There’s no pun intended, but you can’t help but imagine how one of ABBA’s greatest hits was playing through the offices of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) as Janet Lewin and her colleagues worked on bringing the Swedish pop quartet back to the stage for a first-of-its-kind concert experience in 2022 – one that has consistently sold out ever since.
“We took a chance on that,” Lewin says with a smile, referencing the group’s 1978 single, ‘Take a Chance on Me‘.
Having spent 30 years at both Lucasfilm, George Lucas’ film and television production company, and ILM, its standalone visual effects division, Lewin has worked on dozens of the more than 450 projects ILM has delivered, including legendary franchises such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, as well as episodic series like Severance, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Fallout, Silo and many more.
One of the standout achievements in Lewin’s career is The Mandalorian, Lucasfilm’s hit episodic series, which marked the first use of ‘The Volume’ – a groundbreaking virtual production stage surrounded by LED screens that display interactive, photoreal environments. This innovation, she says, allows actors to perform within real-time visual effects environments, eliminating the need for traditional green or blue screens. Powered by ILM’s StageCraft technology, The Volume has earned widespread recognition, including two Emmy Awards over the past five years.
In collaboration with
NVIDIA
Another milestone under Lewin’s leadership was the creation of the ABBA Voyage concert experience, a cutting-edge production that blended technology and live performance in unprecedented ways.
The company continues to lead across multiple creative domains, providing visual effects for both episodic series and feature films, as well as delivering animated features, live entertainment and immersive experiences using augmented reality and virtual reality.
“There is this complete suspension of disbelief,” the Senior Vice President, General Manager and Head of ILM says. “You really believe you are transported back to 1979, watching ABBA perform.”
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Recreating the band in their prime through ‘ABBAtars’ or digital avatars projected onto the stage using giant LED screens, laser and lighting effects and holographic-style illusions, playing alongside a 10-piece live band, was a risk that has paid off, Lewin continues.
“It’s an example of opportunity that knocks because we’ve tried something that blows people’s minds and then we are on their radar for new opportunities,” she says.
The company is branching more into supporting bands, which she describes as fascinating and fun, and has worked with the likes of U2 and Dead & Company during shows at the recently opened Sphere in Las Vegas.
The visual storytellers
Creating mind-blowing visuals is par for the course at ILM, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and currently employs 3,500 people in five global studios – its headquarters in San Francisco, as well as Vancouver, London, Sydney and Mumbai.
“Our mission today is the same as it has always been, which is to be visual storytellers for our clients,” she says. “We want to create iconic moments that inspire the imagination.”
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A thirst for continuous innovation is at the core of the company, a characteristic instilled by Lucas himself, whom Lewin worked with as part of the executive team until he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012.
“Never resting on our laurels, always looking at how we can improve and how we can reinvent our core company values,” she adds.
A team of the brightest engineers in the world allows ILM to stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving technology landscape, but Lewin cautions that they don’t do innovation just for innovation’s sake.
“We will look at the landscape and the opportunities and try to develop a road map for projects that allow us to develop techniques like those used to create photoreal humans, as an example,” she says. “We’re always evaluating the marketplace, especially what hasn’t been done before and what we think will be a game-changer for our clients.”
It takes a village
Another core value is looking after its people.
“We nurture talent, we share information, we are highly collaborative and we empower our production teams to be on equal footing with our creatives so we have a balance and that ensures we can deliver these groundbreaking images. It really does take a village,” Lewin adds.
A robust supplier pipeline
What is also key to the success of ILM’s business is its partners, the likes of HP, Autodesk, NVIDIA and SDFX Studios.
“We have a long legacy of proprietary innovation, but, at the same time, we’re always challenging ourselves to find the right tool for the job and ensure that we are being smart and strategic about where we are investing our tools,” she says.
“If there’s a great third-party tool that achieves what we’re looking for and lowers the barrier to entry for junior talent to use the tool or for us to grow our talent, we incorporate third-party tools as well. Our pipeline is quite robust, and we have a lot of different software options and different techniques available to our artists and creatives.”
Nurturing talent is something Lewin has experienced firsthand, having started in 1994 as a temp in the purchasing department. She had joined the company right at the dawn of the digital age.
“We had a full studio, we were still doing motion control and pyro explosions on the back lot and had a model shop and a vibrant filmmaking culture,” she says.
There was never a dull moment (something that continues to sustain her career, she adds). It was the stuff dreams are made of, and unsurprisingly, she fell in love with ILM and the industry. She had also found a company with a long history of female leads.
“Think about it, Star Wars is really about a female leader in Princess Leia!” she says.
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In reality, she also had female leaders to look up to in the business, which meant she could see herself as a leader one day, too. As that leader, she’s continuing ILM’s tradition of being a welcoming and inclusive place for a diverse set of values, ideas and experiences.
“One of the things I’m trying to encourage is more generational diversity, because tools and distribution are changing so fast, and we need those voices to help us think about where we are going in the future,” she says.
Lewin is excited for the ideas the next generation will bring to the leadership table, but she does tell them that becoming a leader isn’t something that happens overnight.
“Anything is possible with hard work, determination, good luck and great mentors – but it is hard work,” Lewin says. “You have to love what you do.”
What’s clear is exactly how much she does.
“I love my job. It’s so fun and hard and inspiring and ever-changing. It’s the best job on the planet.”
