AI Transforms 'The Wizard of Oz' into Immersive 4D Experience at Las Vegas Sphere

'Wizard of Oz' blown up by AI for giant Sphere screen | TechCrunch

The massive Las Vegas venue known as Sphere will be screening its first classic movie, "The Wizard of Oz," starting on August 28. And as detailed in a segment on CBS Sunday Morning, this isn't just a matter of taking the existing movie and projecting it on Sphere's 160,000 square foot, wraparound LED screen. Instead, Sphere Entertainment CEO James Dolan said a 2,000-person team is creating a new experience. That includes using AI to both increase the resolution of the existing film and expand the footage beyond the frame of what was actually shot. For example, Turner Classic Movie presenter Ben Mankiewicz said that through the use of AI, "a grainy close-up of Dorothy becomes richly detailed, and then through a process called outpainting -- though it seems like magic -- we see the rest of the Scarecrow, the Yellow Brick Road, and the mountains of Oz." In other cases, expanding the frame means creating new performances from the existing actors. Despite these changes, Dolan said, "Our standard on this was not to modify the film at all but to try and bring you into the film, as if you were in the studio when it was shot."

Las Vegas Sphere to screen 'The Wizard of Oz' in the immersive venue's first film experience

Jack Haley (1898 - 1979) as the Tin Man, Bert Lahr (1895 - 1967) as the Cowardly Lion, Judy Garland (1922 - 1969) as Dorothy, Ray Bolger (1904 - 1987) as the Scarecrow and Frank Morgan (1890 - 1949) as the Doorman to the Emerald City in 'The Wizard of Oz', 1939. The Las Vegas Sphere will soon screen 1939's "The Wizard of Oz" in the immersive event venue's first film experience. The project places viewers inside the world of Oz using the Sphere's 160,000-square-foot wraparound screen. The film will play in 16k resolution with full spatial audio using 167,000 speakers and haptic seating, according to a June press release. In a partnership with Google Cloud, engineers used AI "outpainting" to expand the original film frames to fit the immersive space, according to an April press release. "Our standard on this was not to modify the film at all, but to try and bring you into as if you were in the studio when it was shot," James Dolan, Sphere Entertainment CEO, told CBS Sunday Morning. Glenn Derry, MSG Ventures executive vice president and visual effects artist, is in charge of the 4D effects, such as motion, wind, water and scent, to make audiences feel like they are in Oz, CBS reported. Derry told CBS Sunday Morning his team used technology to bring in fog and wind effects to mimic tornadoes that are seen in the movie. "The Wizard of Oz" experience opens to the public on Aug. 28. The Las Vegas Sphere opened in September 2023 and has a capacity of roughly 20,000. About 10,000 of the seats in the arena have haptic technology, according to Sphere Entertainment. The venue has garnered attention since its opening for impressive live concerts and unique visuals.

Just how did 'Wizard of Oz' at Sphere Las Vegas take Dorothy from 2D to 4D?

LAS VEGAS - In a month, the Las Vegas Sphere will be turned into the verdant splendor of Emerald City. And the vibrant mosaic of Munchkinland. And the dusty amber plains of Kansas. It's "The Wizard of Oz" not just as a film, but an experience. A place where the 160,000 square feet of Sphere screen transports you into Dorothy Gale's world and, through the use of 4D and haptics, immerses you in the feeling of being inside a tornado and makes you cower at the sight of those dastardly flying monkeys heading from the Wicked Witch's lair to your seat. The film, which opens Aug. 28 at the technologically sophisticated venue just off the Las Vegas Strip, was chosen for Sphere-i-fication because of its generation-spanning appeal. "It's a movie that your mother watched, that you watched with your grandmother or your kids," says Jane Rosenthal, the Oscar-nominated producer helping helm the production. "The movie became so beloved because you felt you could go into Munchkinland or the Emerald City even in a traditional TV format. It's a natural for the Sphere because of the elements that can be made immersive." The Sphere's film has been in development for two years with a team of more than 2,000 filmmakers, technicians, audio experts and AI creatives working to transform Oz from a 2D world into an extraordinary envelopment of sight and sound. Why the Sphere's 'Wizard of Oz' is an unparalleled experience Those involved with "Oz" wouldn't confirm the $80 million price tag alluded to when the project was announced in August 2024. But, from the near-final pieces of the film USA TODAY observed in July, it's evident this has been an exhaustive, finely detailed endeavor. From the clarity of Judy Garland's doe eyes with eyelashes that can be counted to the 16-foot-long helium-filled monkeys steered by drone operators, it's sheer wonderment. And the tornado? You'll find yourself ducking in your seat at what feels like farm equipment and animals flying toward you as 750-horsepower fans built specifically for "Oz" hurl wind and (paper) leaves around the venue. To assume the film is merely glorified IMAX is akin to saying earbuds provide the same sound quality as $16,000 studio headphones. The $104 admission likely seems steep, but not as much after you factor in the cutting-edge experience and the Vegas location. How 'ethical AI' transformed 'The Wizard of Oz' at the Sphere The Sphere team worked closely with Warner Bros. and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to mine the "Oz" archives from its original 1939 form. Transforming what was filmed for a 4:3 aspect ratio on a standard-sized movie screen to the 16K x 16K LED screen resolution of the Sphere required the use of what Rosenthal calls "ethical AI." The time required to convert the film also necessitated editing from its original run time of 102 minutes to 75. The artificial intelligence in "Oz" was primarily used to extend frames to fill the Sphere screen. Rosenthal gives the example of an early scene when irritable neighbor Miss Gulch wants to take Toto - himself given a furry glow-up - from the Gale home. "That was originally a three-shot, but as you widen the frame, you now see Uncle Henry standing by the door. You train the AI on Uncle Henry to create him making a move like putting his hand on the door," she says. "That stuff was difficult to do." The Sphere team, with the aid of Warner Bros., found props and set designs from the original movie so objects such as photos on the wall in Professor Marvel's caravan could be generated onto the screen. Every frame of the film takes 300 hours (12.5 days) to render. An edit of a few seconds might take days to fix. And then there is the equilibrium between respecting a classic and elevating it to immersive heights. Award-winning technician Glenn Derry, the executive vice president of MSG Ventures, spent thousands of hours refining minutiae such as the breathtaking moment when Dorothy awakens in her sepia-toned heartland and steps into Technicolor Munchkinland, the yellow brick road seemingly stretching into space. "We're trying to be tasteful with these things," Derry says. "I don't want to distract from the film because it's one of the great masterpieces. You want people to be part of it, but balance that with not being distracting." Emotion and revelations and nostalgia, oh my So while the cranky apple tree will hurl featherweight red orbs at Sphere "Oz" viewers, and seats will vibrate with ominous warnings of the Wicked Witch or hopeful spasms when Glinda the Good Witch soars inside her pink bubble, the heart of "Oz" - as the Tin Man would appreciate - is intact. Derry says his favorite effect is the hulking Wizard head, which almost sneaks in from the side of the screen while pyro is dispatched in front of it. "It's a nostalgic thing for me," Derry, whose father worked in the industry as a machinist and physical effects expert, says. "I love the elements that you don't notice and then you turn and are surprised." The revelations will begin as soon as moviegoers step into the atrium of the venue, which will be converted to an Oz-like atmosphere with interactive elements (that Wizard head might have another role along with booming on screen). It's an experience that simply cannot be duplicated. "With the emotion of 'there's no place like home' and 'Over the Rainbow,' I feel fortunate to bring this movie to life," Rosenthal says. "A venue like Sphere makes you want to keep going to the movies."

Tornadoes, Monkeys and Towering Flames: How the Sphere Plans to Bring 'The Wizard of Oz' to Life

MSNBC Brings Back Live Fan Event In Bid to Build New Revenue Lines When the Sphere in Las Vegas opens its doors for The Wizard of Oz next month, visitors to the venue will find themselves in the middle of a twister. And not just because the 160,000 square foot LED screen will wrap around them. Executives at the Sphere say that its version of the classic 1939 film, which opens Aug. 28, will incorporate immersive, real-world, physical elements "at a scale that I don't think anyone else has done before," according to Glenn Derry, executive vp of MSG Ventures, the executive tasked with developing next-generation live experiences for Sphere. That means when that tornado hits Kansas, the 18,000-plus people inside the Sphere will have wind whipping at their face, leaves flying in front of them, bolts of lightning puncturing the fog and swirling haze that the company will create inside the venue itself. "One of the big sequences in the film is when we're transported to Oz from the Gale family farm, right out of the gate at the at the opening of the film, as you transition into color, into Oz," Derry says. "And we wanted that to be really impactful, something that was truly enormous and huge, and something that they couldn't have done back when they originally released the film, but that we were able to kind of reimagine what that looked like and felt like, and what it actually feels like to be there. "I wanted it to feel massive, because it's a massive space. We have 13 million cubic feet of air in the Sphere," he adds. "How do you do that in a way that doesn't distract from the film, but actually adds to the immersion and makes it feel like you're in there? I think we've hit that mark. It's really fun." Derry says that his team created a custom rig that layers in fog, haze, and leaves, before turning on 12 foot tall 750 horsepower fans, created from electric vehicle motors. "We do that piece by piece by piece, kind of like an orchestra," Derry says. "We create a really great giant sort of plume that fills the whole venue with this kind of lovely cloud, basically, so it's like you're going into a dream sequence." The tornado, of course, is just the beginning. Once Dorothy gets to Oz, she has to deal with the Wizard, and the Wicked Witch of the West. In the film, towering flames and smoke introduce the Wizard, whose ghostly projection declares "I am Oz, the great and powerful!" Derry says that those flames will be present in room as visitors to the Sphere are introduced to the character: "You want to see the flames, so let's bring that in, let's feel some of that heat," Derry says. "Let's see what that was like for them to stand there and face Oz." And later in the film, when the witch dispatches the flying monkeys, Derry's team found a way to create actual winged creatures that will fly over the audience's head. "We've had to develop systems to be able to enable them to invade the space and could come at you from above and beyond," he says. "It's been a lot of fun to try to figure out, again, how to do that in a venue of this size and scope and scale in a way that's compelling." The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere is in many ways a culminating event for the venue, which until now has focused on residencies from popular bands and musicians, as well as the documentary film Postcard From Earth, which uses every square inch of the venues screen. Oz, however, is the first real project from the venue to take the learnings from what it has done before and expand into 3D space, combining a reimagined high-definition, AI-enhanced version of the film, a re-recorded score, and those physical elements, making it a top priority for chairman James Dolan, who originally conceived of the Sphere. "There were some things that our chairman was just dead set on. The tornado was one of them. Our Winged Monkeys was another one. These were things that were kind of part of his vision for what this experience would be out of the gate," Derry says. "We have other moments where we're peppering in other flying creatures and different kinds of fun moments, like apples appearing from nowhere when they're thrown at Scarecrow and Dorothy, right before they rescue the tin man." Sphere, along with its partners at Warner Bros. Discovery, Google (which contributed its artificial intelligence expertise) and Magnopus, are betting that those moments will leave audiences with dropped jaws, creating an experience that can't be replicated anywhere else on Earth, transporting visitors from the Las Vegas desert to the Emerald City.