Virtual Production • Machine Learning Tooling
The Hollywood Reporter:
Kelly Marie Tran Editorial
“Kelly Marie Tran’s first recording session for Raya and the Last Dragon involved a leap of faith. As the titular warrior princess, she stood in a booth in Disney Animation's Burbank offices and performed the dialogue, an incantation meant to awaken a mythical creature that could help save the world.
The taping went smoothly, but right before the scene wrapped, Tran spoke up: "Hey, actually … would you mind if I tried something?"“
To release their latest cover shoot featuring Kelly Marie Tran, The Hollywood Reporter collaborated with Dyan Jong and Pyramid3 to host an AI-powered virtual cover shoot. The shoot coincided with the release of Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon”.
Released as a print magazine, on digital, Apple News and social.
The Concept
A key element of the production was to highlight south-asian heritage and work with a team that could bring bring a hint of their heritage into the shoot. With Cong Tri providing outfits, we set out to build a virtual space that blended between past and future. Kelly shared references from her own trips to Vietnam, which made it as abstracted architectural shapes as a terraced landscape. We used a photo-scan of the My Son Sanctuary in Vietnam - the dramatic ruins that were the religious and political capital of the Champa Kingdom - to allude to both epic past and Disney's upcoming “Raya And The Last Dragon”.
The result is a blend of Asian-futurism and fairy-tale - with a nod to the major Sci-Fi and fantasy IP’s Kelly has been a part of.
Above: My Son Sanctuary ruins rendered in Unreal Engine
AI pipeline
The AI-powered production used experimental tools bring virtual spaces to life, and simplify/automated the post pipeline (for example, AI masks - see below).