Intel Studios’ Volumetric Video Gives ‘Grease’ New Life 40 Years Later

At CES 2019, Randal Kleiser, director of the iconic 1978 movie “Grease,” and Diego Prilusky, Intel Studios’ general manager, revealed a teaser and first look at an immersive experience by Intel and Paramount Pictures celebrating the film’s 40th anniversary.

In December, Kleiser and more than 20 dancers filmed a re-creation of one of the movie’s memorable musical numbers, “You’re the One That I Want,” at Intel Studios in Los Angeles. Captured by the studio’s 96 high-definition 5K cameras, the dance scene will come alive in “volumetric” video, a format that enables the viewer to experience the content from any given point of view.

Intel Studios’ 10,000-square-foot-geodesic dome is the world’s largest immersive media hub. Movie makers film scenes inside the dome from all directions at once, a technique called “volumetric capture.” Data captured by each camera is shaped into voxels (think 3D pixels), which render the virtual environment in multi-perspective 3D. It allows audiences to view a scene from any angle – even the middle of the action.

“It’s exciting to be able to do something with this new cutting-edge technology,” Kleiser said.

Intel and Paramount plan to release an immersive experience based on the full song “You’re the One That I Want” this year for PCs and virtual reality headsets.