“If you go back to ‘Avatar,’ ‘Avatar’ solved the problem of how do you film a movie that usually gets created with computer graphics, so we put computer graphics into the cinematographer’s monitor so that they could use more traditional equipment to see the movie” said virtual production supervisor Ben Grossman. THE LION KING – (Pictured) Caleb Deschanel. Those shots were then edited together and handed over to the effects team at MPC (owned by Technicolor) to create the images you see in the final film. Then the art department got to work creating sets - the aforementioned virtual Serengeti - which could be “filmed” by moving a real camera around the space (hence the need for real-world camera equipment like dolly tracks). It started with a research trip to Kenya, with copious reference photos taken of the landscape and animals. In the main room, almost everything was black - black padding on the walls, black VR headsets, black dolly tracks for the camera.ĭirector Jon Favreau explained to visiting journalists that the plan was to create a virtual Serengeti in the Unity game engine, then apply live action filmmaking techniques to create the film - the “Lion King” team described this as a “virtual production process.” So what I visited in 2017 was a nondescript Los Angeles warehouse filled with computers.

After all, even though the film looks like a live action remake of “The Lion King,” every shot except for the first was created on a computer. Instead, if you’ve seen the movie (which came out on July 19), you probably won’t be surprised to hear that there wasn’t a single set or costume in sight. When I was told that I’d be visiting the production of Disney’s new “Lion King,” I had a hazy idea of what to expect - sets recreating the iconic landscapes of the animated film, maybe some actors in costumes or motion capture suits.

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