Renaissance Entertainment & TechFulcrum: A battle at sea between good and evil

VinWonders Nha Trang adds “Rise of the Ocean Princess” nightly stunt show thanks to Renaissance Entertainment and TechFulcrum

by Joe Kleiman

“Rise of the Ocean Princess” is a show that successfully combines live actors and stunt performers, projection through multiple mediums, a powerful score, lighting and atmospheric effects, and pyrotechnics – all on the open ocean.

Anchoring the newest addition to VinPearl Nha Trang resort, on Vietnam’s eastern shore, is a stunt show performed nightly on the open sea, “Rise of the Ocean Princess.” The show is a featured attraction of VinPearl Harbour, a new shopping and dining district with three distinct zones: Monaco, Fontville, and Indochine.

The new VinPearl Harbour complements the resort’s five luxury hotels, championship golf course and VinWonders Nha Trang amusement park which includes a theme park, large- scale aquarium, and waterpark.

VinPearl Nha Trang resort was developed by VinPearl Group on Hon Tre Island in Nha Trang Bay and is accessible only by aerial gondola or high-speed boat. The area was historically a government and religious center that has transformed over the past few decades into one of Vietnam’s dynamic resort destinations. It draws an international clientele, with many of its guests from Russia and Germany.

The concept and team come together

“The client knew they wanted a stunt show,” says Renaissance Entertainment CEO Jon Binkowski, who was creative director on “Rise of the Ocean Princess,” working alongside the VinWonders internal creative design team. “They did their due diligence in looking at various shows throughout the world.” They were particularly impressed by “The Bourne Stuntacular” at Universal Studios Florida, according to Binkowski. “They recognized they wanted something with that kind of power, scale, and production value.”

The Bourne show, which had replaced the long running Terminator 2: 3D, received high industry honors as a 2021 recipient of the TEA Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement – Live Action Spectacular. Renaissance worked as an extension of the Universal Entertainment and Universal Creative teams on the project, with the Thea Awards Program crediting Binkowski as Creative Director and his business partner Lisa Enos Smith as Executive Producer.

“VinWonders approached us,” says Binkowski. “They wanted a waterfront show that would provide the same kind of punch, but at a more modest price point.” This would help make the most of both the natural and human assets available to stay within their budget.

Scott Arnold and his firm TechFulcrum were the perfect partners for Renaissance to manage technical direction and design for audio, video, lighting, and overall show control. “Enlisting Scott was a no-brainer,” says Binkowski. “We’ve worked together for over 30 years and know one another’s thought processes well. TechFulcrum was right there with us as we were conceiving the design of Bourne!” Rounding out the technical team were special effects designers/fabricators Technifex, lighting designer Chris Werner, sound designer Dan Newman, and TechFulcrum’s in-house video designer, Roger Bates.

Renaissance also turned to writer Stephen DeWoody, director Tito Enriquez, producer Lyn Lin, associate producer Zoe Lau, costume designer Ann Closs-Farley, props designer Adam Milicevic and sound designer and composer Gareth Prosser.

Through resourcefulness and creative thinking, Binkowski and Arnold were instrumental in delivering a high caliber stunt experience at a moderate cost, tying into IP of the resort’s existing dark ride and spectacles.

“This was our first project in Vietnam,” shares Arnold. “The first project in a country is always the most challenging. We’ve worked in China, but China and Vietnam are two different cultures. Some things are handled the same, but some are handled very differently. There’s a lot of learning on the go.”

Arnold and his team were able to acquire some of the technical elements from Vietnam, while others had to be imported. “Running out to the store for material or supplies was not always the easiest task,” Arnold says. “We ended up making friends with people who could get us the things we needed.”

New roles for existing characters

From the outset, VinPearl’s creative team knew which storyline they wanted for the show – that of The Ocean Princess from the tale of Princess Tata, whose characters appear multiple times in the park: as live action characters, during a nighttime spectacular, and in a dark ride designed by Jora Vision. “The story of Tata is a simple one, which translates well to the stage show,” says Binkowski, “She is a princess of light who battles a princess of darkness.” Since the live performers varied slightly in appearance depending on who was portraying the character, Binkowski used the animatronics in the dark ride as a standardized template for designing the characters in the show.

According to VinWonders, through the characters of Tata World, “‘Rise of the Ocean Princess’ unfolds a tale of courage, rivalry, and the eternal struggle between light and darkness, offering audiences an unforgettable journey into the depths of imagination.”

Finding the right venue

The overall design and build process was rather quick, with the entire project taking less than a year from design to opening. “It’s a simple show,” says Binkowski. “We had two main characters, the townspeople, and then the supporting cast for each of the two princesses. It all takes place on water, and, really, the only set pieces were the two towers on either side of the stage. The entire story is told through a small cast, stunt actors, projections and effects.” The basic, good-versus-evil storyline plays well to a broad international demographic.

The designers originally considered placing the show in the dive show arena. “It was a protected area, with no waves or tides,” says Binkowski. We couldn’t include fast moving jet skis or flyboarders.”

The team then started looking at spots along the shoreline. Arnold says: “At first we had this really long and narrow grandstand, but we needed to work within their space, so it was condensed to about a 1,000-person seating area – which is small – but it also places everyone closer to the action and makes it more intimate.”

The aforementioned towers also experienced a design change. In an early iteration, they were simply dive towers with metal stairs. As more effects were added, they took on a more solid nature. Scott Heineman, scenic designer and art director for Renaissance Entertainment, created a design that supports the show’s speakers and lighting, while also housing environmental effects, such as bubbles and flames, and still functions as a platform for high divers. The overall goal was to make the towers blend organically with the surrounding architecture as well as the show, rather than appear as an equipment platform.

“Execution of items like the towers is frequently challenging,” says Arnold. “The client is responsible for building the towers to meet the designer’s specifications. Some of the things we ask for are outside the normal realm of what the client is used to, because of the specialized nature of our business. Add to that the safety elements required for the divers, and a simple tower suddenly becomes much more complex. Because we had to rely heavily on the client and their construction teams – and it is different than traditional construction – we worked to help guide them through the process.”

Sound and fury

Another challenge arose when the client decided to enlarge the venue after substantial construction was complete, and the audio equipment was being installed per the original design. “We were able to adjust what we had in order to make it work,” says Arnold. “It’s a pretty traditional audio system, consisting of left and right front speakers with subwoofers. We added front fill speakers on the stage, which are disguised as tie-off points for boats.”

For the music, Binkowski wanted to provide a high- energy score while minimizing cost. He accomplished this by arranging for a special licensing agreement with the distribution company Extreme Music that represents the duo Two Steps from Hell, well-known for composing music for movie trailers, including the Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises. “Extreme Music gave VinWonders a deal to use specific Two Steps songs and created a sequence for them,” Binkowski explains. “VinWonders has the rights to this sequence in perpetuity and it can only be used for this show.”

The two princesses (in media) were cast in Los Angeles and filmed on green screens at A Very Good Space in Van Nuys. Binkowski and Smith then approached their friends at Theory Studios to add animation. The Ocean Princess, the princess of good and light, appears in a pearl floating offstage. Her image on the spherical screen is projected from a single Christie Crimson 3DLP laser projector. “We considered using multiple projectors and blending the image,” Arnold explains. “But we were happy to avoid that. Eliminating blending simplified the process and makes it easier to ensure consistent show quality over time.”

The dark princess appears on an LED screen floating in the water. “We were able to do something cool with that,” says Binkowski. “After we filmed the actor, we added animation where she transforms into a ferocious dragon.”

Piecing together the components for the floating screen required elaborate teamwork, collaboration and problem- solving. “The LED screen has a supporting structure,” explains Arnold. “The barge it rests on was purchased from China and shipped in pieces in a cargo container and assembled on site. Then everything was built on top of it. The support frame for the LED tiles was built from Vietnamese materials. We needed something that was sound and would not deteriorate quickly. It was not as clear-cut to source materials and build in Vietnam, so we had to be much more nimble than normal. This was true for all show elements. Jet skis, for example, needed a particular kind of fiberglass resin – and that was driven to Nha Trang from a completely different part of the country. The end result is fantastic and would not have happened without all our partners working together.”

Add H20

The corrosive nature of sea water demands proper execution of technical design and installation of AV equipment, housing, and supports for a project of this kind. There are safety issues as well. TechFulcrum and its staff have decades of experience working on projects for cruise ships and major marine animal parks, such as SeaWorld and Chimelong. According to Arnold, marine park environments tend to be harder on the equipment, which also includes electrical boxes and show action equipment, because artificial salt water uses a different chemical composition than natural sea water, which makes it more corrosive to electronics. With Nha Trang, natural sea water became part of the show.

At the front of the stage, fountains spurt into the air. There are also high-pressure hoses that the heroes use to push the villains off the stage. Binkowski says, “The fountains are special saltwater units designed and fabricated by Technifex. We use fresh water for the air and water bursts on the towers, so that it doesn’t cause any irritation on the cast or the audience if the water hits them. For the hoses, we’re hitting stunt actors in wetsuits, so it’s natural salt water.”

Stunts were coordinated by Australia’s H20 Events company lead by Jack Ellison, which had also worked with Renaissance and TechFulcrum on a nighttime show at Chimelong Ocean Kingdom. “VinWonders has had stunt shows before,” says Binkowski, “but this is the first time they’ve had one with jet skis and flyboards involved.”

The show’s master control system, programmed by TechFulcrum, interacts with a number of system controllers, with most of the show running off time code. Pyrotechnics are launched wirelessly via a FireOne firing system. Additionally, QSC Q-SYS functions as both the Show Control system (for non-life safety elements) and as the audio DSP.

The stunts and the pyrotechnics take place in a natural tidal saltwater environment that is in a public waterway. “Fishing boats can come through the area,” says Arnold. “We always have to know when to pull back and what has to stop. We’re always keeping an eye on waves and the wind being too strong.” Binkowski added “I can’t express strongly enough how tough it is to do a show on the open ocean dealing with salt, tidal fluctuations, battering waves and changing winds. It is to the credit of our entire team, as well as out client, that we were able to create a safe, exciting show that is able to work in relative harmony with Mother Nature!”

Noticeable from afar, the use of fireworks – designed by Skylighter Fireworks of Australia – is good for word of mouth. “We did that not only to increase guest length of stay at the retail and dining complex, but we wanted something that can be seen from across the water that would entice people staying on the mainland to visit the island,” explains Binkowski. All pyrotechnics are initiated from the water. In addition to pyro launching in the air from barges, the show also features it streaming from jet skis and from the boots and backs of flyboarders high in the air, who also manually spin a giant rope full of pyro, creating a spiral effect. “You get a lot more intensity from pyro emanating from a person or a jet ski close up than you do by shooting a six-inch shell a football field away,” says Binkowski.

A unique experience

“This show gave us a chance to do things we haven’t done elsewhere,” says Binkowski. “The pearl interacting with the LED screen on the barge plays with the audience due to the smaller arena. Shooting pyro off the jet skis and the flyboarders was a first for this market.”

For many in Vietnam, such a show will be a first. For overseas tourists, it will be unique in its setting on the open ocean, interacting with the waves and tides.

“Introducing audiences to something they haven’t experienced before is so much fun and very rewarding,” says Binkowski. “And seeing the smiles on the faces of the international visitors shows me we’ve succeeded.” •