Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Monsters to Destroy: ZAP Completes Post on Lucasfilm's 3-Part Foreign Policy Documentary Series


After a six month hiatus, our friends at JAK Films (Lucasfilm Ltd.'s production arm) completed offline editing on part three of their series "Manifest Destiny." The final chapter "Monsters to Destroy" spans the historical period of Bush 41 through Bush 43, from the end of the Cold War (1989) through the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

We provided finishing on episodes one and two in 2010 covered here in our blog.

"Monsters to Destroy" was written and produced by our old friend Sharon Wood and was edited by Greg Sirota and Jim McSilver. The task (for ZAP) was in some ways more complicated than the previous two episodes, as the archival material was 1980s-early 2000s video of decidedly mixed quality requiring careful up-rezzing to HD, conformed by ZAP's on-line wizard Ri Crawford and artfully color graded by our colleague Leo Hallal. Same post team who was colorist on episodes 1 and 2.
MANIFEST DESTINY

A documentary mini-series on U.S. Foreign Policy

What does a City on a Hill have to do with Guantanamo? How did descendants of anti-colonialists create what some have called the most powerful empire on earth? Where do exceptionalism, democracy promotion and interventions abroad intersect or collide? How has the 19th century rallying cry of “Manifest Destiny” continued to influence American foreign policy?

These and other questions are raised in the powerful stories featured in MANIFEST DESTINY, an historical series being produced by the documentary unit of JAK Films, a division of Lucasfilm. The series is comprised of three 90 minute episodes

Part 3, “Monsters to Destroy,” examines America’s multilateral and unilateral military campaigns in the post-Cold War era. By following how George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush interpreted humanitarian intervention and democracy promotion, from the first Gulf War, through Somalia, Rwanda, the Balkans, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the episode will bring the concept of Manifest Destiny into the 21st century.
Now that the series is completed, Lucasfilm will begin actively trying to place the series on domestic television and will plan their educational distribution.