Jurassic War is the custom CGI movie we created for the immersive tunnel of Cinecittà World, the Italian theme park that celebrates the history of cinema and television. The movie is 4 minutes and 40 seconds long and it is the longest film produced for an immersive tunnel experience in Europe!

The three wagons that can carry up to 90 visitors are surrounded by a round screen that is 70 meters long and 5 meters tall. The video resolution of the movie is 14976px × 1080px.

We also synchronized the movements of the wagons: the 7 stereoscopic cameras work seamlessly with the hardware in order to deliver a true-to-life experience. The audio system, with 21 channels, contributes to the overall realism of the attraction.

It all started in Berlin, during the 2017 IAAPA (which was then called Euro Attractions Show). On this occasion, we had the pleasure to meet once again Stefano Cigarini, CEO of Cinecittà World, who shared with us his wish to revamp the immersive tunnel experience of the park.

As a matter of fact, hardware needs up-to-date content in order to live up to the expectations of an audience that is getting more demanding as the years go by. The previous video used within Cinecittà World lost its allure over time and was not so exciting anymore as it didn’t take full advantage of the features offered by the hardware. What’s more, guests were not satisfied with the movements provided by the simulation motion base platform.

With this premise in mind, Cinecittà World asked us to design a movie revolving around dinosaurs that could be every bit as good as the best immersive tunnel experiences in the world.

The production stepped up when we started working on the script. Cinecittà World wanted a spectacular story that could emotionally engage the audience with its climax. Scripting has been essential to put the plot down in black and white and understand the movie’s atmosphere, how many characters can be involved and how should they behave in the story. Without a proper script, creating a movie would be impossible.

After that, we started working on the storyboard. Thanks to it, we can understand camera movements, placement of objects and characters within scenes, use of effects. Basically, the storyboard shows us what the movie will be like. Without a storyboard, you progress with trial and error, and it’s something a production studio has to avoid under any circumstances.

Even in the pre-production stages we worked on distributing characters equally so that every guest could completely enjoy the experience, regardless of the seat they’re in.

However, the curved part of the screen was precisely the harder obstacle to overcome. We used all of our expertise with immersive movies in order to create a stunning visual effect. We managed cameras and lens distortion in order to compensate for the curvature of the screen and provide a realistic visual effect.

The production stepped up when we started working on the script. Cinecittà World wanted a spectacular story that could emotionally engage the audience with its climax. Scripting has been essential to put the plot down in black and white and understand the movie’s atmosphere, how many characters can be involved and how should they behave in the story. Without a proper script, creating a movie would be impossible.

Creating a realistic experience has been our top priority during the development of the whole project. In order to increase realism, we have studied a method to transfer camera movements directly to the three wagons. That means that the wagons don’t move simultaneously, but each part of the train reacts according to the video. This allows guests to have a different experience according to the wagon they’re in.

The same applies to sound effects. If the soundtrack is poorly executed, the attraction can only express less than half of its potential. Much time was spent in our in-house studio to distribute sound through the 21 channels of the audio system, to create an immersive feeling that could surround the audience.