Blowers help set scene for Walking With Dinosaurs
The Problem
The ‘Walking with Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular’ show is proving to be an international success. For its recent UK run more than 500,000 tickets were sold. Based upon the popular BBC series, this live theatrical event employs life-size, animatronic dinosaurs to re-enact life as it was when the creatures inhabited the world. The arena sets are designed to create appropriate settings to represent different periods of the world’s history as the Pangaea (super continent that began splitting up 200 million years ago) broke up to form the various continents of the world.
An integral part of the mobile scenery, produced by Yorkshire-based specialist set builders Stage One for is the vegetation.
The Solution
The realistic vegetation which sprouts during the show is inflatable. The fact it is inflatable permits it to ‘grow’ during performances whilst also proving easier for set erection, stowage and transportation. An important element of the vegetation effect is the ACI blowers employed to inflate it. The vegetation is deployed across the set and ‘grows’ through holes cut out of the scenery. Inside the various set elements are blowers that initially inflate the plants and then keep them up to pressure during the performance.
The Outcome
“The ACI blowers are doing exactly what we want when we want. ACI has been very helpful, even lending us a blower to prove it was what we needed – and it is!” Roy Webber, Project Manager, Stage One.