Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
I’ve watched the Harry Potter movies countless times, but never like this.
An 87-foot LED dome stretches above. And in its centre, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone It plays, while surrounding 3D images expand the movie scenes to fill the screen. It feels less like watching a movie and more like being inside a magical world.
During the opening scene of Privet Drive, more beige houses and glowing street lamps stretch out in every direction, immediately drawing me into the film. When Harry entered Diagon Alley, towering shops rose around me, and I shared his sense of wonder. In the Hogwarts Great Hall, hundreds of flickering candles seem to float above our heads, making me feel like I’m walking with the first-year students toward the Sorting Hat.
The experience is captivating, enveloping and transporting. It is part of a display format called Common reality in Cosme Los Angelesan entertainment venue that also has locations in Dallas and Atlanta. The massive dome screen combines traditional movie viewing with computer-generated visuals, surrounding the audience with the scenes unfolding on screen – no headset required. Other films that have received the co-reality treatment so far include The Matrix and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
I attended a press preview for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the shared reality last week, ahead of its public opening on May 7.
Virtual and mixed reality Headphones It also allows viewers to feel drawn to their favorite movies and TV shows. But headphones can be confusing, isolating, and uncomfortable after long periods of time. There’s no opportunity for group viewing, which is my favorite part of going to the movie theater. I love laughing with other audience members and reacting to shocking or emotional moments together.
Shared reality balances the two experiences. I can feel immersed in the wizarding world without a headset blocking my surroundings. I can happily interact with other audience members as we fly over the Quidditch pitch or walk along Stage 9 ¾. We can stare in unison at the magician’s chess scene – which is even more striking in the shared reality where giant, shattered chess pieces loom in the sky.
“That common aspect, that common element, is really critical to what sets Cosm apart in this market,” Devin Polman, chief product and technology officer at Cosm, told me. “We want to make you feel like you’re there and really transport you as part of the experience.”
If you looked around, you might think you were at King’s Cross station too.
Adapting Harry Potter for Cosm’s giant dome screen
This being my first time at Cosm, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Will the format be similar to The Sphere, where films like The Wizard of Oz stretch out to fill the entire dome screen? I was surprised when instead a smaller window appeared and I played Harry Potter in the standard format I’d seen many times before, surrounded by added 3D images.
When CNET shared a clip of my experience on Instagram, many commenters were disappointed that the movie’s scenes didn’t extend across the Cosm’s dome. I had the same concern at first – would this really be immersive if the movie was only framed by those 3D surroundings? But it ended up striking the right balance, keeping the film as it was made while still drawing me deeper into the world of the screen.
It also helps that not every scene is dynamic; Some are designed to make you feel like you’re in an environment like the Gryffindor common room or Potions classroom, with glowing lamps or bubbling cauldrons. Too much action throughout the film would be distracting and visually exhausting. Instead, those more dynamic scenes like walking along Diagon Alley or riding the Hogwarts Express are sprinkled in for greater impact.
“The movie is the hero, and we want to be an addition to it,” Pullman said. “But if you do too much, it starts to take away from the movie. We realize that audiences’ attention is really on the movie. … And we also want you to be surprised and delighted by everything else that’s going on.”
Pullman says the team followed traditional 3D visual effects workflow to create the experience. A team of dozens of artists, creatives, and technical engineers worked to define what each scene should look like, from shot lists and storyboards to building those worlds using 3D tools. Scenes are then displayed in 12K so they look sharp on the wide screen.
It took about a year to go from idea to completion. The in-house Cosm team led the overall effort, working alongside Little Cinema to determine the visual and pacing choices, as well as MakeMake Entertainment to handle the finer technical and technical details of building these 3D worlds. The partnership with Warner Bros., the studio that produced and released all eight Harry Potter films, helped the teams determine how to best introduce and build upon the film’s iconic scenes.
“We’re trying to highlight a moment and not overstep what the film is trying to accomplish,” Kirk Shintani, MakeMake’s creative director, told the audience during a post-screening Q&A session. “There’s going to be a lot of people coming in and seeing (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) for the first time. So we want to make sure they understand the intent of the movie. What we do is we try to put you guys in that moment so you can feel it a little bit more and experience it a little bit more.”
Some backgrounds simply expand the scene setting, rather than creating movement.
There’s no denying the passion of the Harry Potter fanbase, which is the main reason why Cosm chose the Sorcerer’s Stone as its third co-reality film. It also helps if the franchise provides a visually rich environment.
“The film — and the entire canon — lends itself well to the transference nature of what it does as a film,” Pullman said.
It’s not clear if this means more Harry Potter films will be adapted for this experience. But a glance into the Mirror of Erised will reveal that this is one of my deepest desires.