Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 10 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets We Learnt From ILM

10. The Push For Practical Effects Actually Made Using CGI Easier

Something that was really pushed during the production of The Force Awakens was how it was going to show a return to more traditional practical effects, with real life models augmented by CGI, rather than the overly-fake prequels. You may think that and increased fan scrutiny would make ILM's job a lot harder, but it instead played very much into the manner in which they already operate:

"It made our job a lot easier, in a way, because it meant that instead of coming up with computer generated imagery on its own we could actually ground it in what was actually shot."

Across our conversation it became clear this melding between real and computers was an integral part of how ILM worked regardless of the movie at hand, meaning that even without the push we'd have still had a practical Episode VII. As Pritchard summarised:

"In many ways our work was extending or enhancing what was already in camera."