Yesterday was a very exciting day for me. You see, I was lucky enough to be invited up to Middlesborough to see behind the scenes of Amazing Interactives, the company who are creating the 3D sequences in our pantomime Sleeping Beauty. With me was a journalist and photographer from Birmingham Mail who were covering the trip and doing some interviews.
Following a long train journey and taxi ride we arrived at the studios situated on a huge industrial estate in Middlesborough. We were met by AI's Creative Director Tim Dear who ushered us passed a very busy room full of people sitting at computers, down a very long corridor full of posters and into a room that would be our base for the day.
A few minutes later Michael Harrison, the panto director arrived and we all got down to chatting about 3D and the work involved in producing it. We looked at original storyboards for the sequences featuring Joe Pasquale and I found out that it takes one month to complete a one minute sequence of film (each sequence is approx 6 mins long) and that Joe will be doing a lot of jumping around as he interacts with the animation.
The company have 3 cinemas in the building and we were taken into the small cinema with a computer and screen all set up. "Do you want to see the sequences now?" Tim said. And yes readers, we were given a very private sneak preview of just what audiences will be seeing in a few weeks time. (Oh I love this job!). Michael gave a running commentary telling us where Joe would have to be standing, going through the dialogue and jokes from the script. All I can say is that if you came to Aladdin two years ago 3D has improved so much since then. I'm not going to give much away in this blog because it would spoil the surprise but there's some great scenes where Joe has to climb castle walls, jump over things and fight off the baddies - and there's even a character that attempts to steal sweets from the audience.
After the preview we got to meet some of Tim's creative team who were busy working on the scenes for Sleeping Beauty. In a corner of the room one chap was sitting at his computer which had loads of numbers and weird signs. "This is where the 3D sequence starts as a load of numbers - get this wrong and well.....". Next to him someone was working on improving the look of the vines whilst the Mail photographer took loads of pics. I was in heaven.
Tim, a very quietly spoken guy, is probably one of the nicest people I've met, very enthusiastic about his trade and who tells me he's currently working with a local hospital to bring 3D into this area especially for patients. This is the future.
All good things have to come to an end so they say and sadly we had to head back to get our train - but not before I spotted a large brown box which had just been delivered - "Oh that's our new 3D TV". Oh joy! I'd only seen pictures of them in gadget mags - and here was a real one. Mark my words we'll all have a 3D TV in our homes in a few years time but until then I thoroughly recommend the 3D in Sleeping Beauty.
Click here to view interview with Tim Dears talking about the 3D process.
Following a long train journey and taxi ride we arrived at the studios situated on a huge industrial estate in Middlesborough. We were met by AI's Creative Director Tim Dear who ushered us passed a very busy room full of people sitting at computers, down a very long corridor full of posters and into a room that would be our base for the day.
A few minutes later Michael Harrison, the panto director arrived and we all got down to chatting about 3D and the work involved in producing it. We looked at original storyboards for the sequences featuring Joe Pasquale and I found out that it takes one month to complete a one minute sequence of film (each sequence is approx 6 mins long) and that Joe will be doing a lot of jumping around as he interacts with the animation.
The company have 3 cinemas in the building and we were taken into the small cinema with a computer and screen all set up. "Do you want to see the sequences now?" Tim said. And yes readers, we were given a very private sneak preview of just what audiences will be seeing in a few weeks time. (Oh I love this job!). Michael gave a running commentary telling us where Joe would have to be standing, going through the dialogue and jokes from the script. All I can say is that if you came to Aladdin two years ago 3D has improved so much since then. I'm not going to give much away in this blog because it would spoil the surprise but there's some great scenes where Joe has to climb castle walls, jump over things and fight off the baddies - and there's even a character that attempts to steal sweets from the audience.
After the preview we got to meet some of Tim's creative team who were busy working on the scenes for Sleeping Beauty. In a corner of the room one chap was sitting at his computer which had loads of numbers and weird signs. "This is where the 3D sequence starts as a load of numbers - get this wrong and well.....". Next to him someone was working on improving the look of the vines whilst the Mail photographer took loads of pics. I was in heaven.
Tim, a very quietly spoken guy, is probably one of the nicest people I've met, very enthusiastic about his trade and who tells me he's currently working with a local hospital to bring 3D into this area especially for patients. This is the future.
All good things have to come to an end so they say and sadly we had to head back to get our train - but not before I spotted a large brown box which had just been delivered - "Oh that's our new 3D TV". Oh joy! I'd only seen pictures of them in gadget mags - and here was a real one. Mark my words we'll all have a 3D TV in our homes in a few years time but until then I thoroughly recommend the 3D in Sleeping Beauty.
Click here to view interview with Tim Dears talking about the 3D process.
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