Congratulations to Weta’s  Matt Aitken, Kevin Sherwood, Eric Reynolds, R. Christopher White for winning Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project at the 9th annual VES Awards on February 1st for their excellent work on ride film for King Kong 360-3D.

The film was up against some stiff competition including Universals other attraction that opened this summer, Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey.

My wife and I had the good fortune of being their guest at the event, as a thank you for my part in the project.  It was a fun event hosted by Patton Oswalt and featured a Lifetime Achievement Award for Ray Harryhausen and the inaugural visionary award for Christopher Nolan.

The awards ceremony will be airing  Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 10p ET/PT on the REELZ Channel. So check it out.

King Kong 360 3D Audio Team mixing from the Tram. left to right, Mixer Pete Lehman, Sound Designer Brent Burge, re-recording mixer Mike Hedges, and Paul Cuoco

Mix Magazine has featured a new article called Beyond 5.1 that digs into the audio mix details of King Kong 360 3D with Oscar winning re-recording mixer Mike Hedges.  He discusses the unusual challenges we faced due to the opposing non perforated screens, and how they had to mock up the space at their studio in New Zealand to approximate the environment.

“We constructed a third-scale model of what the Universal soundstage was going to be, so we had screens on both sides of the room as opposed to where the screen normally is at the front.”

Mike, Brent, and Pete were a joy to work with, and willing to do what it takes to make something incredible.  I hope to get the opportunity to collaborate with them again in the future.  Check out the article here.

Completed astonishingly, in under two years, King Kong 360 3-D officially opens today. A unique collaboration between Peter Jackson and Universal Creative, the attraction transports you to Skull Island for a showdown between Kong and a V-Rex who’d like to make you dinner.

Stories and Reviews about the attraction:

• LA Times
• USA Today
• Hero Complex
• Yahoo! News
• FearNet
• Theme Park Insider

I spent most of the last two years developing, tweaking, and perfecting the immersive 3-D projection system for the attraction, that includes 16 2K resolution projectors, unique lensing, and 2 custom compound curve screens that stand 40′ tall and 187′ long.

The first challenge was deploying a 3-D film to guests riding in a linear tram.  This meant that most guests will be watching the film from an off axis position, a big no-no for most stereoscopic systems.  Not only that, in order to have image 360 degrees around the guests meant having screens opposing each other, which opens up issues of light contamination from one screen to the other, or cross-talk as it’s commonly referred to.

To solve these issues, I first mocked the system up, in Howard Hughes Spruce Goose hangar in Playa Vista.  Working with 3-D consultant Peter Anderson, and Electrosonic Systems , we fine tuned screen shape, texture, and gain to come up with a system that played to the guests off-axis viewing position, while mitigating the cross-talk.   The system was also used by Peter Jackson, Weta, and the Universal Creative team to view dailies and 3-D tests which due to the size and complexity of the system,  couldn’t be viewed any other way.

King Kong Mock-up System

Once complete we rebuilt the screens from scratch and moved the system to the show for integration.  In the last few weeks as we approached the finish line, Peter Jackson, Matt Aitken and the team at Weta outdid themselves creating an amazingly beautiful stereoscopic  short film that makes the experience. The original sound designer, Brent Burge and mixers Mike Hedges, and Peter Lehman mixed the 22 channel final audio in the space, which really made it come alive.

Now with all the technical challenges behind us, the attraction is open to the public, and the response has been tremendous.  Standing in the back of the space as guests cheer, scream, and applaud really is the projects best reward.  Eliciting that visceral, emotional response from the audience is what it’s all about, whether I’m making a film or an attraction.

To learn more about the project, I have embedded some behind the scenes videos provided by Universal, or you can watch them at the official website.

I’ve been bad, and neglected to blog about the new Universal Project that stole me away from the Transformers.  At least temporarily.  I’ve been working for the last year and half on the replacement attraction for King Kong.  The original sadly burned down in a backlot fire in the summer of 2008.  We’ve been extraordinarily busy developing the new show to open this summer.

I first didn’t blog about it because, well you know, it’s all a big secret.  Then they announced it, and then the press began, but by then I was far too busy working on it to blog about it.  In fact I only have time today because I’ve worked myself sick, and was sent home to nurse my cold so they can overwork me some more.

The attraction is a collaboration between Universal Creative, the department I work in at Universal Studios, and Peter Jackson who is directing the film with his company Weta Digital creating the 3D animation.  The project break’s new ground with a never done before immersive 3D projection system that I helped design with  3D savant and cinematographer Peter Anderson, and the talented crew from Electrosonic systems.  It may in fact be the largest 3D projection system ever conceived.  We’ve spent the last year in the same Sound Stage that James Cameron pioneered Avatar on in Playa Vista getting the projection system configuration and screens just right.  It hasn’t been easy, but breaking new ground never is, which is why I’m happy when I see press like this, after someone views our mock-up system:

Now, what we saw was rough, but incredibly impressive. If you were to look directly ahead at the direction the tram was moving in, the environment around you feels completely genuine. That’s not to say the effect wasn’t terrific when you looked at it dead-on. I’m just talking about the peripheral effect of the attraction’s 360 layout.

-Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor – Shock Till You Drop

If they found that impressive, I can only imagine the satisfying reactions we’ll get for the real thing.  You can read more about the attraction via some fresh articles from a group who visited our mockup yesterday, including Mr. Rotten quoted above:

• Shock Gets an Early Look at King Kong 360 3D!
• Dread Central Tours the Upcoming King Kong 360 3D Ride
• LA Times

For more info you can signe up for email updates here, and you can enjoy the teaser trailer below:

The Simpsons Ride wins the the 2008 THEA AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT -  ATTRACTION.  For those not in the know, that’s the equivalent of winning an Oscar in the theme park biz.

The awards are given out by the Themed Entertainment Association, a non-profit association representing the world’s leading creators, developers, designers and producers of compelling places and experiences.

From the press release:

The prestigious Thea Awards recognize and honor excellence in the creation of outstanding visitor experiences, attractions, exhibits and places,” said Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) President Nick Farmer of Farmer Attraction Development, Leicester, UK. “Truly international in their recognition of outstanding productions, the Thea Awards focus international attention on innovation within the Themed Entertainment and Experience Design Industry.” The Awards will be formally presented March 7, 2009 at the 15th Annual Thea Awards Gala sponsored by Economics Research Associates, a lavish, black-tie dinner event at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, CA.

As TEA continues to rise in stature – the association is an increasingly valuable resource to the entertainment development community and its many intersecting lines of business – the Thea Award becomes more prestigious. The Thea Awards Nominating Committee evaluated more than 120 nominations in order to recommend the current slate of 17 Thea recipients, with final approval by the TEA International Board of Directors.

Recipients – 15th Annual Thea Awards

Thea Lifetime Achievement Award:  Robert L. Ward
Thea Classic Award: EPCOT, Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL
Thea Awards for Outstanding Achievement (AOA)
Attraction: The Simpsons Ride, Universal Studios Hollywood CA & Orlando, FL
Attraction Limited Budget: BeWILDerwood, Norwich, Norfolk, UK
Attraction Limited Budget: The Forgotten Mine, Molenheide, Belgium
Museum: The Newseum, Washington DC, USA
Museum: National Museum of the Marine Corps, Quantico, VA, USA
Museum Exhibit: Operation Spy, International Spy Museum, Washington DC, USA
Museum Exhibit, Limited Budget: Forces of Nature, Arizona Science Center, Phoenix AZ, USA
Learning Experience: Air Force One Discovery Center, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum, Simi Valley CA, USA
Technical: Muppet Mobile Lab, Hong Kong Disneyland, China
Science Center: Audubon Insectarium, New Orleans LA, USA
New Theme Park Land: Jungala, Busch Gardens, Tampa FL, USA
Event Spectacular: 2008 Summer Olympics, Opening Ceremonies, Beijing, Chiina
Live Show: Finding Nemo, The Musical, Walt Disney World, FL, USA
Live Show: Legend of Mythica, Tokyo DisneySeas, Japan
Casino Attraction: Tree of Prosperity, Wynn Macau, Macau, SAR, China

I want to congratulate every member of the Universal Creative Simpson’s team in both Orlando and Hollywood, for all the hard work in creating a truly world class attraction.

The Simpsons™, The Simpsons™ Ride and all Simpsons characters and elements are ™ & © 2008 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.