Thanks to the production team led by Rob Wyatt of Artisan Design, visitors to the park are able to gain a much better understanding of how Edmonton developed through the ages; from the ice age, man inhabiting the planet, Canadian first peoples to the arrival of early settlers and coming up to the date of the Capitol Theatre on the 1920's street and life in Edmonton in the 1920's.
The project is centred around the park's re-creation of Edmonton's original Capitol Theatre. Walking through the theatre's lobby, past framed pictures on the wall, which in fact show '1920's moving pictures', hearing the voice of a 1920's actress over the speaker, guests are ushered into the 250 seat theatre, complete with luxurious red velvet chairs and a magnificent red curtain.
The curtains open partially and the film entitled Northern Light flickers onto the screen in black and white, showing footage of Edmonton as it was in the 1920s. Then winter sets in and the North Saskatchewan river begins to freeze over. At the same time the screen appears to freeze, ice appears to form over the picture and begins to spread across the theatre's walls.The curtains fully open and side screens appear to increase the projection area and the immersive nature of the show.
At this point 'snow' falls from above down onto the audience accompanied by the sound and vibration of breaking ice that shakes the seats and can be felt throughout the theatre.
The chronicle begins with the land and the River, and how it was then used by the Cree Indians and the French fur trappers to trade and develop through the times at Fort Edmonton.
The show very movingly deals with the First World War and the flu epidemic of 1918-19 in which 50,000 Canadians died. Of course the show ends on a happy note celebrating new year in the early 1920's with Edmonton still very much a boom town!
Media producer Doug Yelling of Matilda Entertainment and Production Services led the media production team using a faux 3D effect, achieved by the use of a huge rear projection screen filling the rear stage, as well as a gauze with front projection across the front of the stage supported by two further side screens (left and right) that appear during the ice breaking scene at the start of the show and disappear at the end of the show during the final scene.
David Willrich, Managing Director of DJW, said: "This is one of our best projects we have been privileged to work on. It is different in that it uses the best of theme park techniques to interpret history honestly and accurately in a heritage park. In our view it gets the balance spot on between education and entertainment."
DJW was responsible for all AV system integration and show control programming. The sound system consists 16 channels of sound using range of Bose speakers and sound processing equipment.
The rear projection screen at 14M wide requires five edge blended Digital Projection Titan projectors using 0.67mm lenses to create the panoramic backdrops. Front projection is delivered by three Panasonic DZ1200 projectors. The media delivery platform is a Dataton Watchout system and show control is undertaken using Medialon Manager Pro.
(Jim Evans)
