From integrated projection mapping through to cutting-edge mixed reality experiences, media is a key ingredient in creating the next generation of theme park rides.

For some reason, media in rides isn’t always given the same level of artistic importance as the movie or story the ride is based on. We believe rides could be even more incredible if more time was spent crafting the scripting, acting and CGI at the creative stage.

Last year, we attended the IAAPA Expo in Orlando, Florida, and met many theme park and attractions owners and IP developers. We enjoyed a wonderful reception, but were surprised to hear a recurring question. They asked us why Framestore – the Oscar-winning creative solutions company we work for – would want to “come down to our level”. This suggests an undeserved lack of self-esteem within the theme park community.

From our discussions, there was a feeling that the theme park industry undervalues itself as an art form; holding movies as a pinnacle of creativity that their experience must follow, but rarely exceed. But, from our perspective, working in film and trying to move an audience emotionally via a screen at the end of the room is never going to be as visceral as fully immersing someone in the action and technology of a ride. Rides are the most exhilarating storytelling medium there is.

At the cutting edge
Rides and immersive shows have the capacity to generate genuinely immersive experiences that are not restrained by a screen; they’re interacting with all the senses, not just sight and sound. Rather than making films look real, theme parks create opportunities to make experiences feel real. And that’s so much more powerful.

Rides are a hotbed of cutting-edge engineering that offer multiple playful elements. Mechanics, physical building, progressive set design, robotics – the list goes on. When combined, these elements harness the potential to emotionally and physically move humans in all sorts of fundamental and earth-moving ways.

Audiences on a ride are more engaged than those in a cinema because they’re being told a story in a more dramatically heightened way. When people come off a ride, they’re dizzy, shaken up and thrilled. They’ve often travelled across oceans and then queued for hours for the privilege of a five-minute experience. It’s hard to find that level of dedication to a film.

Consumer expectations
It’s clear to us that rides are the pinnacle of creative entertainment and we couldn’t be more excited to be involved. Creating Oscar-winning visual effects for films like Gravity has given us a world-class understanding of how to visualise a story and bring it to life on screen. But we want to take this even further by plugging our learnings into the more visceral ways of experiencing a story.

And it’s not just us who feel this way. Framestore is a global company that employs hundreds of creatives and technologists. Our CEO travels the world giving company-wide presentations and each time he reveals some of our work on dark ride projects, we get a surge of interest from employees wanting to join our department. Why? Because they agree that rides are a fresh, creative playground; a place where you can not just make that superhero look real, you can make people believe they’re real.

It’s no coincidence that our entry into the theme park industry comes at a time when that world is experiencing a step change in what consumers expect from the experiences on offer. Not so long ago, people were wowed by simply putting media content into the context of a ride. Physically and seamlessly moving within a content environment was enough to create a feeling of awe. But this approach is now prolific – and its novelty is waning.

As technology develops, consumer expectations simultaneously increase. So audiences now expect and demand better quality from media-based attractions. It now has to be better acted, better written and better directed: and in nothing less than the Hollywood-level fidelity they are used to seeing these worlds portrayed in.

Real emotions
The relationship between Hollywood and the theme park industry has been around for decades, with some the world’s most successful rides being based on famous movie franchises. However, the symbiosis between Hollywood and theme parks runs even deeper than this obvious connection.

When Framestore created the groundbreaking visual effects for Gravity, the team designed and built unique rigs and light boxes that made actors Sandra Bullock and George Clooney feel as though they were floating through space. This not only aided the visual effects, but also helped to get a real emotional reaction from the actors’ experiences.

In doing this, we inadvertently created a one-person theme park ride and by heading in this more experiential direction, we’ve been amassing ride-relevant experience as part of our film work.

It’s exciting to be re-appropriating and exploiting these skills for a bigger audience than just Bullock and Clooney.

Having said that, we realise we don’t yet know it all – far from it. And for this reason we’re collaborating with ride specialists to help us transition our filmic skills.

These experts are helping us understand the complexity of ride vehicle movement, identify where the balance lies between feeling sick and feeling elated and integrate our digital media into the rides’ real physical environments.

In return, we’re sharing our film visual effects expertise and the knowledge we’ve gained in other non-traditional projects we’ve completed – including VR, large-screen installations and theatre direction. We hope that by combining these with our collaborators’ skills and knowledge, we can enhance the quality of the media-based attractions we’re doing for our clients.

So, in response to the question of why we want to “come down” to the level of the attractions industry, we’re not coming down at all, we’re aiming to contribute to raising the level through effective collaborations. And we’re extremely excited to be doing it.