Touring with Dinosaurs

Backstage with the dinos

"The venue's been so cold that it's been affecting the dinosaurs – we had to buy electric blankets and tuck them all in", explains Alli Coyne, Resident Director of Walking with Dinosaurs currently wowing crowds at the Mercedes Benz Arena. Mikey Hamilton, Head of Creatures at The Creature Production Company nods in concern: "they take a lot of looking after" he muses.

Combine this exchange with talk of dino-drivers, voodoo operators and other such eerie entities, you could quite easily be forgiven for thinking you'd plunged through a portal to some perverted, parallel universe. And whilst it might seem that way on meeting these monstrous creatures face to face, in fact, the twenty dinosaurs starring in the stage spectacular are more cylinders and computer circuitry than flesh and blood.

The show features ten species and three types of dinosaur. From smallest to largest, these range from remote control little 'uns; surprisingly nimble actors, transformed by their 38kilogram costumes; and most impressive of all, large animatronic dinosaurs requiring three specially-trained crew members to operate as well as endless fine-tuning and touch ups.

"There's a general misconception that there are people inside the dinosaurs", explains Alli. In fact, each dinosaur does requires one person on stage - not inside, however, but underneath the creature. "We use dinosaur drivers – they sit in a chassis underneath the dinosaur and are responsible for moving it around the stage. Speed is important – what would be natural for each species. The drivers can't see what's behind them and their field of vision is maybe 160 degrees, with either two or four massive legs going past you at any given time…", describes Mikey. The vehicles are small, similar to a race car and apparently quite comfortable. Each is fitted with a sensor on the front wheel to gauge speed. The information is then relayed back to the dinosaur whose legs are programmed to move accordingly: "the walk cycle is the only part of the show that's automated – they're programmed with a natural gait, and then the puppeteers layer everything else over the top"



All other elements of the dinosaurs' movement is controlled by so-called voodoo operators situated front of house where they can over-see the maneuvering of the enormous puppets. A team of two must cooperate to coordinate each dinosaur, and, as Head of Puppetry and Voodoo Operation Gavin Sainsbury explains, "there's a lot going on, it's heavily choreographed almost like a ballet in so much as everyone has to hit their mark at exactly the right time, otherwise it just all falls apart".



During the show, Gavin's right arm sits inside a cradle, fitted with various handles and levers, all controlling tilts, raisings, lowerings and rotations of the dinosaurs' heads, necks and tails – all in all, a staggering 36 movements. Next to Gavin stands an auxiliary operator, responsible for things like eye movements, blinks, roars and special effects – the Tyrannosaurus Rex, for example, drools, whilst the mighty Torosaurus snorts steam. It's complex and requires an enormous amount of coordination, communication and dexterity. Mikey observes "there are certain points in the show when the auxiliary operator needs to have about six hands because they're trying to open the mouth, hit a button to make a roar, get the dinosaur to blink and do some special effects, all the same time. They look like mini Mozarts or something – they really get into it with their keyboards, making these incredible roaring sounds, throwing joysticks all over the place…"

The dinosaurs, created by Sonny Tilders, Creative Director at the Creature Technology Company, comprise a steel skeleton around which are packed frames, cylinders, bungees and computer circuitry. A foam overlay adds bulk and shape, and on top of that, muscle bags are crammed in directly underneath the outer skin, moving with the dinosaur to create a highly lifelike rippling muscle effect.

For the larger dinosaurs – namely the Tyrannosaurus and Brachiosaurus – such an approach was simply out of the question. Already weighing in at a massive 2.5tons, T-Rex would become simply too unwieldy for the show. To keep weight down, creators employed inflatable technology in the place of foam and muscle bags. It's hard to imagine just looking at them, but all the dinosaurs come apart for transportation – heads, legs, tails and all.



As with so many things, it's the finishing touch that make the dinosaurs seem so realistic. Alli explains, "The skin is actually kind of a trade secret – essentially it's a lycra and spandex mix. They stretch it, then hand paint it and, as the paint dries, it causes that wrinkling that you see – that's where the texture comes from."

The Walking with Dinosaurs world tour is no small feat: logistically expensive and extensive, the crew comprises a total of 72 whilst their creatures, set and equipment travel in no fewer than 33 shipping containers.

With the wonderful title of Head of Creatures, Mikey heads up a team of 16: "We have seven dino-drivers – they're responsible for the daily maintenance of the dinosaurs. Before each show we make sure that the rig and the dinos are still talking to each other and still doing what we expect from them. They also look at any problems from the night before –fine-tuning, so to speak. We travel with three engineers – they look after breakages, failures, replacing bungees and so on. There are three skin technicians; they look after the fabrication and aesthetics of the dinosaurs in terms of skin tone, muscle bags, eyes – things like that. We also have two controls technicians, they're like our neurosurgeons – anything electrical is up to them"



How, I wonder, do they decide on the indefinable - the roars of the dinosaurs, for example? Close consultation with paleontologists or artistic license? A bit of both, it would seem: ""things like the sounds and colours of the dinosaurs are kind of open to interpretation", Alli admits. "Our sound crew recorded lots of natural sounds, distorted them and generally played around with them until they had something they felt was fitting. The original series worked very closely with paleontologists, and even now, when new fossils are discovered that tell us a little more about how dinosaurs walked and moved, we adapt the show accordingly. We stick closely to the facts, but of course, the stage show has to be about entertainment. The artistic license extends to how they became extinct – there's no real, definitive answer as to how that happened, but we're going with the BBC official line until that's disproved".

And for that, you'll just have to wait and see. The dinosaurs played last night to an enraptured audience of both children and adults alike – jaws audibly dropped as each gigantic creature thundered into the arena. This is animatronic puppetry at its best – educational and entertaining, the Walking with Dinosaurs team put on a tremendous show. Do go – there's a few sneak peaks over at SmartShanghai, and tickets are still available here – and experience the magic for yourself.


Head of Creatures, Mikey Hamilton with friend