Industrial Light & Magic is to expand its StageCraft LED virtual production services to Vancouver, British Columbia.

The new stage, at over 20,000 square feet, is expected to house one of the largest StageCraft LED volumes in North America.

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ILM stage to house one of the largest StageCraft LED volumes in North America

The Vancouver stage will be ILM’s fifth permanent volume. ILM also runs three stages in Los Angeles as well as one at Pinewood Studios in London.

“Vancouver is a fantastic production hub where we’ve received a lot of interest from our clients who want a StageCraft volume in British Columbia. It was a natural next step for our expansion,” said Janet Lewin, SVP, and general manager of ILM. She added: “Our existing Vancouver visual effects studio is perfectly positioned to support virtual production and the new stage.”

“Our Canadian artists have contributed to digital set construction as well as Virtual Art Department work on a number of StageCraft projects so it’s really exciting that we will soon have a volume in our own backyard,” said Spencer Kent, executive in charge of ILM’s Vancouver studio.

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ILM’s Mandalorian with real-time visual effects

ILM won two Emmy Awards for its real-time visual effects work for the first two seasons of Lucasfilm’s Disney+ series, The Mandalorian. It is currently in production on three episodic series and a feature film on its existing StageCraft volumes, in addition to bookings for smaller productions including commercials, music videos, and product marketing pieces.

ILM also builds bespoke StageCraft volumes for specific projects such as George Clooney’s The Midnight Sky and Taika Waititi’s upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, which were built on stages in London and Sydney respectively.

In addition, Disney Television Studios and ILM announced recently the opening of an additional StageCraft LED volume on the Disney lot in Burbank, built for episodic television production.

ILM intends for the Vancouver StageCraft volume to be operational in the spring of 2022.

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