Amazon Studios unleashed its biggest virtual production yet with Candy Cane Lane, a 2023 holiday comedy starring Eddie Murphy, shot on the largest LED wall stage in the U.S.—an 80-foot-wide, 26-foot-tall drum at Culver Studios—where director Reginald Hudlin crafted a whimsical tale of Christmas chaos, blending suburban streets and candy-coated fantasy lands in real time using over 3,000 LED panels synced with AWS cloud tech.
“We’re not just shooting a movie—we’re building a world on the fly.
— Reginald Hudlin, Director of Candy Cane Lane
A Sweet Setup
Candy Cane Lane follows Chris Carver (Eddie Murphy), a man obsessed with winning his neighbourhoods Christmas decorating contest, only to accidentally unleash chaotic holiday mischief via a magical (and slightly unhinged) elf.
The film demanded a mix of whimsical suburban streets, fantastical candy-coated landscapes, and dynamic action—all of which screamed for virtual production’s flexibility. Amazon’s Stage 15, dubbed “The Volume” in a nod to The Mandalorian’s pioneering setup, delivered.
Its 3,000+ LED panels, synced with Amazon Web Services’ cloud ecosystem, allowed filmmakers to craft photorealistic environments in real time, from twinkling rooftops to a surreal peppermint forest.
Tech Meets Tinsel
Powered by Unreal Engine, Candy Cane Lane brought dynamic, photorealistic backdrops to life—like a blizzard of animated candy canes chasing Murphy—projected on the LED walls with perfect camera-sync reflections, while motion capture enhanced the elf Pepper (Jillian Bell), slashing post-production time and landing the film on Prime Video by December 2023, a feat cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel likened to “directing in a video game you can touch.”
A Global Ripple
As one of the latest big virtual productions, Candy Cane Lane rode the wave of over 300 LED stages worldwide, rivaling Melbourne’s massive Docklands setup, with Amazon’s Stage 15 leveraging AWS for remote editing and hosting a “Sandbox” lab for filmmakers, proving its mainstream appeal with millions of streams and setting a festive benchmark for the tech’s growing global dominance.
More than a holiday flick, Candy Cane Lane showcased virtual production’s versatility beyond sci-fi, hitting tight schedules and diverse genres on Amazon’s cutting-edge stage, with Hudlin noting, “This isn’t just about pretty pictures—it’s about storytelling without limits,” signaling a future where film, from Toronto to Tokyo, thrives on real-time innovation.
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