Industrial Light & Magic

Industrial Light & Magic, or ILM, is the visual effects company responsible for much of the visual effects in the Star Wars films. It was founded by George Lucas in 1975, as part of Lucasfilm Limited. They have also been responsible for the effects on over 200 other films, including Jurassic Park, the Back to the Future trilogy, the Harry Potter films, and the Indiana Jones franchise.

Creation
After George Lucas made the hit movie "American Graffiti", he had worked on a space opera he called "The Star Wars". When he took his ideas and script to 20th Century FOX they liked the story. So FOX brought them in and FOX agreed on releasing the movie for George. But there was a problem with the effects, the Special effects department had been shut down because of costs and people's interest in more realistic looking films. So George got a bunch of editors that work on commercials and organized and founded a company. And he came up with the name Industrial Light & Magic or ILM.

Struggling to stay alive
ILM's first film was "Star Wars" (first called "The Star Wars") which was a sci-fi film about the Rebellion against the Empire. ILM was a company that was just founded and was not so sure if they could successfully edit the film. Even so, ILM built George Lucas' contraptions for film the Star Wars. ILM lost many employees while filming "Star Wars" and it was thought that ILM would be crushed and most doubted "Star Wars" would ever reach theaters. But as bad as things were in Tunisia, things at ILM were even worse. ILM had been trying to create Special Effects that were never done before -- new ground-breaking special effects that many at ILM thought would never work. After returning from Tunisia and ending principal photography from Episode IV, the ILM company was in worse shape than ever before. Their building in Van Nuys, California was in bad shape, so George Lucas decided to move elsewhere, but some of the founders of ILM, because of the strenuous activities, decided to stay and make their own company called Apogee. On another note in 2010, ILM allowed the show Amazing Race to film at thier complex, they set up a chalenge for the contestants on the show which involved the characters of the Clone Wars, Ponds, Cody, and Padme Amidala.