Text:/Christopher Holder
Forsooth! Just when you thought Kryal Castle had been hung, drawn, quartered and its head put on a pike… News comes through that the corpse has been disinterred and reanimated.
Located deep in the Middle Earth of Greater Ballarat, Kryal Castle began as a labour of love for one Keith Ryal back in the ’70s. It enjoyed a season of popularity before falling out of favour, until such time that it was a veritable basketcase — hosting the odd music gig or chapter meeting for chain mail fetishists.
Kryal Castle was on the market for a number of years and speculation was rife as to its long-term future (at one point a planning application came before local council to turn it into the southern hemisphere’s largest brothel) before investors, with enough groats and enough chutzpah to surrender to the medieval schtick of Kryal, came along.
The result is a re-suited and re-booted Kryal Castle that’s had a big injection of cash to bolster its ageing faux-bluestone ramparts and to bring it in line with what the Harry Potter generation expects of a 21st century attraction.
FANTASY LAND
Speaking of the world’s most famous boy wizard, Kryal has decided to ride the wave of interest in all things fantastical — everything from Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings, to Twilight and Game of Thrones. So although you can have your fill of jousting, falconry and other medieval shenanigans, Kryal is about as close as many younglings will get to being in Hogwarts.
There’s a goodly investment in AV at the Kryal ‘front end’. As visitors enter the castle they’re walked through a variety of exhibits that serve to prepare them for what’s to come. The Kryal back-story is retold by a Pepper’s ghost queen, some air-activated knights, an animatronic dragon, and a king’s head projected onto a tombstone.
The whole presentation including the lighting (lighting design by Benjamin Cistern, with lighting control from Dynalite) is controlled by a Medialon system ably programmed by Interactive Controls. The bigger picture – namely the look and feel of the opening attraction – was overseen by Arterial Design. Arterial’s Jamie Fergusson walks us through the setup they call ‘The Dragon’s Labyrinth’: “Kryal has a long history and many people have a preconception as to what it is. It was our job to use the entry way to create a initial fantasy experience and set up the adventure within the castle walls.”
USHNAGH THE SHE-DRAGON
“We worked with Kryal and with a production company to establish a story line about Kryal’s fantasy royal family and the relationship with the dragon – they wanted dragon fantasy elements to be strongly portrayed around the castle. We developed a story and laid it out through the existing architecture. It functions like a walk-through theatrical experience, almost like a walking ghost train, where you’re led through a series of discrete areas.
“We’re using pretty traditional theatrical techniques: show control and a mix of screens, projections, a Pepper’s ghost and mirrored effects, along with physical pneumatic animatronic effects timed to synchronise with a soundtrack and video production.
“The Pepper’s ghost is something we put together using a large LCD and standard glass to reflect the image. Otherwise, we use existing wall, floor and ceiling surfaces for projections, while in one of the areas a tombstone provides a projection surface for our talking king. In another space we acquired an off-the-peg animatronic dragon from China.
“Speakers are concealed within the sets, hidden in alcoves or behind curtains. The show control triggers solid-state media players for the audio.”
Kryal Castle: kryalcastle.com.au
Interactive Controls (Medialon): (02) 9436 3022 or www.interactivecontrols.com.au
Arterial Design: (03) 9482 6166 or www.arterialdesign.com.au
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