Two years ago, the building that housed the original animatronic “King Kong” attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood was destroyed in a back-lot fire that swept through four acres of the studio. Now the back-lot has been rebuilt and King Kong has returned.
The replacement? “King Kong 360 3-D” created by Peter Jackson. “We’re confident that our ‘King Kong’ attraction is the largest, most intense 3-D experience on the planet. Our intention was to create an enormously spectacular and immersive 3-D experience and we’re pretty confident we’ve done that,” describes Jackson, writer, producer, director of the multiple Academy Award®-winning film, King Kong, and the creator of the new “King Kong 360 3-D” attraction.
“King Kong 360 3-D” is a monumental, visceral tour de force featuring new, never-before-seen imagery re-imagined from the film and presented in groundbreaking 3-D technology. In creating this ambitious, interactive theme park ride, Jackson infused progressive film technology and dynamic storytelling with an adrenalized motion-based environment and visceral special effects to propel guests into the heart of the action as it materializes in a 360-degree environment.
For the first time ever, guests on the Studio Tour will don special 3-D glasses to experience “King Kong 360 3-D.” Trams will enter a darkened soundstage where guests will be launched—via the magic of Surround Digital 3-D projection—deep into the tangled jungle location of Skull Island. They’ll survive a close encounter with a swarm of hungry raptors, only to be confronted by the terrifying presence of 35’ tall dinosaur behemoths, intent on attacking the tram and Studio Tour guests.
When a gigantic 30’ tall, 6,000 pound silverback gorilla thunders onto the screen, the tram will jolt and shudder as guests physically find themselves trapped in the middle of a titanic struggle between two colossal foes, the great ape and a carnivorous reptile.
The realism of the immersive 3-D action will enable each guest sitting in the tram to have a ringside seat to the best prize fight on earth as King Kong and the colossal T-Rex battle to the very end as the tram cars slide ever closer to the edge of a bottomless chasm.
Jackson and his team at Weta Digital and Park Road Post Production in New Zealand were set the grand task to craft an entirely new spectacle that would transport visitors to Skull Island.
The team at Park Road were involved with designing the soundscape and colour-grade on the stadium-sized images. Suffice it to say, the project gave Park Road the opportunity to work to the zenith of their abilities.
Mike Hedges, Academy Award winning Sound Mixer, said the challenges were significant. “While we did the final mix in Los Angeles, we also had to replicate the Sound Stage in our mixing theatre here at Park Road in Wellington,” he explains. Park Road entirely converted one of their sound theatres to replicate Universal’s Sound Stage in miniature in order to accurately sound design and mix. They were able to replace their full 5.1 sound system with a 22.2 system, so speakers and amplifiers were hired in and rigged on massive temporary scaffolds. “We had never worked in this format before,” admits Hedges, “every Pan law went out the window as we needed to move up to 20 tracks or more at a time, of the 1000-plus we started with, between 22 different aural locations in the space!”
Setting up the room with dual screens was a major logistical exercise, “but it’s just the sort of stuff we loving getting our teeth into,” beams Hedges. “Being 3-D, the images come at you from every angle - the battle crosses overhead with Kong and the Rex slamming into the sides of the tram. So we had to ensure that the sound mix worked across the room and for each person on the tram.”
Brent Burge, one of the Sound Designers on Jackson’s original King Kong, led the team of Sound Editors. Everyone worked using incomplete images for most of the job up until the mix, causing even greater pressure as the deadline loomed closer. Each thump, crunch, breath, rumbling rolling, busted bone had to be meticulously placed and replaced as the images continued evolving.
“This has to be one of the most difficult sound mixes I’ve ever worked on, with such great demands placed on the stage, sound team, as well as the technology. It really has been a remarkable feat to achieve these results. It’s a must see to fully appreciate the awe-inspiring King Kong.”
Hedges finally concedes, “What a rush! The challenge now is – with technology moving so fast, 3-D, new sound formats – the sky’s the limit. Let’s see how we can use what worked so well on this, for the next feature film!”
PHOTO ATTACHMENTS: Sound Mixer Mike Hedges and Sound Designer Brent Burge breathe life into Kong.
For all further enquiries, please contact:
Vicki O’Hagan
Communications Executive
Park Road Post Production
vohagan@parkroad.co.nz
Phone: +64.4.380.7800
Fax: +64.4.380.7331
Manurewa has opened to strong success after its premier screening at the 42nd Auckland International Film Festival. The film itself inspired by the liquor store shooting of Navtej Singh in which Mr Singh was shot in a unprovoked and cowardly act.
The Film is already proving to be favorite among festival audiences which is a delight to Director Sam Peacocke who also took away a $3000 Friends of the Civic prize which Sam kindly donated to the Singh family.
Manuwera is screening around the country in festivals and also set to take on the Melbourne film festival towards the end of July.
Just four weeks after its release Boy has become New Zealands grossing film of all time over taking Worlds Fastest Indian, Once Were Warriors and Whale Rider
Boy has been at the top of the box office since its release on March 25 and had taken in over $7m locally
"The print is in pristine condition with nary a single blemish to be found, and a fine layer of film grain rounds out what is a transfer that's so pristine that there just aren't enough superlatives to describe how handsome it is. So far, this is the must-see transfer of 2010."
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Lovely-Bones-Blu-ray/9648/
The Park Road sound team are celebrating the win of District 9 at MPSE Golden Reel Awards for best sound effects, foley, dialogue and ADR in a Foreign Feature Film. All of the sound work was completed on site at Park Road and the win comes on the back of nominations for sound at the Baftas and Cinema Audio Society Awards.
Produced by: Carolynne Cunningham & Peter Jackson
Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Winners:
Supervising Sound Editor: Brent Burge
Supervising Sound Editor: Chris Ward
Sound Designer: Dave Whitehead
Sound Effects Editor: Hayden Collow
Sound Effects Editor: Melanie Graham
Dialogue/ADR Editor: Polly McKinnon
Dialogue/ADR Editor: Justin Webster
ADR Editor: Jason Canovas
ADR Editor: Mark Franken
Foley Editor: Craig Tomlinson
Foley Artist: Robyn McFarlane
Foley Artist: Carolyn McLaughlin
Assistant Sound Editor: Neil Aldridge
Additional Crew:
Assistant Sound Designer: Justin Doyle
Assistant Sound Editor: Stefanie Ng
Assistant Sound Editor: Morgan Samuel
Re-recording Mixer: Michael Hedges
Re-recording Mixer: Gilbert Lake
Location Sound Mixer: Ken Saville
Mix Technician: Buster Flaws
Foley Recordist: Matthew Lambourn
Directed By Taika Waititi
"With a genuine voice and a remarkable spirit, the winner is a film with bold direction, a fearless risk-taker. It tackles difficult subject matter not with preaching, sentimentality or self-pity but with humour, often treating tragedy and comedy simultaneously. Because it’s so enjoyable it is easy to underestimate the depth of this film. It is a rich mix of ideas which strike and collide to create poetic moments that speak, despite the remote location, to all of us today. With fantastic charismatic performances all around, including a striking moustache on the director."
http://www.berlinale.de/en/das_festival/preise_und_juries/preise_generation/index.html
Sticky Pictures short film Six Dollar Fifty Man continues its winning streak by taking the top prize at the 26th Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The film was honoured with the 'International Jury Prize for Short Film-making'. Directors Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland were grateful to be able to accept the award in person.
Park Road Post Production re-recording mixers Michael Hedges and Gilbert Lake have been nominated for their work on District 9 by the Cinema Audio Society.
The Cinema Audio Society is usually the best predictor of the sound category for the Oscars.
Congratulations also to Michael Hedges (re-recording mixer), Brent Burge, Chris Ward, Dave Whitehead (sound editors) and Ken Saville (location mixer) for their nominations in the Sound category of the Bafta Awards 2010 for their work on District 9. The film has received 7 nominations including best Director for Neill Blomkamp.