Traditionally, museums and attractions have struggled to source the budget needed to create spectacular, cinematic experiences for their visitors. However, as audience expectations have shifted in line with technological advancement, attractions have had to step up their investment in the big screen to keep visitors coming through the door
Visual technology – specifically large screen format and projection – has become critical for immersing people in new worlds and transporting them to magical spaces. VFX has proved a powerful tool to bring these experiences to life, capturing audiences at a whole new level. It is a means by which you can enhance visitors’ experiences – realising moving images that are impossible to capture on camera and taking audiences to worlds they could never imagine.
Bristol based VFX studio Moonraker has a long history as a creative partner in large screen projects for museums and attractions, bringing their VFX expertise to attractions around the globe. Just recently they received an award for their projection work for the Fram Museum in Oslo where Moonraker had the challenge of creating a new 60 fps 15 minute fully CG film for the immense 18k, 280-degree field of view projection space viewed from the deck of the ship. Across the globe, in China, the studio was commissioned to create an incredibly ambitious pre-show and 5 minute film for a fully immersive and sensory ‘flying ride’ simulation, which takes the viewer on a journey through the beautiful Changbaishan National Park in Jilin Province.
Now, in a game-changing opportunity for the business, Moonraker have secured half a million in funding from Creative England to produce their own original immersive, 3D Giant Screen content.
Simon Clarke, Creative Director at Moonraker, commented; “As a VFX studio, we have the technical tools and expertise to realise moving images that are often hard to capture in camera. This gives us an edge to take the audiences to worlds they could never imagine – so why not package this with a great story into our own film.”
Moonraker has a wealth of experience heading projects for attractions in the science and natural history space, but the studio has been keen to create their own original content for the attraction space for some time.
The funding from Creative England will make this possible for the first time, enabling the production of a ‘Moonraker Originals’ – an IMAX film with spectacular visuals and immersive 3D moments as audiences witness meteors flying past them or volcanoes erupting right before their eyes.
The film will play to Moonraker’s strengths and legacy of their work in the natural history and science-doc genre, and will be of high scientific value with the potential to appear on digital education platforms and link to the science curriculum.
While the initial two year project will be produced for the big screen, Moonraker anticipates spin offs in other formats, to include television, augmented reality and Flying Theatres.
Simon Clarke, Creative Director at Moonraker, added; “This is a hugely exciting time for Moonraker and the funding by Creative England is a real opportunity for us to drive forward our own original content and have a lot more creative and editorial control.”
“Not only will this project create ongoing revenue as we create licensable 3D content for theatres across the globe, but the films will act as a brilliant piece of marketing as we look to expand global awareness of the Moonraker brand,” he concluded.
To find out more about Moonraker and their cutting-edge work for museums and attractions, get in touch.