The Wicker Man

We worked with Alton Towers to create the Wicker Man, designing and delivering all elements of the multisensory experience that puts guests at the heart of the terrifying story before they board the park’s first wooden coaster.

We worked with Merlin Magic Making (MMM) from the onset, using their visualisation insight to bring the plans to life. This included modelling the whole site and experience in RideView, our proprietary visualisation suite which takes place in a CAVE - a five-sided structure where all walls feature 3D projection mapping. This allows multidiscipline teams from designers to engineers and stakeholders to explore the scenes in 1:1 scale and in real-time.

For the immersive media experience itself, we worked alongside MMM to concept and script the preshow, then produced the media and delivered the complex AV elements throughout the attraction, including the projection mapping. This began on-site at the Holovis Demonstration Campus filming scenes and capturing vocals in the Green Screen and Audio Studio with full post production and mixing.

Once the media was created, the Holovis media team and creative engineering team worked together to integrate this with the complex AV, digital, show and media set ups across the attraction. Onsite, surround audio and immersive media feature throughout the queue line, preshow, station loading zone, enclosed sections, exit and within the Wicker Man structure itself. Finally, we programmed all the special effects throughout the experience -  including the pyrotechnics which made the attraction the World’s first rollercoaster experience to fuse wood and fire.

To support the park’s marketing of the attraction, we used Augmented Reality to track a model of the coaster and show its operation and flow of guests.

Peter Cliff, Creative Director at Holovis explains:

“We specialise in creating story led, immersive experiences that put the guest at the heart of the narrative and create long lasting, powerful memories. Immersive pre and post show scenes have now become a staple of the traditional rollercoaster experience, extending the thrill of the ride from just a few minutes to something that guests will remember, talk about and share for years to come.

This has been a phenomenal project for Holovis and a great example of the company’s turnkey capability, with our artists, software developers and engineering teams all working together to deliver this spectacular experience, which we hope guests will enjoy as much as we do.”