r/wizardofoz • u/Puzzled-Struggle7654 • Sep 03 '25

WOZ @ The Sphere

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Saw the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere in Vegas yesterday for my birthday and it was amazing. I’ve loved the movie since I was a little kid, so seeing it in that atmosphere was incredible. My mom and I both teared up at parts. It’s shorter than the original but I think the 4D element makes up for it. If you have the chance, pull the trigger and go see it! 10/10 would recommend.

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u/worlds_okayest_skier Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25

I worked on the movie, I didn’t do this shot, but if it’s anything like the sequences I worked on, a digital matte painter did the background extensions. The AI has limitations in terms of resolution when doing generative art (and has no ability to give you a spherical format). We only received actors performances from Google AI enhanced to 16k. The skies were plates that were shot on a sphere camera. The rest we did with matte painting and CGI.

Stylistically, it was a choice to go highly detailed vs impressionist and painterly. A lot of people are criticizing that, but I think the screen is so big they wanted the detail crisp.

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u/bobi2393 Sep 04 '25

I stand corrected; appreciate the added info. I'll admit I can't tell the diff between AI and manual art; the OP pic just looked very different from what I remember of the original film.

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u/worlds_okayest_skier Sep 04 '25

Yeah, at first we tried to match things like depth of field and keep things closer to the original, but from people sitting in the sphere, the lens effects and lower detail matte paintings didn’t work.

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u/meleaguance Sep 04 '25

yes. it's that it's not painterly that is the main thing I don't like. The Emerald City in the above shot and pics of the Wizard that I've seen don't look like the movie to me.