Director Darren Aronofsky once again called on longtime collaborator ILM to create visuals for his new film Postcard From Earth however, this project would be like no other. Postcard is the first immersive production made for MSG Sphere, the state-of-the-art sphere-shaped venue that opened in the Fall of 2023. Aronofsky created, directed, and produced the film which was captured on a bespoke camera system called Big Sky, a single-lens camera with a 316-megapixel, 3-inch x 3-inch HDR image sensor that can capture 18Kx18K images up to 120 frames per second. Crafting visual effects for the film was an incredible challenge, but one Visual Effects Supervisor Bill George and his crew were excited to tackle.
“At its best, cinema is an immersive medium that transports the audience out of their regular life, whether that’s into fantasy and escapism, another place and time, or another person’s subjective experience. The Sphere is an attempt to dial up that immersion.”
– Darren Aronofsky
Bill George explained, “Producing our sequences for Postcard from Earth challenged the very limits of ILM’s hardware and software. Sphere’s immersive screen, with its brightness and razor-sharp resolution, meant that for us every single pixel mattered. Collaborating with Darren on his vision for this film really pushed the boundaries of what is expected in this kind of venue and It’s really exciting to think about what will be born out of the seed of “Postcard from Earth”. It’s a multi-layered window into what experiences are possible in the Sphere.”
