Industrial Light & Magic
 |
|
| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Visual effects, computer-generated imagery |
| Founded | May 1975 |
| Headquarters |
Letterman Digital Arts Center, Presidio of San Francisco, California, United States |
| Key people |
George Lucas Dennis Muren John Knoll Lynwen Brennan |
| Parent | Lucasfilm Limited |
| Website | ILM.com |
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an Academy Award-winning 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 the film Star Wars. 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. Lynwen Brennan who joined the company in 1999, currently serves as the ILM's President and General Manager.
History
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 Ken Ralston, Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Joe Johnston, Phil Tippett, Steve Gawley, Lorne Peterson and Paul Huston. 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 nearly three hundred films, including the entire Star Wars saga, The Abyss, 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, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, *batteries not included, the Terminator sequels, the Transformers films, the Men in Black series, most of the Mission: Impossible films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and also provided work for Avatar, alongside Weta Digital.
In addition to their work for George Lucas, ILM also collaborates with Steven Spielberg on most films that he directs, and for many that he produces as well. Dennis Muren has acted as Visual Effects Supervisor on many of these films.
Apart from flashy special effects, the company also works on more subtle effects - such as widening streets, digitally adding more extras to a shot, and inserting the film's actors into famous photos - in films including Schindler's List, Forrest Gump, Snow Falling on Cedars, Magnolia, and several Woody Allen films.
ILM established began creating 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 (CG) division, now known as Pixar, was sold to Steve Jobs and created the first CG animated feature, Toy Story.
ILM operated from an inconspicuous property in San Rafael, California until 2006. The company was known to locals as The Kerner Company. In 2006, when Lucas decided to move locations and focus on digital effects, a management-led team bought the five physical and practical effects divisions and formed a new company that included the George Lucas Theater, retained the "Kerner" name as Kerner Technologies, Inc. and continues to provide physical effects for major motion pictures, often working with ILM.
In 2005, ILM extended its operations to Lucasfilm Singapore, which also includes the Singapore arm of Lucasfilm Animation. In 2011, it was announced the company was considering a project-based facility in Vancouver.[1]
As of 2009[update], ILM has received 15 Best Visual Effects Oscars and 23 additional nominations. It has also received 24 Scientific and Technical Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
ILM is currently the largest visual effects vendor in Hollywood with regards to workforce, with more than 500 artists. It has one of the largest renderfarms currently available with more than 7500 nodes. ILM revolutionized the motion capture business when they invented IMoCap (Image Based Motion Capture Technology), which is the most advanced technique of motion capture currently available.
Milestones
- 1975: Resurrected the use of VistaVision; first use of a motion control camera (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)
- 1982: First completely computer-generated sequence (the "Genesis sequence" in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
- 1985: First completely computer-generated character, the "stained glass man" in Young Sherlock Holmes
- 1988: First morphing sequence, in Willow
- 1989: First computer-generated 3-D character, the pseudopod in The Abyss
- 1991: First partially computer-generated main character, the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day
- 1992: First time the texture of human skin was computer generated, in Death Becomes Her
- 1993: First time digital technology used to create a complete and detailed living creature, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, which earned ILM its thirteenth Oscar
- 1995: The first fully synthetic speaking computer-generated character, with a distinct personality and emotion, to take a leading role in Casper
- 1995: First computer-generated photo-realistic hair and fur (used for the digital lion and monkeys) in Jumanji
- 1995: First to put visual effects for live-action sequence into a 2D cartoon in Balto
- 1996: First completely computer-generated main character, Draco in Dragonheart
- 1999: First computer generated character to have a full human anatomy (done by being built from the inside out), Imhotep in The Mummy
- 2003: Used most extensive projects and animation techniques yet to create a large, human-like, green monster in Hulk
- 2006: Develops "iMocap" system, which uses computer vision techniques to track live-action performers on set. Used in the creation of Davy Jones and ship's crew in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
- 2011: Produces its first animated feature film, Rango.
ILM selected filmography
Future releases:
- Untitled Star Trek sequel (2013)
- G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
- The Lone Ranger (2013)
- Pacific Rim (2013)
Notable employees and clients
Photoshop was first 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. It was used on The Abyss. The Knoll brothers sold the program to Adobe shortly before the film's release.
Adam Savage, Grant Imahara and Tory Belleci of Mythbusters fame have all worked at Industrial Light & Magic.
Industrial Light & Magic is also famous for their commercial work. Their clients include Energizer Holdings, Nike, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Budweiser, Nickelodeon and other companies.
Actor Masi Oka worked on several major ILM productions as a programmer, including Revenge of the Sith, before joining the cast of the NBC show Heroes as Hiro Nakamura. Oka still works at ILM.[3]
American film director David Fincher worked at ILM for four years in the early 1980s.
References
- ^ Lucasfilm's Industrial Light + Magic Exploring Opening New Facility in Vancouver, The Hollywood Reporter
- ^ Universal Studios Singapore (15 November 2011). "Behind the scenes – The Magic of Visual Effects". Resorts World Sentosa. http://tftheride.rwsentosablog.com/2011/11/15/behind-the-scenes-%E2%80%93-the-magic-of-visual-effects/. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ Gaudiosi, John (25 October 2006). "Masi Oka: Coder, Actor, Hero". Wired. http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2006/10/71984.
- "Industrial Light & Magic: History". StarWars.com. LucasFilm. July 15, 1999. http://www.starwars.com/themovies/saga/19990715news.html. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
External links
- Official ILM website (with detailed information in PDF format)
- Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) at the Internet Movie Database
- Alternative credits list from the Unofficial ILM site
- Small entry at Lucasfilm's site
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
