Editing George Lucas (section)

===1965–1969: Early career===
Lucas saw many inspiring films in class, particularly the visual films coming out of the [[National Film Board of Canada]] like [[Arthur Lipsett]]'s ''[[21-87]]'', [[cameraman]] [[Jean-Claude Labrecque]]'s [[cinéma vérité]] ''[[60 Cycles]]'', the work of [[Norman McLaren]] and the documentaries of [[Claude Jutra]]. Lucas fell madly in love with [[pure cinema]] and quickly became prolific at making 16&nbsp;mm nonstory noncharacter visual tone poems and cinéma vérité with such titles as ''[[Look at Life (film)|Look at Life]]'', ''[[Herbie (film)|Herbie]]'', ''[[1:42.08]]'', ''[[The Emperor (film)|The Emperor]]'', ''[[Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town (film)|Anyone Lived in a Pretty (how) Town]]'', ''[[Filmmaker (film)|Filmmaker]]'' and ''[[6-18-67]]''. He was passionate and interested in camerawork and editing, defining himself as a filmmaker as opposed to being a director, and he loved making abstract visual films that created emotions purely through non-narrative structures.<ref name=WiredMay2005 />

In 1967, Lucas re-enrolled as a USC graduate student in film production.<ref name=FGL>{{cite news |url=https://www.forbes.com/profile/george-lucas |title=George Lucas |date=September 2012 |work=Forbes |access-date=September 28, 2012 |archive-date=February 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222070626/http://www.forbes.com/profile/george-lucas/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He began working under movie and logo designer [[Saul Bass]] and film editor [[Verna Fields]] for the [[United States Information Agency]], where he met his future wife [[Marcia Lucas|Marcia Griffin]].{{sfn|Jones|2016|pp=68, 70}} Working as a teaching instructor for a class of [[U.S. Navy]] students who were being taught documentary cinematography, Lucas directed the short film ''[[Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB]]'', which won first prize at the 1967–68 National Student film festival. Lucas was awarded a student scholarship by [[Warner Bros.]] to observe and work on the making of a film of his choosing. The film he chose after finding the animation department closed down was ''[[Finian's Rainbow (1968 film)|Finian's Rainbow]]'' (1968) which was being directed by [[Francis Ford Coppola]], who was revered among film school students of the time as a cinema graduate who had "made it" in Hollywood.{{Sfn|Jones|2016|p=88}} In 1969, Lucas was one of the camera operators on the classic [[The Rolling Stones|Rolling Stones]] concert film ''[[Gimme Shelter (1970 film)|Gimme Shelter]]''.