The Halo Group and Backyard Cinema joined forces to create an immersive environment during the 2018 festive season at Winterville Festival to bring London’s favourite cinematic series to life like never before.
On arrival, cinema goers were confronted with the gates to the Labyrinth. Ominous and intriguing in equal amounts, these towering citadel walls held many secrets. Here cinema goers had to choose from 4 different doors, each leading to a different adventure. Each door was inscribed with a different word, hinting at what lies beyond, namely “Bravery” “Nature” “Inventor” & “Joker”.
Those who choose the “Bravery” door embarked on a treacherous adventure through 3 different immersive environment sets including a Medieval, Aztec and Haunted Swamp zone. Here, we created 3 ultra-realistic designs featuring the brutality and majesty of Medieval times, the ritualistic tribal world of the Aztecs and the sinister and supernatural world of the haunted swamp. For those who chose the nature door, 3 more incredible worlds awaited discovery including the Winter Garden – an expanse of silver birch trees nestled under a thick blanket of snow, an Evergreen forest where a panorama of rich and diverse foliage entirely enveloped the space and an enchanted UV forest where stalactites, stalagmites, glowing florals and bioluminescent organisms illuminated the night sky. The inventor door took cinema goers back in time. Here, 3 alternative set designs helped transport guests to another world including a house of a Victorian captain of industry, a zany inventors workshop and a steam punk inspired immersive environment complete with pistons, dials, pipes, barometers, valves and all manner of unusual mechanisms. For the mavericks who chose the “Joker” door – they were in for a surprise. Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, this twisted surreal world featured 3 further zones including a castle, castle gardens and a distinctly hallucinogenic wonderland.
The Halo Group designed each of these sets using a wide range of scenic techniques to bring the spaces to life. A mixture of real foliage, trees, mosses, woods and natural materials were used in conjunction with vac formed stone / rock props, metal work, creative lighting, scenic painting effects, tonnes of sand & fake snow and a vast array of props and set pieces throughout the spaces. The experience truly took cinema goers on an unforgettable, interactive journey before they enjoyed their favourite films.
