SCREEN PARK
Remember when the only media-based attraction you’d find in a non-Disney or Universal park was a Cinema 180? How things have changed! From 3D/4D theatres to next generation simulators, immersive tunnels, interactive dark rides and VR-equipped rollercoasters, it seems wherever there’s motion there’s often media content too these days. In this special feature, Park World examines rise of screen-based entertainment in theme parks and attractions
screen or other surface but increasingly offered on personal devices such as computer tablets, smartphones or virtual reality (VR) headsets. If you need proof of how widespread such experiences are becoming in the industry then consider this quote from Tim Rheault of LA-based entertainment design and brand strategy specialist Rhetroactive: “Around 90% of the projects we’re currently working on integrate media somehow, and none of them are movie parks.” “For many years, media-based attractions were mainly simulators, then dark rides,” notes Benoit Cornet, CEO of interactive attractions specialist Alterface Projects in Belgium. “Now we’ve reached the point where media has become a basic component for any type of storytelling, just like physical sets, audio or lighting.” “A small 2D theatre is not immersive, but once you start to
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Plants Vs Zombies, recently launched at Carowinds in collaboration with Alterface Projects
efore we start, it’s worth clarifying that by ‘media’ we mean the integration of some kind of video or film content into an attraction, usually projected onto a
reality though,” continues Murphy. “The sheer variety of techniques out there is quite astonishing, with complex screen arrangements, 360° shows and fully immersive rear projection environments. This trend is happening as technology and media production techniques have improved, with higher quality, better resolution offering the ability to generate really quite incredible imagery. ‘Immersive’ is the key word here.”
ALL ABOUT IMMERSION According to Jeroen Holman of Vekoma Rides Manufacturing, which represents Brogent Technologies from Taiwan, immersing guests entails more than simply putting a motion base in front of a screen: “It comes down to the cohesion of all elements in an attraction – story, audio, video, special effects, motion, theming etc – and how they take the audience into the experience and make them ‘forget’ the real world around them.” “Choosing the right ride system or seating format for a film can make the difference between a great media-based attraction and a really bad one,” reckons Rheault. “Where most media-based attractions fall short is that guests aren’t taken on a journey to another place. Entering a ‘black-box’ theatre, sitting in front of a screen and exiting back into the park has no experience to it. We always develop a fully- realised story from the façade which pulls people in, to the queues and pre-show which introduce the story, all the way through the exit retail, which gives guests one last opportunity to extend the experience.”
38 MAY 2016
Parks immmerse
guests with media- based attractions
add 3D and effects the experience extends way beyond the screen in front of you,” notes industry stalwart Kevin Murphy, now vice-president of sales for Attraktion! in Austria, supplier of everything from robots and interactive games to 4D theatres and domes. “Media-based attractions are not just about 4D or virtual
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