Setting: Hell.
A laden incubus hangs in the fetid fog of the underworld. With hearts pounding, the hero and his female companion glance apprehensively about.

Stillness.

Movement.

A rasping hiss, a deafening roar, the earth thunders as the leviathan head of the great serpent explodes from the deep. The startled victims while to face the sound as the titantic reptile spits bolts of fire at its prey. Spears of lightning slice though the fiery chamber as the hero and his companion battler that great serpent. Suddenly the viper screams and recedes into the earth.

Not since the days of Disney's dinosaur dioramas has there been such a bewitching of audio - animatronics as seen in the new live theater sword and sorcery spectacular, the "Adventure of Conan", currently showing at Universal Studios Tour. This live presentation, inspired by the 1982 adventure film "Conan The Barbarian", features highly complex, cinema quality, state of the art special effects that break new ground in live entertainment.

The central motif focuses on the adventures encountered by the hero, "Conan the Barbarian", and the heroine, "Red Sonja," as they attempt to free themselves from imprisionment within the palace of evil sorcerer Taras Mordor. The special effects were archetypal in that live actors performed within and enviroment of lasers, pyrotechnics and animatronics, effects which requires carefully monitored safeguards.

An intricate network of computers monitors these constituents. The master computer is the INTEL computer, an analog computer which allows functions to happen via signals it sends to the remaining computers. They interface with the INTEL and do all their own logic and analog controls, which interface and allows the lasers and certain canned sound effects to happen. The subordinate computers include the Allen Bradley computer and the lighting computer.

The Allen Bradley controls the actors' interface with all the technical devices and allows the actors to move within specific areas safely. It controls all the pyrotechnics and safety devices as well as doing the actual logic. Show project manager, Larry Lester, explained the application of the Allen Bradley.

"The Allen Bradley serves as the nucleus for all the digital information that comprises the sensors for all the safety devices. It says, 'if this is true, this is true and this is true, then we can do this.' Essentially, it's the safety device. It says, 'the actor's in place; he's stepping on a safety mat; the SMPTE Time Code is in the correct position; a window is available in the SMFTE code; the laser is enabled; the actor is breaking an infrared beam.' and then there's a laser hit. When that laser is fired, you get another signal to the Allen Bradley. and that 'allows a chip' that has a specific repeatable sound in it to go through its sequence.
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"With each specific laser effect, where there is the potential danger of the actor getting involved in an area where the laser might be, there are pressure sensitive mats in the floor that require an actor to have a foot on each mat. The minute he lifts a foot, the laser is disenabled. If he is not on that mat, then he's someplace else on stage, and one of those places that could be is in the way of the laser.

"Overriding all of this are the laser safety officer and the tcchnicaf dircetor whose hands are constantly on a button which is flashing, indicating to him by that flash that that specific window is now open. If there's any danger that he sees on stage, if he were to lift his finger at any time. the laser will be disenabled. It involves a human making a judgment in addition to what the computer is doing.

"Essentially, everything starts from the SMPTEcodc. which is the real time that's set to the music track. Thctc am variables within that which arc time windows, during which an effect can happen, which helps us take advantage of little idiosyncrasies in the actual blocking. If they're a few seconds late on a specific effect-some of the windows are only five seconds long; some are 15 to 20 seconds long - a specific laser cannot happen except within that 20 second window. It doesn't fire the laser, it just says that the laser can only happen during this time window," said Lester.

In conjunction with these time windows are the sound cffccts, which must also he coordinated with real time. Sound Chamber's (North Hollywood) Jerry Laidman, who designed the sound system for the show, outlined his involvement with the effects. "We developed a digital bubble memory storage of audio effects enabling us to coordinate audio effects with real time activities. The laser will have a window of activity, and since the laser is going to fire sometime within that window, we've got to have the sound happen exactly when the laser happens. So we developed a method of storage of audio which can be instantaneous replay through a digital bubble, therefore when the laser fires,we fire an audio effect that happens instantaneously.

"In the effect where Red Sonja moves her sword to block the laser beam. that takes place by her moving the sword through a photo cell, which means yes, the sword is in the right position, which activates the laser, which then fires at the sword, and the sound effect fires simultancouslv with the laser.

'The sound is handled in several different areas. The sound for the majority of the program is handled through a digital storage system. We chose digital because it doesn't deteriorate over a long period of time. Then there are the special timed effects which are stored on digital, but they're on hard memory digital, not tape digital. By having them on hard memory, they can be easily accessed. I sent the effects through the different sound systems-the 'four-point source system'- meaning when an actor is left stage, the sound comes from left stage. Or when he's right stage, it comes from right stage. When the
serpent comes up, the sound of the serpent comes from the serpent area rather than from the main house speakers." said Laidman.

Properly orientated sound was not the only obstacle to overcome in the process of bringing the serpent to life. According to its designer, Tom Reidenbach of Animated Show Productions, Los Angeles. "It's the largest piece of audio-animatronics with that many complicated programmed moves. Earlier in the '50's, Disney did some big dinosaurs in a diorama, but they simply moved their heads and mouths a little bit. The serpent is absolutely and completely programmed into the show to work with live actors. It was out of a whole new realm of animation although the technology was really there already. We had it developed; we just had never done anything quite that long before, nothing that's had to run constantly on a 12 to 14 hour-per-day schedule, 365 days a year.

"It's one thing to build a special effect for one take and get through the shot, but it's a whole other ball pamc when you start building a serpent that has to come on cue every single time. So it did present some problems that heretofore we had not experienced.

"My partner (Dave Schweninger) and I did all the animation and programming-we don't just physically build these things-we also do the movement. WC actually choreographed the movement within the show itself. We put that on our computer; then it, in turn, is transferred into the main show computer system once we have our system-our movements -choreographed to the score and to the actors. Until we get it looking good, we do one movement at a time. For example, we may do entire segments where we just do the head turn. We have 'head nod.' which is up and down; 'head turn.' which is side to side; then we put in 'head tilt,' which is like a rolling motion.

"We program each one of its movements individually. We run the program through and program the mouth, then lay in on top of that the head turn, then the head nod-you do that with each and every one of the movements throughout the serpent. To get it to rise up, we used an elevator system for which we built a platform. The platform is a series of chain drive gears which arc actually driven off of an electric motor in a big shaft that pulls the entire platform up, which we call the animation base. That physically is about 24 feet down under the stage. We've developed a system of pivoting his body so that it looks like he's a lot deeper than he actually is when he comes out of that hole. We put it from a point where it appears to be that he's about 20 to 30 feet below where he actually is.

'The skin is a vinyl with a foam backing- developing one wiih a vinyl skin that can actually move within an animation base is something else altogether." continued Reidenbach. "Of course, it had to be realistic. The main head components are fiberglass: then we have a variety of plastics that am used in some of the membranes. The froms then we have a variety of plastics that are used in some of the membranes. The horns themselves are foam with fiberglass over them. The eyes are-it's an old neon trick-it's really two neon coils in there. One is red; one is green, causing them to change colors when he shoots the lasers. The main frame itself is a combination of fiberglass structural members, steel and aluminum." And what happens when the serpent breathes out the fire? "Actually," clarified Reidenbach. "the flame doesn't occur until well outside the mouth, so we have very little heat buildup in there during the show."

The serpent posed problems of a different nature for laser specialist Dr. Sandor Holly of InterScience Technology. "The only feasible way to product the effect of the laser beams seeming to emanate from the serpent's eyes was to have the beams originate from under the floor," explained Holly. "We send the beams up to ths serpent's eyes through windows in the floor. The problem of course, is that the serpent cannot br positioned very accurately, and if you don't accurately orient the serpent, the beams would run past the serpent's head up into the ceiling.