{"685359":{"#nid":"685359","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Q\u0026A: CS Alumnus Lifts the Curtain on \u0027The Wizard of Oz at Sphere\u0027","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEarlier this year, we learned that Georgia Tech alumni played a role in bringing the 1939 classic \u003Cem\u003EThe Wizard of Oz\u003C\/em\u003E to the Las Vegas Sphere\u0027s 160,000-square-foot interior screen.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAlbert\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EShaw\u003C\/strong\u003E (CS 2016, MS CS 2017) was among the small group of computer science alumni who lent their expertise to help \u0022reconceptualize\u0022 the film for the August 28 premiere of \u003Cem\u003EThe Wizard of Oz at Sphere\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFollowing last month\u2019s premiere, Shaw, a senior machine learning researcher with Google, shared his experience and some behind-the-scenes details about what it took to bring Dorothy\u2019s adventures to life in 16K resolution.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWizard of Oz at the Sphere\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E - what is it in your own words? Why is it a big deal?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe Wizard of Oz\u003C\/em\u003E was one of the iconic pioneers of Technicolor filmmaking, so it\u0027s a bit poetic that we were able to adapt it to the unique Sphere experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis project wouldn\u0027t have been possible two years ago. To me, it\u0027s truly been incredible to see the very cutting edge of technology and artistry come together to create this amazing experience that transports you into the Land of Oz.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat did you contribute to the project directly and\/or indirectly? How did it push you professionally, and were there any moments of \u0022wow\u0022 or \u0022wonder\u0022 that are special to you?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELast year, my teammate at Google, \u003Cstrong\u003EMeera\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EHahn\u003C\/strong\u003E (Ph.D. CS 2022), and I were working on an out-painting model (an AI-based technique for expanding images beyond their original borders) when our manager, \u003Cstrong\u003ESteven Hickson\u003C\/strong\u003E (Ph.D. CS 2020), told us about a project with \u003Cem\u003EThe Wizard of Oz\u003C\/em\u003E. We were all like, \u0022That\u0027s crazy! Is it even possible? That resolution is insane!\u0022 We didn\u0027t think it would all happen or that it was technically possible. It\u0027s been a crazy journey to get where we are now.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor my part, Meera and I took the out-painting model we had been developing and specialized it for the film. This involved fine-tuning it on the original movie and characters, plus tackling a lot of new problems, like figuring out how to make something significantly bigger while keeping motion and characters consistent.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/lions-tigers-and-tech-oh-my-alumni-help-dorothy-debut-ultra-hd-sphere\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E[RELATED: Lions, Tigers and Tech\u2014Oh My! Alumni Help Dorothy Debut in Ultra-HD at Sphere]\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis project really showed me the huge gap between research and application. It also raised a number of new research questions that we\u0027ve been exploring. We then worked to scale up the model so a whole team could use it to process the entire movie. We even got to run many of the shots ourselves, from testing to custom workflows for some of the most challenging scenes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWorking directly with the Magnopus creatives in Los Angeles was one of the most amazing experiences I had. We built a great workflow where we\u0027d improve what the artists gave us, and they\u0027d improve our outputs to feed back into the models and repeat the process.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESeeing the scenes I worked on, first on the test Sphere and then on the real Sphere, was jaw-dropping. You can\u0027t really understand how big the screen is until you\u0027re there in person.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EImage\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cimg src=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/general\/2025\/Cloud_WoZ_SS.width-1300_0.jpg\u0022 alt=\u0022Google image of The Wizard of Oz at Sphere\u0022 width=\u0022450\u0022 height=\u0022253\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EImage courtesy of Google DeepMind\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the back of my mind, I was always thinking, \u0022I really hope this all works out.\u0022 It wasn\u0027t until I saw the first scarecrow scene (my favorite scene in this version) on the full Sphere \u2013after all our back-and-forth iterations, artist touch-ups, and compositing with full CG renders \u2013 that I was like, \u0022This is really going to work!\u0022 It\u0027s incredible what everyone achieved together.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStarting in May, I also gained a broader understanding of the entire process by serving as an ML Tech Lead, supporting other workflows for the Super Resolution and Performance team. I did a lot of debugging, putting out fires, and helping with the final touches on everything in the various tracks, and working with Magnopus to ensure everything fit together.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe work everyone did is truly groundbreaking. Seeing it all come together with the practical effects at the premiere was just sublime. I even got one of the sought-after foam apples!\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFrom a technology\/AI standpoint, in lay terms, what stands out to you?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat amazes me is how quickly we were able to enable this and how it wouldn\u0027t have been possible if we had started even a year earlier. It\u0027s been amazing being in the middle of this revolution in video and other generative models. However, putting it into professional filmmaking at this unprecedented 16k resolution, with the quality and character consistency we achieved, was amazing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMost base video generation models currently target around 720p, so I\u0027m most proud of the fact that we\u0027ve been able to accomplish this working together with all the creatives and others on this project.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAlbert\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EShaw\u003C\/strong\u003E was among the small group of Georgia Tech computer science alumni who lent their expertise to help \u0022reconceptualize\u0022 the film for the August 28 premiere of \u003Cem\u003EThe Wizard of Oz at Sphere\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Albert Shaw was among the small group of GT computer science alumni who lent their expertise to help \u0022reconceptualize\u0022 the film for the August 28 premiere of The Wizard of Oz at Sphere."}],"uid":"32045","created_gmt":"2025-09-29 15:43:12","changed_gmt":"2025-10-09 01:31:16","author":"Ben Snedeker","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-09-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-09-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"678177":{"id":"678177","type":"image","title":"Albert Shaw (CS 16, MS 17) was among the small group of computer science alumni who lent their expertise to help \u0022reconceptualize\u0022 the film for the August 28 premiere of The Wizard of Oz at Sphere.","body":null,"created":"1759160703","gmt_created":"2025-09-29 15:45:03","changed":"1759160703","gmt_changed":"2025-09-29 15:45:03","alt":"Albert Shaw (CS 16, MS 17) was among the small group of computer science alumni who lent their expertise to help \u0022reconceptualize\u0022 the film for the August 28 premiere of The Wizard of Oz at Sphere.","file":{"fid":"262181","name":"Unknown.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/09\/29\/Unknown_0.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/09\/29\/Unknown_0.png","mime":"image\/png","size":982003,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/09\/29\/Unknown_0.png?itok=epQojShK"}}},"media_ids":["678177"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/lions-tigers-and-tech-oh-my-alumni-help-dorothy-debut-ultra-hd-sphere","title":"Lions, Tigers and Tech\u2014Oh My! Alumni Help Dorothy Debut in Ultra-HD at Sphere"}],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"}],"keywords":[{"id":"10199","name":"Daily Digest"},{"id":"181991","name":"Georgia Tech News Center"},{"id":"506","name":"alumni"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJoshua Preston, Comms Manager\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Tech College of Computing\u003Cbr\u003Ejoshua.preston@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}