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| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Founded | May 1975 |
| Headquarters | Letterman Digital Arts Center, Presidio of San Francisco, California, United States |
| Key people | George Lucas Dennis Muren Chrissie England |
| Industry | Visual effects, computer-generated imagery |
| Parent | Lucasfilm Limited |
| Website | ILM.com |
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is a motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975 by George Lucas and is owned by Lucasfilm. Lucas created the company when he discovered that the special effects department at 20th Century Fox was shut down after he was given the green light for his production of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The studio originated in Van Nuys, California, later moved to San Rafael, and is now based at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio of San Francisco.
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Lucas wanted his 1977 film Star Wars to include visual effects that had never been seen on film before. He first approached Douglas Trumbull, famous for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Trumbull declined, but suggested his assistant John Dykstra. Dykstra brought together a small team of college students, artists and engineers who became the Special Visual Effects department on Star Wars. Alongside Dykstra other leading members of the original ILM team were Dennis Muren, Ken Ralston, Richard Edlund, Joe Johnston, Phil Tippett, Steve Gawley, and Jeff Mann.
When making The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas reformed most of the team into Industrial Light & Magic in Marin County, California. They have since gone on to produce special effects for over two hundred films, including the Indiana Jones series, the Harry Potter franchise, the Jurassic Park franchise, the Back to the Future trilogy, many of the Star Trek films, Ghostbusters II, and the 2007 live-action Transformers movie.
In addition to their work for George Lucas, ILM also frequently collaborates with Steven Spielberg for nearly all films that he directs, and for many that he produces as well. Dennis Muren acts as Visual Effects Supervisor on these films.
Additionally, the company has created less noticeable effects - such as widening streets, digitally adding more extras to a shot, and inserting the film's actors into famous photos - in movies such as Schindler's List, Forrest Gump, Snow Falling on Cedars, Magnolia, and several Woody Allen films.
ILM established their use of Computer-generated imagery when they hired Edwin Catmull from NYIT in 1979. John Lasseter worked for ILM in the early 1980s as a computer animator. The computer graphics department, now known as Pixar, was eventually sold to Steve Jobs, which went on to create the first CG animated feature with Toy Story.
As of 2006[update], ILM has received 16 Best Visual Effects Oscars and 20 additional nominations. It had also received 22 technical Oscars.
Upcoming films:
ILM worked on three major 2005 releases, George Lucas' Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds and Warner Bros. Pictures' Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Revenge of the Sith featured around 2400 visual effects shots created over a three year span (by stark contrast, the groundbreaking blockbuster Jurassic Park had just over 50 effects shots created in 18 months). War of the Worlds was completed on a much faster timetable, with Dennis Muren supervising. ILM was also the effects studio utilized to work on Eragon which was released in December 2006.
Industrial Light & Magic also worked on battle creatures for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; the wave and underwater effects for Poseidon, a remake of The Poseidon Adventure; the majority of (invisible) effects for Mission: Impossible III and Eight Below; and most of the creature effects for Lady in the Water. ILM also created the visual effects and animation in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Transformers and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix among others.
ILM also worked on the "Light My Candle" number in Rent. The crew could be seen in the TV screen so Chris Columbus sent the reel over to ILM and they edited the reflection out.
It was in the late 1980s when Adobe Photoshop made its first appearance on the world stage. It was used at the Industrial Light & Magic studios as an image-processing program. Photoshop was created by ILM Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll and his brother Thomas as a summer project.
Both Adam Savage and Tori Belleci (mythbusters) worked at Industrial Light & Magic.
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