Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is a motion picture visual effects company, founded in May 1975 by George Lucas and owned by Lucasfilm. Lucas created the company when he discovered that the special effects department at 20th Century Fox was shut down after he was given the green light for his production of Star Wars. The studio originated in Van Nuys, California, later moved to San Rafael, California, and is now based at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in The Presidio of San Francisco in California.