Industrial Light & Magic’s immersive entertainment team will be fully integrated with the rest of the company to inspire new innovations in cross-platform storytelling.
50 years since its founding, Industrial Light & Magic has never rested on its laurels. A hallmark of ILM’s endurance over half a century and counting has been its knack for adapting to change and embracing new creative opportunities. “ILM was created by George Lucas because there was no other way for him to realize his vision for Star Wars,” senior vice president and general manager Janet Lewin tells ILM.com. “From the beginning, our mission has been to make the impossible a reality.”
The ILM spirit that’s evolved over five decades and at studios in as many different countries is “motivated by the opportunity for reinvention, evolution, innovation, and resilience,” as Lewin puts it. ILM’s ability to “react and adapt to the changing dynamics” of an ever-changing industry has been key. Time and again, ILM has increasingly broadened its creative output. “We’re known for our work-for-hire visual effects in feature films,” says Lewin, “but we’ve also branched out into streaming series, feature animation, and of course, the incredible work that Vicki Dobbs Beck has championed with immersive storytelling.”
“ILM was created by George Lucas because there was no other way for him to realize his vision for Star Wars. From the beginning, our mission has been to make the impossible a reality.” -Janet Lewin, Senior Vice President & General Manager, ILM
As vice president of immersive content for ILM and Lucasfilm, Beck co-founded ILMxLAB (later ILM Immersive) some 10 years ago. What was initially a move to experiment with storytelling in the emerging fields of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality has since yielded broader implications for the way ILM will do business. “This opportunity allowed us to participate directly in the success of a project and drive these experiences from concept to launch, delivery, and support,” notes Beck.
Building on work first pioneered by Lucasfilm’s Advanced Development Group, the immersive team leveraged the highest quality visuals and sounds combined with meaningful interactive principles to create stories with groundbreaking potential. These have included productions like PGA Innovation Award winner Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series and Emmy-winning “What If…? – An Immersive Story,” as well as projects made with creative partners like Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Academy Award®-winning CARNE y ARENA.
“We see opportunities for social experiences that are associated with our stories,” explains Beck. “We started by inviting audiences to ‘Step Inside Our Stories’ in ways they’d thought were impossible. We’re now transitioning from storytelling to storyliving, which is a much bigger idea. You’re in a world and you’re making meaningful choices that drive the narrative forward. That’s the gateway to take advantage of new technologies that are coming on the scene.”
ILM is now “seizing the moment,” as Lewin puts it, to include all of ILM in this undertaking. “Immersive storytelling is becoming more and more relevant to our audiences and our partners. On the visual effects side, ILM has been involved in projects like ABBA Voyage – a first-of-its-kind – and the content we made for Sphere Las Vegas. We started to see that the projects coming out of our immersive line of business had a natural convergence of techniques, talent, and opportunity with those of our visual effects business.
“We’re now transitioning from storytelling to storyliving, which is a much bigger idea. You’re in a world and you’re making meaningful choices that drive the narrative forward. That’s the gateway to take advantage of new technologies that are coming on the scene.” -Vicki Dobbs Beck, Vice President, Immersive Content, ILM & Lucasfilm
“We can proactively leverage the strengths of our visual effects artists, pipeline, and storytelling passion with those of our immersive artists who are true experts in interactivity,” Lewin continues. “We see this ‘storyliving’ concept as the key growth opportunity. Not only do we want to market ourselves as one brand for audiences and clients, but we also want to empower our artists. This will allow for more cross-pollination of techniques, more opportunities for artists to move between types of projects, whether it’s an animated feature or our collaboration, “What If…? – An Immersive Story,” with Marvel Studios. If we can provide those opportunities, it allows us to keep attracting the very best talent in the industry.”
With every group now aligned under the ILM brand, the company will pursue an integrated portfolio that includes film, television, attractions, interactive products, and live events. For the immersive team, it’s a milestone following a decade of concerted effort, and for ILM as a whole, it’s the newest chapter in the company’s pioneering story. “We are poised for the next 50 years of ILM’s existence,” says Beck.
ILM’s position as a storied entity with a globe-spanning team of artists, designers, and engineers opens up limitless possibilities. “The world is our oyster,” as Lewin puts it. “This is a time for growth and expansion. I’m really excited about the ideas that we’re exploring. This is a moment when we can redefine who ILM is in the market, be more consumer-facing, and continue to be the industry leader. I also love the idea of having more efficiency and refining a better process. These moments allow us to examine the way we work and improve it. We can bring fresh, new ideas to the table.”
And as Beck describes, this is not only an opportunity to position ILM as the best creative partners and visual storytellers, but also as “aspirational leaders” who will inspire the next generation of storytellers. “This is a way for ILM to drive its destiny in a way that has not been possible in the past. To embrace cross-platform storytelling is what we are uniquely positioned to do. If we can take advantage of that capability and build ecosystems of experiences that cross different types of media, it gives us an incredible canvas to paint on.”
“This is a time for growth and expansion…. This is a moment when we can redefine who ILM is in the market, be more consumer-facing, and continue to be the industry leader.” -Janet Lewin, Senior Vice President & General Manager, ILM
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To discover more about ILM’s work in immersive storytelling, visit ILM.com/Immersive. And for all the latest news and stories from the company, visit the ILM.com Newsroom.
