How Belarusians create dinosaurs for Hollywood

According to the world association of amusement parks and attractions, the best family entertainment center in the world is now not in Dubai, but in Minsk! kyky met with one of the creators of the park, Alexander Lukashevich. He is the technical director of a company that has been making dinosaurs, monkeys and dragons in Minsk since the early 90s, successfully selling his works in Las Vegas, and how is it that no one knows these people in Belarus yet?

Photo: kyky.org

The office of the East European Company is located in the usual three-story Minsk cottage in the private sector in the South-West. The road to it can be found except that Google-Navigator, carefully warning "turn left! turn left“- only GPS calculates that behind the high-rise buildings and a series of garbage cans in the depths of the apple orchard there is a neat brick building where the top management of the robot dinosaur manufacturer works. Silicone figurines of Thyrex, Apatosaurus and Triceratops at the entrance to the building confirm: we are here. In the office of the technical director, a terrible bust of the “Alien” in full size is affably located - a monster from a Hollywood thriller with a bone skull and several rows of sharp piranha teeth greets guests.

The robots of this company are leaving for Hong Kong, Las Vegas and Bali, and exhibits of ancient reptiles made by Belarusians are displayed at the stands of the London Museum of Natural History. This Minsk company without state support won the prize for the best entertainment center in the world.

Your project of family entertainment centers “Dinosaur and I” was recognized as the best in the world. Is the Brass Ring Award of the World Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions - is it something like an Oscar in the entertainment industry?

Alexander Lukashevich: This is an annual world competition, it takes place in Orlando, in America. In general, we won in the final against the Dubai center with investments in 120 million dollars. They were in sadness and complete trance when the prize was given to us. It’s just that our main trump card for victory was the 30-minute show program, in which children are not just contemplators of what is happening, but its direct participants. And they had a set of rides, toys, carousels, swings, flying saucers, roller coasters and other things worth tens of millions of dollars. A lot of technology, but the soul is not invested in the center. We are already going to America for 18. We are trying to do everything the way the world's best minds in this industry have done. If billions of revolutions are spinning there, then we must also strive for this. Just do on their scale - the power is not enough.

Photo: kyky.org

In our centers, firstly, it should be good and comfortable for parents, and secondly, it should be interesting for children. We create the illusion of "The Lost World" by Conan-Doyle, which runs through all the films of Spielberg, "Godzilla" and other multimedia industry. I must say thanks to all the Americans who pumped the people for us. We took the strongest theme in the world and began to zone: a) this equipment is for children from a year old to five; b) we have the next zone for the category from five to twelve years. Laser tag, space war and other - for teenagers; c) mini-bowling and virtual forms - for families, dads and moms. These forms give them the opportunity to compete.

Our center is fundamentally different from all that are made according to the old principles and canons: there is a set of certain equipment in their own or rental areas. People rent a certain area of ​​land, then either take a loan, or invest their pocket investments and buy a lot of gaming equipment. Some kind of simulators, toptalka, shooters, throwers, carousels, rocking chairs, children's climbing. I usually call it a toy warehouse. All this is put into a common heap, an entrance ticket is made and coin acceptors are put to collect the “financial harvest”. So they work at the prodnyak, not understanding why their revenues are decreasing in a year or two. This concept was good only when everything was born. Let's just say it was good 15 years ago, when the gaming business in Russia was still flourishing, and there were very few players in the market who were engaged not in the gambling business, but in the family entertainment theme. And then, when the gambling business was closed in Russia, a lot of companies went into this niche - it was necessary to invest immense investments somewhere. So they began to try to fill the centers with more expensive equipment, to measure with a wallet. If before there were only standard in door toys, now virtual forms and amusement parks have appeared there, right up to the roller coaster under the roof.

Photo: kyky.org

What are the criteria for selecting the best family entertainment center in the world?

A.L: When we submitted an application to America for the “best family entertainment center in the world,” we were only later told by the Americans that there were more than 200 applications. This system is no different from the Oscar. Everyone knows these red tracks and pretentious things: everything in butterflies, dresses, champagne, wine glasses - there is a lot of pathos there. They all go out at each other to look, to show themselves - as in the film industry. Just another name, a sign, but the same microphones, leading and applause.

If you take the entertainment industry, it covers more than a quarter of the people on the planet. The exhibition IAAPA holds more than six thousand exhibitors. The judges there are presidents of world-class companies (“Ripley”, the same “Disney”, “Paramount's") - these are grandfathers who have billions of states. They selected ten centers, including us, based on the presentation materials, films, pictures we sent to them. And then they go incognito to see how people who have sent all this, lie or not lie.

Two women came to us from America and began to put points: they look at the appearance (T-shirt, neatness, if there is a tattoo - a minus, if there is a piercing - a minus), routing, information component of each machine gun ...

There are many criteria that have absolutely nothing to do with the “warehouse” of toys, but are responsible for how cozy and comfortable it is for visitors. They look at the thematic component, the novelty of the project, dust, dirt, kitchen, dishes, gifts. We have all these capital postulates were embodied, as in the best parks in the world.

The wall in the office, which collected awards of the company

They took pictures, entered the slot machine hall, provoked our operators working in the gaming zone. When they received competent answers to all the questions, also in English, they noted with great pleasure: “Oh, they have a good attitude of the staff towards the clients!”.

When they saw how everything was crammed at the weekend ... Suddenly, for no reason at all, the lights went out, fanfare sounded - and dozens of children run to the dinosaurs, and mothers run after them with cameras - they also didn’t see it anywhere! The children are crying, singing, clapping, stomping - they have all left the roof! We invented it ourselves - nowhere in the world can such a thing be stolen.

Somewhere Chinese dinosaurs can stand, move and growl - all in one circle. And then the full 30-minute program with light, six-channel sound, spotlights, lights, in which the child is not a contemplator of the performance, but its participant, who defeats evil and runs with joy, shouting “mom, we won!” Eat ice cream. Moms take it all off - they also have a huge surge of positive emotions. Therefore, we say that our dinosaurs are a forge of positive emotions for the whole family. We were told that we scored 92 points - they do not remember that for 5-7 years someone gained so much!

When they said that the first place was unconditionally won by a certain company from Belarus, 95% of those present were asked: “And who are they? Where is this Belarus? ”. Nobody really knows, they are being explained: between Poland, Ukraine, Russia - these countries know well. It’s a disaster with Belarus, because they live in their own world: they know Honduras, Panama, but they say about Belarus: “What kind of country we don’t know? Maybe there still Papuans run, people eat? How could any country win in such a prestigious competition in which the Japanese, Chinese and the Emirates revolve. It can not be! ".

But if you look at it, our company has glorified Belarus as the country that has made the best family entertainment center in the world. We have been working towards this award since 1996, because we built the first center then in Chelyuskintsev Park.

This is despite the fact that we do not have any institutions that could teach the park of the entertainment industry. You can comprehend this only by seeing the idea somewhere and putting it on your ideology and a real platform.

Do you often change programs in dinosaur robots?

AL: First, the dinosaurs themselves are animatronic. Static decorations have no meaning without content - and we write different programs every four to five months. There are general educational history of the ancient world, where we invite children of 3-4-th class. There are educational, to which we invite kindergartens. 30 minutes tell the story of the emergence of the ancient world, and dinosaurs still tell about themselves: what they were, how many teeth they had, how much weight, length, and so on. Maybe the lecture is a bit boring, but the children listen with great pleasure.

There are game programs where you need to spell, wake up a dinosaur, find the best of the best. When we put a new substrate on the “iron”, we immediately change the world for the child - he comes to a completely new fairy tale and again becomes its participant. We throw programs at odds with each other, so they almost never repeat.

Photo: kyky.org

By world standards, you have a very small company. How many people do you have?

AL: About a hundred people. We have been working with production for more than 20 for years and we are proud that absolutely everything related to scenery, animatronics, scenes, software products and everything else is done on our premises by our company's employees: designers, designers, programmers, engineers, electronic engineers, mechanics, milling operators .

Our production is now located on the basis of the Horizon plant - areas are leased there, assembly shops in which dinosaurs are assembled, adjusted and set up.

There and machines that we work on bulk 3-D-shapes: from foam, we can cut any shape in mathematics. There are special machines that are molded - under the press, under pressure can blow out absolutely any form of plastic.

We use pneumatics rather high-precision and very expensive: as a rule, either Camozzior Festo. Reliability should be the maximum, because we sell a lot to America - under warranty, you can’t repair it. Therefore, the products are quite expensive, but the reliability in them is maximum.

There are products of the Japanese company Kokoro, in which one dinosaur is worth 250 thousand dollars, in it is 42 servo, it is like a living (such dinosaurs are used in Spielberg's films). And there are very cheap Chinese, which two days will work and break. And we have a segment - it is not cheap and not expensive, but we are much better than many European companies, I don’t even speak about Chinese.

Photo: kyky.org

Now imagine: here you are standing, say, in the Chelyuskintsy Park near the roller coaster - a rather strong sound pressure with noise from under the wheels and the rail. Probably there under 90 decibels. And now take all this and stick it under the roof. Imagine what will be the ultra-discomfort? Therefore, of course, in these centers, mothers think: "God, how to get out of here quickly, the head is already hurting." On elementary comfort here and can not speak. Having arrived there, the parents initially think: “Had the child taken quickly by the hand”. This absolutely wrong concept was invented in order to initially make as much money as possible from clients when selling equipment. The main postulate there was a profit. In general, many did not have any understanding how the children's center should work in reality. Few companies spend money on trips to other countries to learn from the world's best practices. And world standards are in America: if the Soviet Union had a lot of grave troubles and disasters, then the Americans successfully developed a segment of the entertainment industry and actually reached unprecedented heights in this area.

Did you equal the Americans?

AL: About. Their work experience is much better than the experience of China, Japan, Europe and others. The United States is the country with the highest proportion of theme parks in the world per capita. It is the birthplace of the world's most famous family entertainment complexes - Disneyland and Universal Studios.

You 17 years go to Orlando to participate in exhibitions. See what's new in the entertainment industry?

AL: Orlando is the capital of world parks: only in this city are their 27. And each need a day or two to watch. We, for example, were in the park Universal three years ago and 2,5 stood up for the Harry Potter attraction for an hour in the queue. More than 800 million dollars were invested in the attraction itself. And it seemed that there was nowhere else. In fact, even as you can!

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This year we are in one of the parks Disney animal 3,5 defended hours in the queue to get on the most recent attraction "Pandora", where the whole film "Avatar" is embodied. While you are standing in line for 3 hours, walking along the paths - everything around really resembles a real movie. Unbelievably beautiful! Some fragments of the scenery: avatars breathing right in the water, huge rocks hanging in the air are simply amazing. And no one understands why nothing falls on the head. Those. Today the budget of this attraction is over a billion. Therefore, their approach and thinking in general is different: they release films, then - paraphernalia, then - parks. For them, the storyline and themes are decisive.

It turns out that they then “string” all paraphernalia on the storyline: T-shirts, sweets, chewing gums?

AL: Yes it is. Their ideology is primary - a fairy tale and scenery to it, and all sorts of swings and other equipment are secondary. And from time immemorial our parks had primary equipment, and then paths, trees, pines at best. And about the subject and no conversation.

In Russia, almost all casinos were closed in 2009. And did this Russian business move to the CIS in the family entertainment segment that you initially engaged in?

AL: The gambling business has always been very profitable, so those who dealt with it, almost never worked on trifles. Where to put money, staff and staff? Many began to shut down and retrain, so they imposed the purchase of the maximum number of toys - even without systemic concepts about elementary zoning - age, social. Do you understand?

Photo: kyky.org

Have you ever dreamed of making equipment for any blockbuster Belarusfilm?

AL: These are very expensive projects. It is not 2 man who works there, but powerful engineering companies that have non-standard equipment and a full cycle of calculations and engineering, experience and immense funding.

We are at a very high level - all American companies that are engaged in animatronics know us. We had a lot of work as accessory for amusement parks, but we were not allowed to play the leading roles. They take the first roles for themselves, but they give us something incidental. The party in 100 dinosaurs they will do. But they themselves don’t want to do one or two and “something non-standard”, because they need a lot of engineering, and this is a very expensive job. The Chinese do not want to give, because everything will crumble through 2 of the day. Therefore, we fly and the roosters, the animatronic monkeys, the elephants ride. In Hong Kong, the elephant-robot ours goes straight through the tightrope - it keeps balance, balances itself, its system is no different from speed way. We still have the most powerful potential from the Soviet Union - the design school. With our programming level and potential, you can create very serious things.

Have you delivered robots to Las Vegas?

AL: In Las Vegas, the 6-meter dinosaur was leaving 15 years ago. He was disassembled into two parts, loaded into a container - we use sea transportation. Now the order has left for America: 80 monkeys, animatronic and non-animatronic. The whole Limpopo on creepers! They sit there, swinging with these vines and drives: they squeak, they crack - there is such a noise when they are turned on, that the children don’t already know where to hide. Like in the movies!

Photo: kyky.org

Photo: kyky.org

By the way, before our dinosaurs were made on encyclopedias. There are even those that were sold to the London Museum of Natural History. It was 15 years ago, but I know that a couple of the figures are still there. Especially for them, we made bone teeth, nails and other things “licked”. But life prompted that in our industry, these dinosaurs do not work: there are either large mouths or large volumes of mass did not climb anywhere - they took a lot of space. If we take the same triceratops, which has horns, eyes, large teeth, it bursts out like children will cry at once! Therefore, everything had to “pupate”: the head is bigger, the mouth is smaller. Our characters do not have a pure natural history: they are approximate, just more kind.

You can do robots for the room of fear too?

AL: No problem! The room of fear is made the simplest elements and techniques. This is such a thing, in which because of the darkness and the play of light, the whole hack is hiding. Therefore, the one who does it correctly, knows in what roles and in what areas you can simply put props and not spend money, but what needs to be done perfectly.

Our industry of fear is very poorly developed, not like in America. When their intestines with blood fly everywhere - everyone smiles, everyone is happy. We do not even understand this.

In American scientific writings on how to create hunter house, it is written that with the right sound and light it is possible to prepare a person in such a way that when he crosses the bridge and someone pinches his ankle, he will jump up to the ceiling for fear. But we understand that when transforming the Soviet Union into our world, there should be almost no blood here. Here you have to play on the other: laughter and joy.

And why is the fear industry not developed in our country? Because we have a lot of fear in life?

AL: Listen, someone fought at the time, and someone had fun. We have enough fear over the years - still this topic is a sick one for everyone. This is our closest story - there were bones on the bones.

Photo: kyky.org

Ten years ago we made the “Horrors of St. Petersburg” attraction, where there were 14 scenes characterizing the history of St. Petersburg, but this ideology was sharpened by a rather large St. Petersburg tourism. There Peter the Great rode in a boat and told the story, Princess Tarakanova was drowning in the dungeons, Tchaikovsky was dying while she was playing the piano, the Queen of Spades was falling out of the coffin ... The project is still working successfully. In general, our typical centers greatly influence the traffic of shopping complexes. Today, take the Minsk "Tivali". Half a year there was nobody - a crisis. And how they built the “Dinosaur” on the fourth floor, right away 2000 people per day.

Do you think that new technologies automate the show industry?

AL: In Japan, concerts are held in arenas with tens of thousands of people, where the soloist is drawn with lasers like a singing hologram. Under it plays a powerful live ensemble with a full symphonic set of instruments. Hatsune Miku - this hologram sings, tens of thousands of people clap it, as at the best concerts of world stars, live sound - the people are going crazy! Do you understand where technology has gone? This is a matter of investment. What will happen next? It is possible that in years through 5 we will have a hologram instead of a lead. And in 50 years, quite possibly, some kind of car will take over the world, like in a movie.

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