Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Brainstorming part two (idea three)
So this one I see as a very lighthearted sci-fi ride. Ride vehicles would be largish tilt and shake capable cars, both for flow-through and to accomodate Gurnee, the animatronic host at the front of the vehicle.
Gorplenauts: Gurnee to the Rescue- The guests enter a heavily themed spaceport queue area where they pass by monitors displaying
galactic news about the visiting princess Gee-la, a recruiting ad for the elite Gorplenaut space corps, and an interview with a rather
slimy high minister of the galactic gevernment. Meanwhile, to the other side of the switchback, a small fuzzy green janitor named
Gurnee welcomes them and comments on the footage- How pretty the princess is, how he wishes he was big and brave enough to be a
Gorplenaut, and how the High Minister gives him the heebeejeebees. From the initial switchback, the guests are brought into a holding
room in groups where they get a ride safety presentation by a representative of the starline. after the safety spiel, the rep
receives an urgent message in her headset- The princess has been kidnapped by the high minister and a fleet of evil baddies. The guests
are to be evacuated immediately and are to proceed to their shuttles. They leave the holding room and proceed past Gurnee again, who says not to worry, he thinks he has a plan.
The guests are then loaded into their shuttles (themed ride vehicles with shake and tilt,) and taxi into the launch tube. After a countdown and launch through a speed tunnel effect, they see a raging space battle between the Gorplenaut and enemy fleets in the distance. Suddenly a hatch at the front of the shuttle opens and Gurnee rises up at the shuttle's controls. He has a crazy idea that a shuttle can slip past the bad guys to the minister's ship and rescue the princess. he then takes the guests weaving and dodging through the battle, approaching and flying into the superstructure of the minister's command ship. Once inside he pulls out a rather dinky ray gun and uses it to shoot a few objects that look important, the last of which opens a pair of blast doors that lead into the ships command deck. The Minister is there, raging at Gurnee and the guests for interrupting his taunting of the princess. Gurnee zaps a few ducts near the minister's feet to create a screen of fog and the princess frees to an escape pod, thanking her heroes for her rescue. Gurnee spots a large glowing red button marked "ship self-destruct sequence" and hits it with a zap before turning the shuttle towards an exit and fleeing. The guests ride at speed through the corridors of the ship until they get to the launch bay and escape back into space before the command ship can explode behind them. Gorplenaut command orders them back to the spaceport for debriefing, and they return to the unload area, getting a last thank you message from the princess as they dock. The guests unload and, as they exit they pass a monitor showing Gurnee being decorated for bravery by the princess.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Brainstorming part two cont.- another idea
This is the synopsis of the other fantasy idea I had percolating over the weekend:
Lair of the Red Wyrm- Another water dark ride idea, this time D&D/ FRPG based. The guests enter through a queue in an ancient mountainside temple with the back wall collapsed into a cave network. They pass by a wizard who looks up from his scrolls and maps to warn them of the dangers in the caves ahead and the dragon's lair deep below, as well as ride safety. Then they reach the load area, themed as a staging area for the dungeoneering expedition, and board the boats.
After a short ride through the initial creepy cavern, the guests pass a pair of adventurers at a heavy dungeon door. One is picking the lock while the other tells the party to follow their dwarven allies down the stream access. The sound of fighting is heard ahead as they float into a battle between dwarves and kobolds outside the gates of the kobold lair. As the boat gets closer to the gate an explosion topples a rock column in their path forcing them down a side tunnel into the kobold warren. Next are scenes of gem mining silliness with the kobolds. As the guests leave the kobold warren, they enter a large underground cavern with a deep bottom, a series of natural bridges spanning it at intervals. the stream they ride crosses over one while, further in the distance, the dwarves from earlier take cover from gouts of flame coming from something hidden in a tunnel in front of them of them, but projecting a large winged shadow on the cavern wall.
The guests float into the hoard room finally, mounds of gold and treasures piled to the large chambers walls. The adventurers from earlier and some of the dwarves are in the room filling sacks and smiling at their success, congratulating the guests on the success of the three-pronged invasion into the lair. But, as the guests float away from their allies, the chamber shakes, the light turns red, and the air smells of brimstone. A loud booming voice taunts the guests and, as they float towards a strange rock formation in the dim reddish light, it rises to reveal the fanged and furious head of the red wyrm himself. The massive jaws lash out at the boat, but it drops below, falling to safety as the wyrm roars in frustration, and the guests float safely to the unload area.
Lair of the Red Wyrm- Another water dark ride idea, this time D&D/ FRPG based. The guests enter through a queue in an ancient mountainside temple with the back wall collapsed into a cave network. They pass by a wizard who looks up from his scrolls and maps to warn them of the dangers in the caves ahead and the dragon's lair deep below, as well as ride safety. Then they reach the load area, themed as a staging area for the dungeoneering expedition, and board the boats.
After a short ride through the initial creepy cavern, the guests pass a pair of adventurers at a heavy dungeon door. One is picking the lock while the other tells the party to follow their dwarven allies down the stream access. The sound of fighting is heard ahead as they float into a battle between dwarves and kobolds outside the gates of the kobold lair. As the boat gets closer to the gate an explosion topples a rock column in their path forcing them down a side tunnel into the kobold warren. Next are scenes of gem mining silliness with the kobolds. As the guests leave the kobold warren, they enter a large underground cavern with a deep bottom, a series of natural bridges spanning it at intervals. the stream they ride crosses over one while, further in the distance, the dwarves from earlier take cover from gouts of flame coming from something hidden in a tunnel in front of them of them, but projecting a large winged shadow on the cavern wall.
The guests float into the hoard room finally, mounds of gold and treasures piled to the large chambers walls. The adventurers from earlier and some of the dwarves are in the room filling sacks and smiling at their success, congratulating the guests on the success of the three-pronged invasion into the lair. But, as the guests float away from their allies, the chamber shakes, the light turns red, and the air smells of brimstone. A loud booming voice taunts the guests and, as they float towards a strange rock formation in the dim reddish light, it rises to reveal the fanged and furious head of the red wyrm himself. The massive jaws lash out at the boat, but it drops below, falling to safety as the wyrm roars in frustration, and the guests float safely to the unload area.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Brainstorming part two- idea dumps begin
So two ideas I had percolate as I was eating lunch yesterday that I let ferment overnight were a couple of theoretical property based rides. both seemed suited to water dark rides, where drops and speed changes can be used to help punctuate the mood.Here's the short synopsis of the first.
World of Warcraft- Deadmines Adventure: Based on the classic dungeon, guests enter a ride building themed to look like the barn in Moonbrook where the instance is entered in-game. After a briefing from Mattias Shaw and another agent who will be going in by a different path, SI7 agents help them into the boats that will take their "skirmish team" into the mines to assist in the fight to stop the Defias Brotherhood from attacking Stormwind City. The guests float through various scenes of the Stormwind forces fighting to enter the mines, before diverting (via drop) behind the Defias lines where the see the renegades preparing to fight, as well as some goofing off when no one is looking, and Goblins hard at mayhem building weapons in the forge room. The new agent reappears and blows open a door ahead allowing the boat to enter a massive underground grotto where the rebuilt Orcish Juggernaut floats, waiting to attack Stromwind City. This also alerted the Defias as well, who rush to defend against the invading forces, led by Mr. Smite. the guests float past this, picking up speed. the boat drifts onto a loading ramp that carries them up into a flume running over the command deck. The new agent rushes out of the wheelhouse, chased by Edwin Van Cleef. Holding him off, she yells that she's rigged the magazine to blow, and they should get clear. the boat makes another, larger drop into a cave leading out of the grotto. As they slow at the bottom the hear the explosion and see a flash in the tunnel behind them. They float past Cookie the Murloc, trying to drag his cookpot out of the caverns, before the river takes them back outside where they see the Stormwind forces, along with the agent, regrouping. They are a little singed, but victorious, and wish the guests well as they float on to the unload area.
World of Warcraft- Deadmines Adventure: Based on the classic dungeon, guests enter a ride building themed to look like the barn in Moonbrook where the instance is entered in-game. After a briefing from Mattias Shaw and another agent who will be going in by a different path, SI7 agents help them into the boats that will take their "skirmish team" into the mines to assist in the fight to stop the Defias Brotherhood from attacking Stormwind City. The guests float through various scenes of the Stormwind forces fighting to enter the mines, before diverting (via drop) behind the Defias lines where the see the renegades preparing to fight, as well as some goofing off when no one is looking, and Goblins hard at mayhem building weapons in the forge room. The new agent reappears and blows open a door ahead allowing the boat to enter a massive underground grotto where the rebuilt Orcish Juggernaut floats, waiting to attack Stromwind City. This also alerted the Defias as well, who rush to defend against the invading forces, led by Mr. Smite. the guests float past this, picking up speed. the boat drifts onto a loading ramp that carries them up into a flume running over the command deck. The new agent rushes out of the wheelhouse, chased by Edwin Van Cleef. Holding him off, she yells that she's rigged the magazine to blow, and they should get clear. the boat makes another, larger drop into a cave leading out of the grotto. As they slow at the bottom the hear the explosion and see a flash in the tunnel behind them. They float past Cookie the Murloc, trying to drag his cookpot out of the caverns, before the river takes them back outside where they see the Stormwind forces, along with the agent, regrouping. They are a little singed, but victorious, and wish the guests well as they float on to the unload area.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Concept Brainstorming (aka rambling) part one
What imagery, setting, mood, and feel do I want the guest to experience for the 7-10 minutes they're in my ride vehicle? That's really all the time you have in most dark rides, so you can't tell War and Peace. What do I want to be the key moments that stick in the guests heads and keep replaying, maybe enough to get them to wait in the queue again? I kinda think these are important questions, even before picking an actual concept or property for the ride to be based on. I don't know that they need to be answered beforehand necessarily, but they should be in mind as I work through possibilities.
Broad categories to consider: Fantasy, Historical, Scifi/ futuristic, educational/ issue based, horror.
I kinda want to put horror last right from the get-go for two reasons, both stemming from the fact that, in the US at least, horror attractions are done to death every October. Every county gets at least one haunted cornfield tractor ride here in Indiana it seems. There are dozens of permanent haunted house attractions you can find with a simple youtube search, and gods know how many temporary ones each year. This creates two problems. First is that anything I could come up with is likely to have been done before by someone else and seem derivative, and second is that the category is heavily associated with cheesy bad theming, cheap scares, and over the top gore. And I say that still holding the Haunted Mansion, a horror/ comedy themed ride as the gold standard. I will definitely look at horror rides for ideas when I research, i just don't want to wade in that crowded pool.
Educational and issue based attractions are trickier. EPCOT center leaps to mind as an example of how to do educational and issue based attractions awesomely. Spaceship Earth especially, in the first three versions*, was a breathtaking and majestic ride about the history of communication technology. Listen to the Land was a damn cool little boat ride showing some really cool tricks with plants and this is when I had zero interest in gardening. World of Motion, like Spaceship Earth, was really well done, funny throughout and beautifully presented. The downside though, and all three examples suffer from it, is a tendency to have one single tone to them. That isn't to say boring, but everything is presented as humorous, or inspiring, or didactic, etc.
Sci-fi and futuristic- lots of potential here it seems to me, though not as many real world example rides as I expected. I wonder if it's a cost issue or a fear of getting zeerust** setting in as the ride ages. The Jurassic Park ride at Universal looks cool as hell, with the giant popup T. Rex head near the end. Dinosaur aged pretty well, despite the removal of some of it's theming in it's last major refurbishment.
Historical I tend to define as Adventureland/ Frontierland type attractions- mostly realistic with some soft fantasy/ sci-fi elements sometimes. This one I like pretty well. There are some classic dark rides in this category, specifically Pirates of the Carribbean, Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. Anchoring the theming and story in the real world could add verisimilitude to a real ride I imagine.
Fantasy sounds great on first pass, but would an average park attendee have the proper steeping in fantasy tropes to really get what's going on in a 7-10 minute story that isn't connected to a mass-market property? Still, its the category that lets you really go wild with what you can do with the imagery.
Thinking I want to narrow it down to sci-fi, historical, or Fantasy right off the bat. those three feel like they'd be good for mood and lots of good imagery. Next step is to compile a list of more specific concepts in those categories.
*Sorry, Dame Judi, but your version was ruined for me by painting the entire last 2-3 minutes of once gorgeous theming black so the guest can watch a tiny little touchscreen in the omnimover with them for "rahrah Siemens." Bad form, says Capt. Hook.
** http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Zeerust
Broad categories to consider: Fantasy, Historical, Scifi/ futuristic, educational/ issue based, horror.
I kinda want to put horror last right from the get-go for two reasons, both stemming from the fact that, in the US at least, horror attractions are done to death every October. Every county gets at least one haunted cornfield tractor ride here in Indiana it seems. There are dozens of permanent haunted house attractions you can find with a simple youtube search, and gods know how many temporary ones each year. This creates two problems. First is that anything I could come up with is likely to have been done before by someone else and seem derivative, and second is that the category is heavily associated with cheesy bad theming, cheap scares, and over the top gore. And I say that still holding the Haunted Mansion, a horror/ comedy themed ride as the gold standard. I will definitely look at horror rides for ideas when I research, i just don't want to wade in that crowded pool.
Educational and issue based attractions are trickier. EPCOT center leaps to mind as an example of how to do educational and issue based attractions awesomely. Spaceship Earth especially, in the first three versions*, was a breathtaking and majestic ride about the history of communication technology. Listen to the Land was a damn cool little boat ride showing some really cool tricks with plants and this is when I had zero interest in gardening. World of Motion, like Spaceship Earth, was really well done, funny throughout and beautifully presented. The downside though, and all three examples suffer from it, is a tendency to have one single tone to them. That isn't to say boring, but everything is presented as humorous, or inspiring, or didactic, etc.
Sci-fi and futuristic- lots of potential here it seems to me, though not as many real world example rides as I expected. I wonder if it's a cost issue or a fear of getting zeerust** setting in as the ride ages. The Jurassic Park ride at Universal looks cool as hell, with the giant popup T. Rex head near the end. Dinosaur aged pretty well, despite the removal of some of it's theming in it's last major refurbishment.
Historical I tend to define as Adventureland/ Frontierland type attractions- mostly realistic with some soft fantasy/ sci-fi elements sometimes. This one I like pretty well. There are some classic dark rides in this category, specifically Pirates of the Carribbean, Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. Anchoring the theming and story in the real world could add verisimilitude to a real ride I imagine.
Fantasy sounds great on first pass, but would an average park attendee have the proper steeping in fantasy tropes to really get what's going on in a 7-10 minute story that isn't connected to a mass-market property? Still, its the category that lets you really go wild with what you can do with the imagery.
Thinking I want to narrow it down to sci-fi, historical, or Fantasy right off the bat. those three feel like they'd be good for mood and lots of good imagery. Next step is to compile a list of more specific concepts in those categories.
*Sorry, Dame Judi, but your version was ruined for me by painting the entire last 2-3 minutes of once gorgeous theming black so the guest can watch a tiny little touchscreen in the omnimover with them for "rahrah Siemens." Bad form, says Capt. Hook.
** http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Zeerust
Starting out
I love dark rides. Ever since I was a kid here in Indiana I remember the summers my parents and grandparents took me and my brother to Kings Island over in Cincinnati. I adored Fantastic Voyage, the Hanna-Barbera themed Dark ride they had. (Side note: Catchiest music evar- was so glad when I found someone had posted it on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxiC46YuQSI) At 16, I finally got to go to Walt Disney World at an age I could appreciate it. (I'd been in 76, but all I recall from that trip was very vague Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the country bears and Tom Sawyer Island. Too young.) This introduced me to what is, in my mind, the gold standard of dark rides, the Haunted Mansion. From Paul Frees' wonderful voiceover through all the beautiful illusions, I've yet to see another dark ride that quite matches it. Journey into Imagination, the original version, came very very close, though. (At some point I'll probably do detailed ride-throughs of several classic dark rides that I can find footage for to explain why I think they work as storytelling and entertainment devices.)
So, when I was listening to Chris Oatley's ArtCast week before last and he discussed doing a personal project to improve one's artistic horizons with (as opposed to generic resolutions or pledges,) one of the ideas that came to mind was the planning and vizualization of a hypothetical dark ride. It's a big project, but can be chopped into lots of little manageable stages, while still maintaining a sense of progression- something Mr. Oatley suggested as valuable for keeping at it. It's also an intimidating but exiting project, since it's getting pretty far outside my comfort zone. It could be amazingly fun, or an embarrassing faceplant, but I'm nothing if not stubborn.
Knowing relatively little inside about the nuts and bolts of the process, here's my rough list of top level tasks copied from my Deviantart journal:
Step one- Going to roll a fresh blog up to hold the ramblings, notes and art. (that's this page.)
Step two- Pick a concept or property to base the ride on
Step three- initial concept document
step four- research
step five- Gnomes steal underpants. probably lots of ugly ass sketching.
Step six- refinement, probably lots of bad ideas, hopefully some good ones
Step seven- actual production pieces. You know, the pretty ones they put in books
Step eight- final concept presentation
This page is step one, a place to record and show off as I tackle this project. Once I have it set up, I'll start a list of possible concepts and properties to base the ride on.
So, when I was listening to Chris Oatley's ArtCast week before last and he discussed doing a personal project to improve one's artistic horizons with (as opposed to generic resolutions or pledges,) one of the ideas that came to mind was the planning and vizualization of a hypothetical dark ride. It's a big project, but can be chopped into lots of little manageable stages, while still maintaining a sense of progression- something Mr. Oatley suggested as valuable for keeping at it. It's also an intimidating but exiting project, since it's getting pretty far outside my comfort zone. It could be amazingly fun, or an embarrassing faceplant, but I'm nothing if not stubborn.
Knowing relatively little inside about the nuts and bolts of the process, here's my rough list of top level tasks copied from my Deviantart journal:
Step one- Going to roll a fresh blog up to hold the ramblings, notes and art. (that's this page.)
Step two- Pick a concept or property to base the ride on
Step three- initial concept document
step four- research
step five- Gnomes steal underpants. probably lots of ugly ass sketching.
Step six- refinement, probably lots of bad ideas, hopefully some good ones
Step seven- actual production pieces. You know, the pretty ones they put in books
Step eight- final concept presentation
This page is step one, a place to record and show off as I tackle this project. Once I have it set up, I'll start a list of possible concepts and properties to base the ride on.
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