We go behind the scenes as a team of actors and technicians get ready for a thrilling, family-friendly dinosaur experience featuring a Velociraptor, Spinosaurus, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Carnotaurus, the World's largest walking T Rex and the cutest Dinosaur Babies!
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FunTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:12 Ah, Lancashire, a county in North West England famed for rolling hills, lush green fields and charming villages.
00:21 [Music]
00:25 The picturesque landscape is dotted with stone built farmhouses and meandering rivers, a quintessentially English landscape.
00:34 [Music]
00:37 It's a county with a rich history but it's also home to something a little more prehistoric.
00:44 [Music]
01:13 [Dinosaur Roaring]
01:22 Welcome to Jurassic Earth.
01:24 We got our first dinosaur ten years ago, which is a humongously heavy T-Rex dinosaur.
01:32 I got the idea from watching Walking with Dinosaurs and thought, hmm, I wonder if that would work at an event or as a meet and greet or something.
01:42 I had no idea then how popular it was going to become.
01:46 When we got our first dinosaur and started promoting it and advertising it, we got a little bit of interest and then there were museums and then there were schools.
01:56 And then all of a sudden it was, have you got two dinosaurs? Do you have a different type of dinosaur?
02:01 And the children just, their sense of wonder when they see the dinosaurs is just magnificent.
02:09 And to see them, the little faces light up, they see their favourite dinosaurs, they see their heroes.
02:15 It might be a Triceratops or a Brontosaurus. I'm racing ahead of course because obviously we started with one.
02:22 And as you can see around you, we've now got over 50.
02:26 Every single suit that you see in here has been made bespoke to us and our operators.
02:33 When we import them, that's when all the hard work starts and we literally rip out the insides and create them as we want them to perform.
02:41 And I think that is where we set ourselves apart.
02:46 Policeman stopped me going over some traffic lights on red. He said, didn't you see those lights on red?
02:51 I said, yes. He said, why didn't you stop? I said, well, when you've seen one, you've seen them all.
02:56 Well, for those old enough to know, my father was Colin Crompton.
03:01 He was a comedian, Bernard Manning's sidekick on the Wheel Tappers and Shunters Social Club.
03:07 So I've been brought up in entertainment and theatres and that is my background.
03:13 I worked my way up until I set up an agency in 2005 called Bigfoot Events.
03:19 So it was from Bigfoot Events that I thought, let's buy a dinosaur to put on at these events.
03:26 We could have Jurassic themed, we could have Flintstones, we could have a prehistoric party, we could do throwback events.
03:33 All these things were running through my mind.
03:35 What wasn't running through my mind was providing for children, theatres, that type of thing.
03:45 She's only just hatched, so she's brand new, so we've not quite decided a name yet.
03:50 It's lots of fun. It's very different having to work with dinosaurs instead of your usual actors.
03:59 It's different having such large counterparts on stage.
04:03 It's quite freeing as well, when you realise that nobody really minds what you do, because they're just watching the dinosaurs.
04:09 So that can be quite liberating.
04:12 Itchy, I found the path. It's this way.
04:16 And children are such honest audience members as well, so you can tell if they're interested and they're enjoying it or if they're not.
04:22 But they usually are very vocal about how much they love the dinosaurs.
04:26 It's nice for them to see as well. We have a little VIP section with our baby dinosaurs, so it's nice to talk to them one on one.
04:32 And learn all about their favourite dinosaurs and what they enjoy.
04:37 [DINOSAUR ROARING]
04:39 It's fabulous. We are like a little family. There's lots of interesting characters here.
04:53 I met one of my best friends as well here. She's the other actress in the show.
04:56 So it's really, really nice. We have lots of fun on gigs. We do a lot of travelling to all the different theatres together.
05:02 So it is nice to have a lovely team to spend time with as well outside the shows.
05:06 We had to source everybody. Everybody's been hand-picked.
05:10 Obviously there are certain operators that have done skin work before, which is what it's classed as.
05:17 Puppeteering. And for us it's the movement and making it real and the realism.
05:22 We've got some fantastic technical operators and engineers that work with us.
05:28 We've got a great team. You never know what you're going to find. Every day is different.
05:33 So I actually found a job on Indeed. It said 'Dinosaur, animatronic dinosaur operator/warehouse operative'.
05:47 And then I was like, that's definitely a bit of me.
05:49 And then I applied for it and they got back to me the same day and I was absolutely over the moon.
05:57 I think it's the most fun job. I come in excited for work every day, to be honest.
06:03 There is a constant cycle of repair. So we have what we call an MOT sheet and it's when we bring a dinosaur back,
06:09 we'll check any repairs that need doing and we'll fix them as soon as we can.
06:12 It can be anything from stitching to painting to new teeth and dentistry.
06:19 You're almost a dinosaur vet, to be honest. It's loads of fun for that reason.
06:26 You have to use different types of paint, different techniques.
06:29 So in the suits, such as the ones you can see behind me, we use an acrylic paint and we dry it off with a hairdryer
06:36 and that creates a scale effect. Stuff like these ones, they're made of a different material.
06:41 It's a more silicon-based material. So we have to apply things like oil paint that takes longer to set
06:47 and that will have to now sit on its side for eight hours for it to set.
06:52 It's just finding the right techniques really is the biggest challenge with painting things.
06:57 So this is an older suit that we've took apart to train new people as well.
07:02 So this one has arm movement, which is quite nice and it can give a little wave.
07:06 Here we've got the screen and that camera goes to the front, to the chest area.
07:12 We've got the sound and the battery set up as well there.
07:16 So he'll roll on a recording and as you roll through the recording, you react to the sounds.
07:22 The newer suits, as Arika said, we've advanced so much.
07:26 They've got automatic blinking, the sounds are on a button press
07:30 and you can select through your sounds with either a dial or different button presses.
07:34 We also add in extra speakers to just increase the volume of our suits to set us apart from other people.
07:41 I liken it to driving a car, so you end up knowing where everything is around you.
07:46 You end up with your spatial awareness, but from a dinosaur aspect.
07:50 When you're working with dinosaurs, you've got to work very carefully with them, obviously.
07:55 They're wild beasts, they take up a lot of space, they're sharp and they're moving around
08:01 and if you don't do it correctly, somebody can get eaten alive on stage.
08:05 So we have to do a lot of rehearsals with them to make sure that the choreography is as interactive and as fun as we want it to be.
08:15 Children want to see these dinosaurs moving and interacting.
08:20 They don't want to see this slow moving thing that we all kind of know is just a person in a suit.
08:26 Our dinosaurs move around raw and fight like dinosaurs.
08:30 So we do a lot of time with the choreography.
08:35 We auditioned maybe a hundred different raptors before we found our Velociraptor.
08:42 Our last director was eaten alive by a T-Rex.
08:45 There's been so many issues, but we've battled against the beasts and we've come through.
08:52 And now we've got a live stage show, which we can guarantee nobody in the audience will be eaten.
08:57 But our Rangers risk our lives every day.
09:00 We've probably got two to three weeks of rehearsals.
09:09 We obviously do a lot of measuring up, lots of vans, lots of pre-planning of loading all of our dinosaurs in and with a house.
09:20 Obviously, we don't destroy the whole of the Grand Theatre and eat the whole of the cast and crew.
09:27 And we've got to take up a whole pile of meat up there to keep them all really well fed.
09:32 But what I will say is that Blackpool is our home turf and we absolutely love performing in Blackpool.
09:39 And Blackpool's got a great history of theatre and performance and families.
09:44 And we're there for that.
09:45 And you've got to come and see us at the Grand in a beautiful Victorian theatre.
09:50 It is going to be an epic day.
09:52 They're quite heavy, can't lie.
10:05 Lots of dinosaurs have different ways of how they sit on you.
10:09 Spencer here is like a rucksack.
10:11 So you have the rucksack sat on you here and you have a waist belt to put the weight onto your core rather than it sitting on your shoulders.
10:20 I would say you can usually get about 45 minutes, that's the max really, until your body is like, "Right, I need to get out."
10:28 But it is really amazing.
10:31 And when you see the kids' reactions and even some adults as well, it's a great job.
10:38 [Children laughing]
10:41 When you first get into one of these suits, the first thing you're sort of worrying about is just, not surviving, but it's tough.
10:54 You're thinking about the weight.
10:56 And once you're comfortable with the way and comfortable with how it feels on you,
11:02 that's when you can start thinking about, "Right, what is this dinosaur supposed to look like?"
11:07 Like the Spinosaurus, as you saw earlier, they swim.
11:12 They were based in waters the majority of the time, that's how they hunted as well.
11:16 But then you take one of the Velociraptors, for example, they're quite fast moving and stuff like that.
11:23 They're like chickens in a way.
11:25 And obviously with the T-Rex, it's more slow, heavy.
11:30 So it is quite, yeah, it's funny.
11:33 It's character acting, yeah.
11:35 They've all got their own little characters, yeah, definitely.
11:39 And I think sometimes people get in them and are just like, "Right, I'm going to run around and roar at people."
11:45 But actually, it's nicer when you give them a little bit of character
11:50 and you sort of figure out for yourself in there how you want that dinosaur to be portrayed.
11:55 [Indistinct chatter]
12:05 [Indistinct chatter]
12:18 They've done surprise parties, they've done weddings, they've done theatre throwback events for universities.
12:27 They've done MTV.
12:29 They have done, what did they do recently? Dancing on ice.
12:33 So they did Dancing on Ice and they frightened Holly Willoughby.
12:37 [Indistinct chatter]
12:46 In terms of a mini movie, this is one of the best things tonight.
12:49 So well done. Oh my God.
12:52 [Applause]
12:55 [Music]
13:07 [Indistinct chatter]
13:23 Oh, they all have names, absolutely.
13:26 So we started obviously with Rex the T-Rex and after that we've got Tank the Triceratops.
13:34 We've got Brutus, we've got Zeus, we have Stevo, we've got Richie, Brian, Emily, Emily Bronte of course.
13:45 And yeah, we've got Roxy over there.
13:49 There's just everybody. This is Norman, that's Terry for obvious reasons.
13:54 And this is Snarla. This gorgeous head here is Snarla.
13:59 But all the babies have as well. We've got Trixie and Nugget and trying to remember all the names can be a challenge sometimes, but somehow you do.
14:07 I mean, the guy that I get them done, it's his style and it's a very comic book style, which I quite like anyway.
14:14 I like bright colours and things like that anyway, so it worked well with me.
14:19 So I got one of them. I got the Spinosaurus as the first tattoo.
14:23 And then I found more of them and got the design.
14:26 That's actually an egg and a claw. And then I've got my tattooist trained to be a paleontologist.
14:33 So I went and spoke to him and he just designed me a dinosaur in his own style.
14:39 And this is what I end up with. And I've got to get more there coming down and just fill out the arm as a full sleeve.
14:47 [Dinosaur roar]
15:10 [Dramatic music]
15:13 I like it when the T-Rex is roaring.
15:16 Everyone screams.
15:17 [Dinosaur roar]
15:19 [Dramatic music]
15:35 We've lost a raptor. He's my favourite dinosaur.
15:38 [Dramatic music]
15:42 It's just the excitement. It's just so real and thrilling.
15:47 And the children come in and often they're dressed as a little dinosaur.
15:50 And they feel it and they jump for joy when they see their favourite dinosaur.
15:55 Or they speak to one of the characters.
15:57 And they want to be a ranger. They want to do this.
16:00 They actually believe. They will say to their mummy and daddy at the end of the day,
16:05 "This has been the best day of my life!"
16:08 And we get reviews like that and it's just, "Oh wow."
16:11 People saying, "You made my little boy's dream come true. He actually saw a real dinosaur."
16:16 And that's the thing. That's what we're hoping for. That's what we want to create.
16:20 I mean, we have been doing this show and adapting it for years now.
16:23 But this one's going to be great because obviously we've got some new dinosaurs.
16:27 Not just this new little one, but we've got a new big Spinosaurus.
16:31 Which is going to be lots of fun to adapt into the show.
16:35 Yeah, very much looking forward to it.
16:38 [Dinosaur Roar]