"The Marvel Experience has evolved into an amazing, premier touring experience, complete with unique technical elements such as 3D 360° video projection, first-person 'live' interactive gaming and a dynamic 4D motion ride. It became apparent early on that we needed an elite team of seasoned professionals in entertainment production that could offer us real solutions to help execute our complex vision - that's why we went to PRG," said Hero Ventures' chief production officer, Jason Rosen.
The team assembled by Jim Lehner, PRG senior vice president, special projects and Duke Durfee, PRG creative director and design manager, will be handling all the coordination and supervision of the design and construction for the project. While The Marvel Experience's technical requirements pose a set of challenges, PRG's global reputation has been built on its ability to bring innovative solutions to a wide range of projects including Broadway's Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Olympic Opening & Closing Ceremonies, key elements of Universal Studios' Harry Potter attraction, Super Bowl Halftime Shows and an exhaustive list of global concert tours.
"Traditional entertainment design is evolving," explained Jeremiah J. Harris, executive producer of The Marvel Experience and the chairman and chief executive of PRG. "Technology, guest interaction, and immersive storytelling need to be balanced seamlessly together to realize the next generation of experience-based entertainment. For Marvel Entertainment and Hero Ventures, that means taking the world of Marvel directly to fans, on a scale never before toured, and letting them enter that world fully.
"This is the future of entertainment; the guest doesn't have to travel to an attraction in a fixed location, the attraction is brought to them. Of course, that takes a considerable amount of logistical planning, innovative problem solving, and meticulous coordination."
The Marvel Experience is a touring complex that covers over 140,000sq.ft and features seven interlocked, air-inflated domes, with the largest towering over six stories high. Developing these new custom made domes was an engineering feat in its own right. As much like a concert tour, they had to be designed to travel from city to city, being built and deconstructed in a matter of hours.
As guests enter the Domes they instantly become an integral part of the story. While on their quest, guests will experience hands-on interactive games and a variety of show systems from 3D, 360° stereo projection to atmospheric lighting and audio, animatronics, virtual and augmented reality, and projection mapping-all while being interconnected to the experience via RFID in the form of a technologically advanced 'tracking' Super Power Band. The crowning jewel of the experience is the final battle featuring the largest touring, motion-based attraction in the world where guests are able to participate in the outcome of the mission.
"Tracking animation, the movement of the seats, the movement of the lights, the audio levels, and combining everything else into one cohesive experience is a challenge uniquely suited to PRG," said Lehner. "We worked closely with the animation group and scenic fabricators to make sure that what you see and hear throughout blends with both the on-screen and physical elements that you are sitting in and walking through-and blurs the lines between fantasy and reality into what Hero Ventures is calling Hyper-Reality. Every cutting-edge, high-tech feature was designed and installed to make The Marvel Experience one that v
