How Industrial Light & Magic brought Star Wars to life in Vancouver

“We just finished The Force Awakens,” says Randal Shore, executive in charge of Industrial Light & Magic’s Vancouver studio. “We can work right up to the wire.” Putting together a galactic-scale blockbuster is a global effort, involving not only this visual effects shop—Shore estimates his team is responsible for 250 of the shots cinema-goers will see once Star Wars Episode VII opens on Dec. 18—but also ILM’s head office in San Francisco, as well as branches in London and Singapore. For this reason, the visual effects house founded by Star Wars auteur George Lucas has perfected the art of real-time collaboration, with co-workers and movie-studio clients sometimes many hours ahead in an office far, far away.