Bringing The Wizard of Oz Into the Immersive Audio Era
Few films have left a mark on popular culture like The Wizard of Oz. Released in 1939, it was among the first Hollywood productions to use Technicolor at scale, turning the transition from Kansas's sepia tones to the vivid landscapes of Oz into one of cinema's most recognizable moments. Judy Garland's performance — and her rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" — became cultural touchstones that have endured across generations.
For its 85th anniversary, Warner Bros Post-Production Creative Services and Sphere Studios set out to bring The Wizard of Oz into a new era of audio — reimagining the film's beloved soundtrack for an immersive format at Sphere. The challenge: like most films of its era, The Wizard of Oz was finished as a single mixed track. Dialogue, music, and effects were combined–there were no multi-tracks or stems that would allow further editing in the future.
To re-score the film for immersive audio at Sphere, the team needed to isolate Judy Garland's vocal performance from the underlying orchestration. Starting with a single-channel mix recorded nearly a century ago, that was no simple ask.
"The main problem we were solving was to enable us to re-score the movie in an immersive format," said Tony Pilkington, Director of Engineering at Warner Bros Post-Production Creative Services. "The only way we could do that was by separating the vocal from the music in the first place. If there was any music left in the track then we would have phasing issues."
Warner Bros turned to AudioShake to separate Judy Garland's vocal performance of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from its orchestral bed — a process that would have previously required months of painstaking manual reconstruction. Using AudioShake's dialogue and vocal isolation technology, the team was able to cleanly isolate the film’s dialogue, vocal, and M&E stems in minutes, giving editors the precise control they needed to build the immersive mix while honoring the emotional integrity of the original.
"AudioShake was the only application that was able to separate the vocal tracks in a way that we could use them," Pilkington said. "Anything that we can use that creates a better starting point, especially for restoration, is a huge extra tool in our toolbox."
The Wizard of Oz is one of the most important films ever made. It's also a film whose audio was fixed in time — until now.
“Working with classic films requires both technical precision and deep respect for the original material,” said Daphne Dentz, SVP Post Production Creative Services at Warner Bros. Discovery. “AudioShake has revolutionized our film restoration workflow by allowing us to isolate stems that we thought were lost to history. The Wizard of Oz at Sphere could not have happened without their technology.”
Learn more about how AudioShake works with legacy film content.