4Wall Entertainment played a vital role in supporting the production of the feature film Daddio, written and directed by Christy Hall and starring Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn. 4Wall built a virtual production studio to create a realistic backdrop of New York City streets, recreating a drive in a taxicab where the film takes place. This innovative approach enabled an efficient and visually stunning production, allowing the entire shoot to be completed in just 16 days.
Christy Hall, the visionary behind Daddio, expressed her amazement at the expertise and ingenuity of the 4Wall team in leveraging this technology, “I’ve done Q&As at Telluride and TIFF where audiences audibly gasped when I told them every single interior shot inside the cab was done on a soundstage,” she explained. “They couldn’t believe it looked so real. My film probably would not have been producible without this technology.”
4Wall VP of Special Projects Mathew Leland detailed the technical setup. “We knew we wanted a large hero wall, so we utilized a 52-foot LED wall to create the illusion of a traffic jam,” said Leland. “From there, we added two roaming walls and reflective panels flown above the vehicle.” The project required innovative solutions to overcome the challenges of shooting in a confined space. 4Wall VP of Special Projects Ben Danielowski highlighted the creative process and using plates captured by Plate Pros. “Choosing the driving plates felt like creating another character for the film,” he said. “Christy came to the table with a solid direction, and we were able to bring it to life with precision.”
4Wall’s grasp of this technology and having the gear to capitalize on Brompton Technology’s Puretone and Dynacal, together with Absen PL2.5 tile with 1/8th scan rate, and Disguise’s process workflow ensured high accuracy in color at low light levels. “This allowed us to capture the JFK to Hell’s Kitchen drive in the dark realistically,” explained Leland.
Hall emphasized the importance of this technology for her film’s success. “Daddio proves that this technology offers flexibility to filmmakers, making the impossible possible. We had 16 days to shoot, with 13 of those days on a soundstage for the interior cab scenes. The end result is incredible, and I am so grateful for this new frontier in filmmaking.”
4Wall Entertainment is honored to have been part of Daddio, which showcases the value of LED volume technology in modern cinema and across various film genres.
Further information from 4Wall Entertainment: www.4wall.com
