Disney’s The Lion King

Disney’s The Lion King by Jon Favreau continues the director’s foray into pushing the boundaries of visual effects technology by reimagining the classic film in a completely photorealistic live-action, yet CG, aesthetic. Building off the pioneering Virtual Production methodologies from The Jungle Book, Favreau insisted on building a workflow revolving around using Virtual Reality to visualize and photograph the film.

As Virtual Production Supervisor at MPC, I am responsible with the architecture of a production ready pipeline on-set implementing advanced real-time visualizations through game engines with deep integration into our facility’s previsualization and post-production infrastructure. In collaboration with virtual reality studio Magnopus, we developed a unique form of virtual cinematography that seamlessly leverages motion capture and VR/AR technologies to engage directly with the director, cinematographer, production designer, and visual effects supervisor. I supervise a team of over 40 technical artists and developers in LA/London building digitally animated scenes for use on the virtual camera stage. In addition, my work extends to working with VFX producers, assistant directors, and production managers to maintain a reginmented shoot schedule.

The Lion King is slated to release July 2019 and I look forward to sharing more here soon!

PRODUCTION

Walt Disney Studios

DIRECTOR

Jon Favreau

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Caleb Deschanel, ASC

PRODUCTION DESIGNER

James Chinlund

VFX SUPERVISOR

Rob Legato (Disney)
Adam Valdez (MPC)
Elliot Newman (MPC)

My Role

Virtual Production Supervisor