‘The Wizard of Oz' at the Sphere Tests the Ways AI Can Preserve Classic Cinema

Gizmodo

5 hours ago

The Wizard of Oz is landing on the Vegas strip at the Sphere this summer, and it's not without some controversy.
The Warner Bros. classic Technicolor feature starring Judy Garland is being presented in a special limited engagement at the massive spherical stadium venue in Las Vegas, presumably in between music artist residencies. The state-of-the-art immersive entertainment center made its debut as a must-visit attraction with rock band U2.
Now in a new venture, the Sphere collaborates with Warner Bros. Entertainment to celebrate The Wizard of Oz by giving it a refresh for the screen-filling presentation that's caused a stir in the world of cinema. Recently, it was reported that to get the classic film to fit the scale of the sphere, AI would be used visually in an extensive manner.
In a Mashable story, Sphere Entertainment executive chairman and CEO Jim Dolan talked about the venue's collaboration with Google Cloud. 'The power of generative AI, combined with Google's infrastructure and expertise, is helping us to achieve something extraordinary,' he said. 'We needed a partner who could push boundaries alongside our teams at Sphere Studios and Magnopus, and Google was the only company equipped to meet the challenge on the world's highest resolution LED screen.'
It might have ruffled the feathers of film fanatics and conservationists at the thought, with many decrying what's to stop them from tampering with the MGM masterpieces Warner Bros. Discovery now owns—or worse, somehow attempting to enhance Judy Garland's performance.
In a recent interview with Variety, Carolyn Blackwood, head of Sphere Studios, discussed how the generative AI's use will stick to only upscaling the vintage picture. 'If there was a closeup before and it was just Dorothy, but you knew that the Tin Man and the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion were in the scene with her, but you didn't see it in the original, you now you go wide and they're all there together.'
So things like legs on characters and expanded figures, as well as landscapes, are not off the table. It remains to be seen how that affects characters in the space that didn't have reactions filmed. Will the technology generate a performance based on cut scenes or composite from knowledge of the film or the actor's film legacy? That's where it feels like it's getting a little sacrilegious.
Blackwood assures, however, that Garland's vocal performance will remain untouched. 'People have asked us, because they know that we're obviously using AI technologies on this film visually, a lot of questions about whether or not we were gonna do that to the vocals. We didn't. This is Judy Garland.'
Paul Freeman, principal audio artist at the Sphere, added that the touches are solely intended to enhance the film into an immersive experience like no other. So while music stems and other character lines get some cleaning up, Garland remains pristine. 'One of the cool byproducts of that is, number one, it gives you a very, very, very immersive feeling. So when you listen to 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and you're hearing the real Judy Garland vocal placed position where it should be based on the picture, and you're hearing that orchestra enveloping you, it is a version that you've never heard before, and you'll never hear again. It's perfect. It is the perfect version of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.''
But will using a Hollywood crown jewel to test the waters of AI preserve the classics for new formats, or will it open the floodgates to remixing them with new tech until they are no longer the instantly recognizable beloved pieces of cinema history?
The Wizard of Oz begins its Sphere engagement August 28.
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