Leading visitor attraction experts, Sarner international, called on award-winning VFX studio Moonraker to help transform Cornwall's historical site Bodmin Jail into an immersive and cinematic experience for visitors. Sarner and Moonraker have collaborated many times in the past, (Fram Museum, Norway, The Doctor Who Experience, London) with Sarner leading the overall planning and design process and Moonraker providing the audio visual content for the attraction.
The ‘Dark Walk’ experience, which is reopening in early October, features Moonraker’s cinematic films and projected effects that take guests on an immersive and atmospheric journey through Cornwall’s rich landscapes retelling the criminal stories of its eerie past and life in the 18th century prison.
Moonraker combined its production, visual effects and storytelling expertise from film and television to shoot and deliver over 30 different bespoke formats, from large scale projections and holograms to AR applications, many of which required seamless blending into the scenic backgrounds. Emma Kolasinska, Moonraker’s producer on the project, commented, “It’s incredibly challenging to set up a VFX pipeline when you’ve got such a huge variety of deliverable formats. Some of those screens are really large - with one measuring 20m by 3m - and that means you have long renders.
To achieve the film-like quality and authenticity, Moonraker’s production team conducted extensive research into the history behind the Jail, down to the small details such as replicating the exact buttons on the character’s costumes and their Cornish accents. Over a four day studio shoot, live action reenactments were combined with physical sets and visual effects to provide the ingredients for the composited scenes that were then later blended with practical and scenic effects and theatrical lighting.
Michael Bennett, Sarner’s Creative Director and project designer added “Sarner are well known for the creation of extraordinary theatrical experiences, we have a unique creative vision that tells a story in a new and dramatic way. It is critical that we work with creative partners who understand this vision and Moonraker have been outstanding in realising the project with all the complexities of the production and visual effects that were required, it has always been a rewarding experience for me, working with the Moonraker team.”
Graham Watts, Moonraker’s Creative Lead, commented “It was important that every projection felt like part of the same cohesive design and an authentic vision. It is the same level of detail as a film, the objective for visitors to feel as though they are fully immersed in the stories and life of the 18th century Jail”.
“What was unique about this project is that Moonraker worked as the pre-production, production and visual effects team. This enabled us to think about the project in a 360-way and shoot with our visual effects capability in mind.
