Nemesis Sub-Terra opens at Alton Towers

Bottletop has been working feverishly behind the scenes on Alton Towers' latest attraction. The new ride called Nemesis Sub-Terra opens on Saturday March 24th and is the first ever theme park ride to be given an official age rating by the British Board of Film Classification, assessing an attraction other than a film for the first time in its 100 year history.

The Bottletop team has created all of the videos for the queue line and within the ride itself. Using a combination of filming and animation the videos were delivered against exacting standards and a tight deadline but were enormous fun to produce.

Monday's Metro newspaper reported that Murray Perkins, Senior Examiner at the BBFC said: 'We are seeing a real blur of the old boundaries of visual content and physical experience in both 3D and 4D cinema, and at theme parks. It contains some intense moments, in some respects comparable with scary scenes which may be experienced in horror or science fiction films. While some people will no doubt find this a frightening experience, the personnel monitoring the site are soon on hand to guide the public to safety'.

The resort said it will enforce the age limit, saying: 'The classification is important for the resort to ensure the wellbeing of our guests. Alton Towers Resort prides itself on offering a variety of rides for all ages and we hope that those under the age of 12 will continue to enjoy our other attractions.' 

Thrill seekers will also be able to leave the ride via a 'chicken exit' if they find the experience too frightening.

We will post some pictures just as soon as we can.

http://www.altontowers.com/

What we've been up to....

We have been doing some fun filming the last couple of weeks for a big theme park project we have in the pipeline. Filming locations have included some caves underneath a well known Nottingham pub as well as a green screen studio. Some of the Bottletops have had to get dressed up for the occasion - which they enjoyed immensely as you can see..... We hope to be able to post an update soon.

February already....

We have been extremely busy in the first few weeks of the year with some really exciting projects getting the green light. Currently we are working on a project for a major theme park which we can't tell you about yet - it's all top secret. So far we have been filming in various locations and also doing some green screen for compositing later.

CITV have commissioned us to produce three more animations featuring famous people from history and we are also working on new titles for the next series of The Gadget Show which is back on air in April.

Happy Christmas!

Hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year -
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Share a Story Special

Take a look behind the scenes at our animation work in 'Share a Story Special' on children's channel CITV on 23rd December at 3.45pm, or on ITV1 on the 29th December at 7.25am (unlikely, let's face it) or CITV at 3.45 on 4th January 2012.

CITV - Share A Story

Bottletop was delighted to be asked by children's channel CITV to animate one of this year's Share A Story winning films. The eight winning storyboards were chosen to be animated by different companies across the UK with each child recording the voice over for their own story. See Alice Brumwell's story of Greta The Greedy Witch here animated by Bottletop. The animations are being shown on CITV over the next couple of weeks.

Science Museum films go live

Following our tender win to work with the Science Museum we were delighted to see some of the films go live on the new digital signage system last week. The system allows visitors to gain an overview of what there is to see within the museum including the films shown in the IMAX cinema and in the two 4D experience theatres. We have edited existing IMAX and HD footage, adding animation and graphics. We are also shooting new footage within the museum to give visitors a taster of the different galleries, the shop and the cafes. All of the films are being produced in landscape and portrait format. Work continues until the end of November. Bottletop also got a (small but perfectly formed) mention in Design Week.

Show Off!

Bottletop will be at Antenna's Show Off event on Monday 19th September. Come and say hello, find out what we do and have a go at winning our splendid competition........

It's all in the mix

Mark took a day off recently to 'help' our pal Ben make a cake. It was no ordinary cake either as you can see here. Luckily we all got to eat the end result which was surprisingly tasty if a little worse for wear. Now we know about the amazing, though not entirely sensible, culinary talent we have on board at Bottletop we are expecting further scrumptiousness..... fairy cakes anyone?

Science Museum

Bottletop is delighted to have won a tender to work with the Science Museum in London. The project will involve filming, animation and video production and will be completed by the end of November. More news later...