On nights when there are no live acts playing Sphere Las Vegas, the venue’s Exosphere (its one-of-a-kind outer LED screen) reads, “U2 are not here.” However, five nights a week inside the immersive venue, U2 can be seen performing the best of their U2:UV residency that ran from September 2023 to March 2024 through concert film V-U2. Captured via the Sphere’s proprietary Big Sky camera system, the concert film is just as good as, if not better than, the Irish band’s actual show.
Directed by U2’s The Edge and his wife Morleigh Steinberg, V-U2 brings a slew of firsts to the almost one-year-old venue and its content creation capabilities. The film – captured over three nights of the band’s sold-out residency at Sphere – is part of a growing slate of programming for Sphere Experiences, which run when there is no live residency or special event at the Las Vegas venue. Sphere Experiences also include the Darren Aronofsky film Postcard from Earth.
“V-U2 was born out of a conversation with the band, ‘How do we memorialize this moment’” of U2’s historic Sphere residency, says Sphere Studios’ senior vp of capture Andrew Shulkind, who served as the film’s director of photography. “For 100 years of movie making, we’ve been telling stories through a rectangular lens. This is a different kind of storytelling. There’s no way to tell this story in a traditional way. You could cut it up, have wide-angle lenses, or have a choppy concert film, but nothing could recreate the Sphere experience.”
Nothing except maybe the technology that makes the live sphere experience possible.
“Coincidentally, we’ve been building cameras to capture other content [outside] the venue,” Shulkind says. “If we can tell the story of what it’s like to be in a sulfur volcano for Postcard or flying over Mont Blanc, why not tell the story of being inside Sphere [during a concert] with our very own technology?”
When Shulkind was first commissioned to work at the Sphere in 2018, the company faced a dilemma of creating images sharp enough for their screens when off-the-shelf-cameras would not suffice. After pursuing different avenues, the Sphere team created the Big Sky camera in 2021. “The camera, lens and all its components are entirely internal technology on which we have 10 patents,” says Shulkind. “Nobody else needs that crazy level of resolution. Coincidentally, the game-changing technology has pushed the business forward.”
The Big Sky technology debuted in Aronofsky’s Postcard from Earth, capturing the images and video required for the Sphere’s 16K x 16K immersive display plane from edge to edge. It also features the largest single sensor in commercial use—a 316-megapixel, 3” x 3” HDR image sensor capable of a 40X resolution increase over 4K cameras. Big Sky can capture content up to 120 frames per second in the 18K square format and higher speed frame rates at lower resolutions.
V-U2: An Immersive Concert Film
Using the same technology, producer Alan Maloney, U2, Sphere Studios and the venue, the teams collaborated to shoot over three nights of the 40-date residency (two in February and one in March) to create V-U2, the first film shot entirely on Big Sky cameras.
Working for more than two months on the edit of V-U2 at the Sphere Studios Big Dome in Burbank, Calif. – with a quarter-sized version of the screen and haptic seats and sound featured in the venue – Steinberg (who is an accomplished director and choreographer that choreographed many of Bono’s moves for the Zoo TV Tour in the 1990s) and The Edge wanted to make sure the final product wasn’t just a concert film or a documentary, but a faithful recreation of the live with the most precise view of U2 possible, down to the details on their shoelaces.
“Seeing the band like that—whether you’re high up or in the lower seats. That’s amazing for fans,” Steinberg says.
However, from the director’s perspective, the medium posed significant challenges. “You can’t easily see your edits. You’re either looking through an Oculus [headset] or at a very low-resolution image on a monitor. You quickly learn what you might not be seeing and make compensations for that,” Steinberg says.
One of the most complex production pieces was transforming the 100-minute U2:UV into the 82-minute V-U2. This called for interweaving the setlist of U2:UV with some of the classic covers performed throughout the residency, such as Elvis Presley‘s “Love Me Tender,” Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” and Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”
The directors wanted to reflect the arc of the live show into the concert film and “also considered that this will be viewed by a broader audience, not just U2 fans,” Steinberg says. “People are coming to see what the Sphere can do. The first three songs of the film are a perfect example of that. However, we do ask the audience to sit through two songs where there are no [background] visuals [just a shot of the band]. Even if you aren’t a U2 fan, there’s much to enjoy and experience.”
Steinberg says the film captures the best moments of the residency in new depth and sharpness, with a fresh perspective. The rendition of “‘The Fly’ is a brilliant piece in the film … the space morphs and gives the illusion of the room becoming square. It is a true use of the word ‘awesome,’” she says. “There are shots from the stage, looking out at the audience, which is a new perspective you don’t normally have.”
The track “One” features a camera angle on Bono that Shulkind characterizes as the biggest close-up ever filmed. “The ability to show Bono in this very intimate moment during this intimate song that everybody knows was so powerful,” he says. “It blew everyone away.”
V-U2: An Immersive Concert Film
“We had to shrink it down a little bit. It was even bigger,” Steinberg says of the stunning image that showcases Bono in grand detail. “The camera then slowly pulls back, revealing the band. The moment extends into an infinite view of the room, with everyone in the audience holding up their lights.”
The sound of the audience from the original live events also played a critical role in developing the concert film. Captured on crowd mics placed through the venue during the live shows in February and March, the audience can be heard during the film – between and over songs – responding to the band’s performance. “So much of that rawness and bits of unexpected magic parallel the imaging side,” says Shulkind. “You hear the show’s little imperfections and human aspects.”
V-U2 is set to play regularly as Sphere Experiences continue to be created. While it is not yet determined whether every band in residency at Sphere will get their own film, the content has been collected at Phish and Dead & Company shows and will be captured during the Eagles’ current run.
“We will continue to capture every band that comes through,” says MSG Entertainment’s executive vp of live Josephine Vaccarello. “Everyone who comes into our venue is learning how to play with the tools we have in the toolbox differently. We’re continually trying to figure out how we innovate and how we continue to grow, and this was one of the ways.”
“Every Sphere show is a unique moment in time,” Shulkind says. “We’re still figuring out what that looks like for other shows. It’s an endless journey of discovery because we’re learning how this new medium works.”
