The Untold Story of ILM, a Titan That Forever Changed Film
This is a very good read
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/inside-ilm/
NO ONE WANTED Star Wars when George Lucas tarted shopping it to studios in the mid-1970s. It was the era of Taxi Driver and Network and Serpico; Hollywood was hot for authenticity and edgy drama, not popcorn space epics. But that was only part of the problem.
As the young director had conceived it, Star Wars was a film that literally couldnt be made; the technology required to bring the movies universe to visual life simply didnt exist. Eventually 20th Century Fox gave Lucas $25,000 to finish his screenplayand then, after he garnered a Best Picture Oscar nomination for American Graffiti, green-lit the production of Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as Taken From the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars. However, the studio no longer had a special effects department, so Lucas was on his own. He would adapt, and handily: He not only helped invent a new generation of special effects but launched a legendary company that would change the course of the movie business.
Industrial Light & Magic was born in a sweltering warehouse behind the Van Nuys airport in the summer of 1975. Its first employees were recent college graduates (and dropouts) with rich imaginations and nimble fingers. They were tasked with building Star Wars creatures, spaceships, circuit boards, and cameras. It didnt go smoothly or even on schedule, but the masterful work of ILMs fledgling artists, technicians, and engineers transported audiences into galaxies far, far away.
Snip
JOHNSON: My friends were doing a Back to the Future parody, and I decided I was going to re-create the tire trails behind the DeLorean. Genius that I am, I soaked strips of paper towel in gasoline and laid them out in a line behind this big model car of the DeLorean that Id built in my parents garage. I dont remember how I got the fire out, but I almost destroyed my familys house. And now Im doing Star Wars. Thats how you do it.