Dark Rides
www.parkworld-online.com
Content is king
Valeria Rizzo, business development director at Red Raion, gives us the latest on the dark ride format, plus Red Raion’s stunningly immersive Tata World at VinWonders
D
ark rides were born with the aim of combining as many scenic techniques as possible, from sounds to lights, up to special effects. Over the years the trend has seen the introduction of storytelling, to
become more fascinating. We are talking about expensive attractions, which incorporate many
elements, as already mentioned: the digital content, thanks to new hardware technologies, such as holograms, high-resolution stereoscopic projectors, trackless cars, makes it possible to make construction costs more accessible, so as to cut overhead costs and meet different budget needs. They have become perfect for IPs, since they manage to combine fun, but also memorable stories, which remain in the memory of guests. As already said, another key trend is storytelling. Parks want licensed
footage that is based on known IPs or even IPs of the park itself, in the case of mascots, for example. In this case, the narrative experience must be entrusted to those who deal with this aspect as true professionals: at Red Raion, for example, we have recently announced the collaboration with Lorien McKenna, Emmy-nominated screenwriter renowned for her exceptional work on beloved Pixar Animation Studios films such as the Oscar-winning Ratatouille, Up, Brave and Inside Out. Making content the king of attractions allows us to offer an experience that lasts a long time and that stays in guests’ minds. Immersive, media-based experiences are taking over and we have
contributed to this growth: guests want to get excited with the stories and want to share these emotions with family and friends within an experience that must be WOW. At Red Raion we have focused from the very beginning on storytelling in our attractions and on the creation of digital content, to build experiences that can last forever and are successful.
28 There is another aspect to keep in mind: the operators can change the
content of the dark ride as many times as they want, maintaining the same structure. This means optimising investment costs, being able to update your attraction as many times as you want, simply by changing the content offered. An effective way to maximise costs and returns. Understanding the space we have available is the first challenge we
have to deal with, to understand how far we can go, but also creating a specific dark ride, following any indications from the amusement park can be a challenge in turn. It must be taken into consideration that the use of some technologies over others could be more challenging, also because so many elements must then be put in a position to dialogue with each other. We are not only talking about aspects, but also about suppliers: from the master planner to those who take care of the screens, those who supply the wagons, those who provide any animatronics and so on. All these aspects must be taken into consideration. We work to ensure that the experience is synchronised with everything
else. We need to prevent guests from noticing the presence of a screen, for example, and make them real windows to the digital world. We have already mentioned Tata World: there we took into consideration the speed of the gondolas and the point of view of the guests to manage camera movements within the content. Our pipeline allows us to immediately understand what the needs are,
this is because we work with real-time engines, so we optimise, reducing costs and problems during the installation phase. The dark rides want to surprise the guests, pushing them to a super-
effective ‘wow’ effect. Now amusement parks offer truly unique content, with incredible experiences, guests are now used to having a very high
AUGUST 2023
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