December 1967 Asia trip , later titled Journey to the Pacific (1968). Fields had also hired University of Southern California students as assistant editors, including George Lucas . The following spring, the newly engaged Marcia moved in with Lucas at his hilltop apartment on Portola Drive in Beverly Hills and returned to editing commercials as George Lucas accompanied Francis Ford Coppola to scout filming locations for The Rain People (1968) at Long Island , New York . When principal photography began on The Rain People , Lucas simultaneously begun shooting
123-616: A Department of Cinematography (1932) in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, renamed the Department of Cinema (1940), which led to the establishment of the USC School of Cinema-Television (1983), which was renamed the USC School of Cinematic Arts (2006). . On September 19, 2006, USC announced that alumnus George Lucas had donated US$ 175 million to expand the film school with a new 137,000-square-foot (12,700 m ) facility. This represented
164-557: A behind-the-scenes documentary short titled Filmmaker (1968). Back in California, Marcia had accepted an offer to work on Medium Cool (1969) when George had recommended her as an assistant editor for Barry Malkin on The Rain People . Fortunately, the shooting schedule for Medium Cool was delayed, which allowed for her to work on both films. Following this assignment, she and George returned to their Portola Drive residence to edit Filmmaker . Shortly after, Coppola had established
205-435: A blast door that would slam shut behind him. However, Marcia suggested to her husband that he should kill off Kenobi and have him act as a spiritual guide to Luke . Before Star Wars entered post-production, George did not consider that Marcia would work on it as she expected to give birth after editing Taxi Driver (1976), but the pregnancy was unsuccessful. Instead, George hired British union editor John Jympson to cut
246-407: A career in screen and television writing. The programs emphasizes small, workshop-style classes. Students attend a variety of guest speaker presentations, take industry internships, are provided with mentors and are taught by professors who are actively working in the entertainment industry. Each fall, 30 undergraduate and 32 graduate writing students are selected to begin the program. The current Chair
287-507: A family. In the meantime, she supervised the completion of the interior design and decoration of Skywalker Ranch . After viewing the rough cut of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), she stated that there was no emotional closure because Marion did not appear at the ending. As a result, Spielberg shot the final scene with her and Indiana Jones . In 1982, Marcia came on board Return of the Jedi as
328-453: A mortgage-banking firm. In 1964, Marcia's then-boyfriend worked for a Hollywood museum and wanted to hire her as a librarian to catalog all the donated movie memorabilia. They sent her to apply for the job at a California State Employment office . Since she had no experience, the Employment office sent her to Sandler Films who needed an apprentice film librarian with no experience. Marcia
369-415: A multi-picture deal with his production company American Zoetrope and Warner Bros . Their first project was THX 1138 (1971) for which Marcia served as an assistant editor. Reflecting on the film's commercial failure, Marcia stated, "I never cared for THX because it left me cold. When the studio didn't like the film, I wasn't surprised. But George just said to me I was stupid and knew nothing. Because I
410-539: A production manager at Skywalker Ranch from 1980 to 1983, whom she met before divorcing George. In 1985, the couple had a daughter, Amy Rodrigues. Lucas and Rodrigues divorced in 1993. In an interview, Mark Hamill cited Marcia for her contributions to Star Wars . In Mythmaker: The Life and Work of George Lucas , filmmaker John Milius described Marcia's contributions to Milius's own films and those of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese, calling her one of
451-984: Is David Isaacs . The Peter Stark Producing Program is a two-year (four semester) full-time graduate program. 24 Peter Stark Program students are enrolled each fall. The curriculum is designed to prepare a select group of students for careers as producers and executives of film, television, and new media. The current Chair is Edward Saxon and Associate Chair is Nina Yang Bongiovi . The Expanded Animation Research + Practice (XA) MFA program emphasizes creative expression across all platforms. Areas of study include 2D / 3D / real-time animation, motion capture, VR/AR, VFX, cinematic installation, analog techniques, documentary animation, experimental animation, stop motion, writing & story art, science visualization, sound design, and AI & virtual production. XA offers an ever-expanding, flexible and self-directed curriculum, cutting-edge facilities, new technologies, and inspiring guest artists that encourage artistic freedom and experimentation within
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#1732863269725492-556: Is Teresa Cheng , who holds the John C. Hench Endowed Division Chair. The Interactive Media & Games Division focus is on video games. USC has been a pioneer in teaching the foundations of games and interactive media while also moving the field forward with innovative research concepts. Since the start of its rating system in 2009, The Princeton Review has consistently ranked USC as the top school for game design in North America. The Chair at
533-555: Is an American film editor. She is best known for her work editing the Star Wars trilogy (1977–1983) as well as other films by her then-husband George Lucas : THX-1138 (1971) and American Graffiti (1973). She also edited Martin Scorsese 's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), and New York, New York (1977). Lucas won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing in 1977 for Star Wars (1977). She
574-528: The "head" of Star Wars and Marcia the "heart," though Marcia commented, "I wouldn't think so. I definitely made scenes work. I made the end battle work, I definitely had a lot to do with making it work, but I wasn't the writer and I wasn't the director, and I didn't come up with the creative names, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker. All those names are classics. George came up with all of it using his amazing imagination." In J. W. Rinzler 's posthumous final book, Howard Kazanjian : A Producer's Life , Lucas criticized
615-611: The Entertainer . This article about a United States film director born in the 1950s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . USC School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses eight academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Screen & Television; Interactive Media & Games; Media Arts + Practice; Peter Stark Producing Program and
656-608: The Expanded Animation Research + Practice Program. The USC School of Cinematic Arts is led by dean Elizabeth Monk Daley, who holds the Steven J. Ross/Time Warner Chair and is the longest-serving dean at the University of Southern California , having led the cinema school since 1991. When Douglas Fairbanks became the first president of the nascent Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927, one of his recommendations
697-497: The Pacific under Verna Fields. On February 22, 1969, they were married. They adopted one daughter, Amanda Lucas , who was born in 1981. Due to her husband's commitments to the Star Wars films and Raiders of the Lost Ark , Marcia grew impatient in her marriage as she blamed his workaholism and emotional blockage. In mid-1982, she asked for a divorce, but in order to maintain a positive public image, George asked her to wait until after
738-597: The USC School of Cinematic Arts. The current Chair is Priya Jaikumar. Notable faculty members of the Cinema and Media Studies department include Todd Boyd and Drew Casper . Prior to his 2019 retirement, Casper was the 3rd-highest paid professor in the University of Southern California 's history. The John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts teaches courses in animation and digital arts. These include classic character animation, 2-D and 3-D storytelling, performance capture, visual effects, motion graphics. The current Chair
779-568: The University of Southern California that agreed to allow one class, called “Introduction to Photoplay” that debuted in 1929, the same year as the Academy Awards. Determined to make it a success, Fairbanks brought in the biggest industry names of the era to lecture, including Douglas Fairbanks , Mary Pickford , D. W. Griffith , Charlie Chaplin , William C. DeMille , Ernst Lubitsch , Irving Thalberg , and Darryl Zanuck . From that one class grew
820-499: The animation art form. The current Director is Sheila M. Sofian. The School of Cinematic Arts also has an active Board of Councilors who help guide the future direction of the School and work with the Dean to ensure the School is properly resourced. Donations from film and game industry companies, friends, and alumni have enabled the school to build the following facilities: At the center of
861-442: The best editors he knew. In 2021, SFGate published an article calling Marcia the "secret weapon of 'Star Wars'", further stating that: "Considering the reaction to the 'Star Wars' prequels and George's distance from the franchise now, it's not a stretch to say that Marcia was actually the glue that kept the galaxy far, far away together. Or, at the very least, helped repair it when it needed to be fixed." Some have called George
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#1732863269725902-544: The fighting as well." While editing the sequence, she warned George: "If the audience doesn't cheer when Han Solo comes in at the last second in the Millennium Falcon to help Luke when he's being chased by Darth Vader, the picture doesn't work." As Marcia edited the Death Star assault, Lucas brought in editor Richard Chew to restructure the rough cut. As the workload grew too burdensome, Lucas hired Paul Hirsch as
943-575: The film while they were in England. Horrified by the first rough cut, George fired Jympson and replaced him with Marcia. She was tasked to edit the Battle of Yavin sequence, in which she drastically diverted from the originally scripted shot sequence. George estimated that "it took her eight weeks to cut that battle. It was extremely complex, and we had 40,000 feet of dialogue footage of pilots saying this and that. And she had to cull through all that, and put in all
984-450: The film's third editor alongside Duwayne Dunham and Sean Barton. When asked of her contributions to the film, George described the scenes she helped edit as the emotional "dying and crying" scenes. Marcia's last film credit was as executive producer of 1996's No Easy Way. In 1967, Marcia met George Lucas while he was attending film school at the University of Southern California when they both served as apprentice editors on Journey to
1025-429: The film's third editor. Shortly after Christmas 1976, Marcia left Star Wars to work on Scorsese's musical drama New York, New York (1977) because Irving Lerner had died before he finished editing the film. At the 50th Academy Awards , Lucas won the 1977 Academy Award for Best Film Editing with Chew and Hirsch. Following the success of Star Wars , Marcia decided to place her career on hold in order to raise
1066-540: The first graduating class for the university was in 2010. The USC School of Cinematic Arts announced it would remove an exhibit devoted to actor and former USC student John Wayne , after months of insistence from a small number of students denouncing the Hollywood star’s views and the portrayal of indigenous Americans in his films. The exhibit has been relocated to the Cinematic Arts library which has many collections for
1107-467: The largest single donation to USC and the largest to any film school in the world. His previous donations resulted in the naming of two buildings in the school's previous complex, opened in 1984, after him and his then-wife Marcia , though Lucas was not fond of the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture used in those buildings. An architectural hobbyist, Lucas laid out the original designs for
1148-477: The later Star Wars films. She revealed that upon seeing The Phantom Menace , she "cried because [she] didn't think it was very good," particularly criticizing the age gap between romantic leads Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala . About the sequel trilogy , she stated that Kathleen Kennedy and J. J. Abrams "don't get it," saying that she was furious at the deaths of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker , as well as
1189-500: The moment is Danny Bilson. The Media Arts + Practice Division (MA+P) creates and analyzes media for fields as diverse as business, medicine, education, architecture, law, urban planning, filmmaking. The current co-chairs are Holly Willis and Elizabeth Ramsey . The USC School of Cinematic Arts offers Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees in Writing for Screen and Television for students who seek professional preparation for
1230-598: The new television complex is a statue of founder Douglas Fairbanks . He is seen holding a fencing foil in one hand and a script in the other to reflect his strong ties with the USC Fencing Club . See also List of University of Southern California people SCA has more than 17,000 alumni. Among the most notable are: 34°01′23″N 118°17′09″W / 34.023056°N 118.285833°W / 34.023056; -118.285833 Marcia Lucas Marcia Lou Lucas (née Griffin ; born October 4, 1945)
1271-503: The next six months, Marcia edited American Graffiti alongside her husband and sound editor Walter Murch to its contractual runtime of 110 minutes. In 1974, Marcia Lucas and Fields were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for their work on American Graffiti . After American Graffiti was released, Martin Scorsese asked Marcia to edit Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), his first studio film. Sandra Weintraub recalled, "We knew her, and we liked her, and she
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1312-762: The project, inspired by the Mediterranean Revival Style that was used in older campus buildings as well as the Los Angeles area. The project also received another $ 50 million in contributions from Warner Bros. , 20th Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company . In fall 2006, the school, together with the Royal Film Commission of Jordan , created the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts (RSICA) in Aqaba , Jordan . The first classes were held in 2008, and
1353-426: The release of Return of the Jedi to go public with the decision. On June 13, 1983, George formally announced at Skywalker Ranch that he and Marcia were divorcing; the couple would share custody of their daughter while Marcia would relocate to Los Angeles. When the divorce was finalized, she reportedly received $ 50 million from the settlement. Marcia later married Tom Rodrigues, a stained glass artist who worked as
1394-546: The study of figures whose lives and works are part of society's shared history. These materials are preserved for posterity and made accessible for research and scholarship as will the materials in the Wayne Collection. The current Chair is Gail Katz, holder of the Mary Pickford Endowed Chair; Vice-Chair is Susan Arnold. The Division of Cinema & Media Studies (CaMS) is the central hub for film theory at
1435-409: Was eventually promoted to being an assistant editor by the time she was twenty. She was in a Motion Picture Editors Guild apprenticeship of eight years, leading to becoming a Guild film editor. She edited promotional films and trailers. In 1967, Verna Fields , one of the few respected female film editors in the industry at that time, asked Sandler Films to send her an assistant editor to help on
1476-665: Was followed by Miracle on 34th Street , starring Richard Attenborough , in 1994, and Flubber , starring Robin Williams , in 1997. He directed the Martin Lawrence comedy Blue Streak in 1999. In the 2000s, Mayfield directed the Western American Outlaws starring Colin Farrell , and the comedies The Man , starring Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy , in 2005 and Code Name: The Cleaner in 2007, starring Cedric
1517-501: Was in the union. It was good for her to get away from George and his house. Here she was, a wonderful editor working on her husband's films. I don't think she got taken seriously." As Marcia was editing the film in Los Angeles, George joined her and sequestered himself in a hotel room as he wrote the first draft for Star Wars (1977). In his fourth draft of Star Wars , George originally had written for Obi-Wan Kenobi to survive his lightsaber duel with Darth Vader by retreating through
1558-449: Was just a Valley Girl . He was the intellectual." When principal photography had wrapped on American Graffiti (1973), George had wanted Marcia to edit the film, but Universal Pictures executive Ned Tanen insisted on hiring Verna Fields , who had just finished editing Steven Spielberg 's The Sugarland Express (1974). However, Fields worked on the rough cut of the film and then left to resume work on What's Up, Doc? (1972). For
1599-526: Was previously nominated for an Academy Award for her film editing on American Graffiti and for a BAFTA Award for Best Editing for her work on Taxi Driver . After a career gap while raising her family, Lucas produced two films in the 1990s. Marcia Lou Griffin was born in Modesto, California . Her father was an Air Force officer stationed in Stockton, California , during World War II. Her parents divorced when she
1640-452: Was that the academy should have a “training school”. As Fairbanks and his enablers reasoned that training in the cinematic arts should be seen as a legitimate academic discipline at major universities, given the same degree considerations as fields like medicine and law. Although cinema studies programs are now widely entrenched in academia, back then it was a novel idea and many universities turned Fairbanks down. But he found tepid acceptance at
1681-619: Was two. Her mother, Mae Griffin, relocated the family to North Hollywood, California , to live with her parents. When Marcia's grandfather died, her mother moved to an apartment nearby, and she found work as a clerk at an insurance agency. When she was a teenager, her father reentered her life, but he had remarried and was stationed in Florida. Marcia lived with her stepfamily for two years and then moved back to Hollywood. She returned to North Hollywood to finish high school and enrolled in chemistry courses at Los Angeles City College while working in