Fresh off the Oscars, we found out about several Hollywood filmmakers who left the biz for the theme park world.

  • Hollywood filmakers make way to theme park world 
  • Many now working at Falcon's Creative Group in MetroWest
  • Equal collaboration in attractions design company, says ex-filmmaker 

Jason Ambler, Rick Morris and Claudio Gonzalez all left Tinseltown to the City Beautiful. They're working at Falcon's Creative Group, an attractions design company responsible for building immersive experiences in parks worldwide.

Rick Morris got an Oscar nomination for his sound editing in the 1997 movie Face/Off starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. But he told Spectrum News 13 he had to step up his game after coming to Falcon’s Creative Group.

For instance, take the Hulk attraction in Dubai at IMG World of Adventure. Gone are the days of having to only deal with five sound channels -- multiply that by almost five.

“We’re doing 24-channel, surround and vertical," he gestureed, showing the enormity of the attraction. “Being able to try and manipulate and being able to pan sounds through that whole environment is a challenge. That’s what I’m here for.”

His colleague, Jason Ambler, worked on movies like Thor and Transformers. But his new “superhero” is an attraction in Times Square called the National Geographic Encounter.

"At the very end of the experience, there's a pledge station where you can learn about  the different plagues that are happening to our ocean and how you can go and make a difference and be a part of a greater group and help solve that," he said. 

Unlike in Hollywood, Ambler feels there's an equal collaboration among the various departments withing Falcon's Creative.

“In Hollywood, when you’re making these movies, everything is so compartmentalized," he explained. "So you have visual effects artists who never see their products until it’s on the screen in the theater.”

“You’ve seen the credits," Morris acknowledged. "It’s crazy.”

Claudio Gonzalens is a computer graphics supervisor. A few of his film creds include Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Transformers. He easily pinpointed the next best thing that will not only make his job easier, but will have an attraction even better. 

“Rendering is always a big issue," Gonzalez said. "For us, it’s always finding a new way to speed that up so that we can ... be able and have more characters in our story.”

Falcon's Treehouse -- a division of Falcon's Creative Group -- is located in MetroWest.

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