Disguise Powered the On-Set Virtual Production Behind Daddio Starring Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn

90% of the Feature Was Shot on a 2.5mm Pixel Pitch, 50’ Stage From 4Wall Entertainment

LONDON — September 24, 2024 — Throughout its 24-year history, Disguise’s Emmy-Award-winning technology has been behind some of the most immersive visuals in films, episodics and more. For new feature film Daddio, Disguise’s virtual production workflow helped producer, writer and director Christy Hall captivate audiences for 101 minutes with only two characters.

Starring Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn and featured as an official selection at the Toronto and Tribeca film festivals, Daddio tells the story of a young woman returning home to Manhattan after a trip. She grabs a cab from the airport and unexpectedly finds herself having life-changing conversations with its driver, Clark. Originally conceived as a stage play, the script was included on the “Black List” of the most-liked unproduced scripts in Hollywood before being developed on an indie budget of only $10 million.

At first, Hall selected virtual production to capture the feature because it would reduce the need to rig a moving cab or pay fees to shoot on location. The technology also provided other benefits, including creating a safe, realistic set for the actors to perform in. “I was excited to use the technology,” says Hall. “It created an immersive environment for the cast, so when Sean was driving, he kept almost being afraid he was going to hit things. And then Dakota looks out the window and cars are whizzing by. She could actually see the street and everything, so they’re engaging with a real sense of time and place.”

Simulating Travel

To capture the film, Hall worked with 4Wall Entertainment’s VPs of Special Projects Ben Danielowski and Mathew Leland, VP Supervisor Julian Sarmiento and Disguise VP of Virtual Production Addy Ghani. First, the team mapped the taxi route Hall wanted Daddio’s characters to take on Google Street View. Then they worked together with Plate Pros to capture the route in the real world. They captured two hours of 4K car process plates within only one night of shooting.

Once the route was captured, the team moved to production on 4Wall’s LED stage. Using Disguise’s GX 3 media servers, all the car process plates were reprojected and played back onto the LED volume. A real New York taxi cab was then cut in half so the team could put the camera in front of Johnson to capture her performance.

The Disguise Difference

“Using Disguise gave us the entire canvas,” says Leland. He explained that with Disguise, the team was able to easily twist and warp the flat car process plates into the correct perspective for the camera, as well as combine and play back multiple video plates in real time. “That means that although we have these individual screens, it’s all within one media server,” Leland adds. “It allows us to map however we want, whether we want perspective, sizing, we can really kind of change what’s being reprojected onto those screens.”

“It would be impossible to make this feature with the budget we had without using virtual production,” says Hall.

After an international premiere at Toronto Film Festival, Daddio was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics and is now screening in select cinemas across the United States and Canada, and has been released on streaming platforms Now TV and Roku.

Learn more

To find out more about Daddio and the future of virtual production, get in touch with [email protected] to arrange an interview with the Disguise team.

 

About Disguise

Disguise is the industry-leading platform sitting at the heart of a new era of visual experiences. One powerful integrated system of software, hardware and services to help create the next dimension of real-time spectacle.

We partner with the biggest entertainment brands and companies in the world to deliver the A-list of live music events, live TV broadcasts, immersive experiences, installations, theater, film and TV production, corporate communications and brand product launches. Working with Disney, Snapchat, Netflix, ESPN, U2 at the Sphere, the Burj Khalifa, and Beyoncé, Disguise is the number one partner delivering the next dimension of entertainment.

Learn more at www.disguise.one/en

 

About 4wall

Founded in 1999, 4Wall Entertainment is a full-service lighting, video, and rigging company servicing all facets of the entertainment industry – from corporate events and theater to concert touring and television. Their offerings include rentals and services, new and used sales, and permanent installations.

4Wall services customers coast to coast in the USA and internationally via locations in the United Kingdom.

Learn more at www.4wall.com

 

About Plate Pros

Plate Pros is one of the world’s leading full-service international production services companies dedicated to creating VFX elements for the film, television, and commercial production community. The company offers deep expertise in car process plates and custom array work including translite backdrops, subway and train plates, crowd work, stunts, and period driving in order to create photographic virtual environments utilizing 360-degree array photography.

Plate Pros has contributed to some of the most renowned films and television projects; recent titles include “Dark Matter”, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, “Presumed Innocent” ” The Penguin” “Joker: Folie à Deux” “Wolfs” and “Smile” 1 & 2 “. Plate Pros, which is a subsidiary division of Third Law Productions, also partnered with Panasonic to create the Lumix BGH1 specifically for array unit capture.

Learn more at www.platepros.com