Industrial Light & Magic(ILM), a division of Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC, implemented its own extended dynamic range file format in Summer 2000. The existing 8-bit file format used at the time could not accurately reproduce images with extreme contrast between the darkest and brightest regions, or images with very subtle color gradations. ILM's extended dynamic range file format has been employed successfully in the movies Harry Potter, Men in Black II, and Signs. Several shows currently in production at ILM are using the new format. Realizing that various other parties are interested in an extended dynamic range file format, ILM decided to polish its new file format a bit, and to publish it. OpenEXR is the result.