The Princess and the Frog

If you are following the Haunted Mansion project then I am sorry for not posting anything but I am still working on the story. In this post I want to pay special attention to the upcoming movie of the Walt Disney Animation Studios. "The Princess and the Frog" will be the best movie ever. Why? Because Disney finally listened to all their fans and they went back to the good times of animation. I love 3d and I work with it on a regular base but 2d has something magical and if you see the screenshots I have added then you see what I am talking about.

The directors of this movie made a smart decision to make the backgrounds hand-drawn and to scan it into the computer to add special effects or some parts of the coloring. The result is that the scenes are beyond beautiful, they are magical and you get the feeling again of the old Disney movies. If you watch the trailer, click here, you will also here the fantastic new soundtrack.

Just watch the trailer and I hope to see you in theaters december 11 because this movie is going to be the revival of the Walt Disney Animation Studios and a new era of animation.

The Haunted Mansion Project II

Welcome to part II of the Haunted Mansion Project. Last time I discussed the general idea of the Haunted attraction and a small part about the location. I have made a small guideline of the subjects you can expect in the upcoming posts:

• Part II: the detailed vision of the HM and what guests can expect.
• Part III: Storytelling, what has happened in the house.
• Part IV - X: The big tour. I will discuss all the seperate rooms as I have them so far.
• Part XI Storytelling, what will you discover in the house.
• Part XII: Theming: the overall style of the building.
• Part XIII: Marketing: How to get attention.

I do not know if I will stick to this outline because I sometimes drift away if I have a new idea but at least it gives you a good idea of what you can expect.

Let’s start with part II, the detailed vision of the HM. As mentioned in the previous post, this is not just a walk through haunted attraction like the ones you find on the fair or professional scare attractions(the darkness). This HM is one big show and you are in it. I love films because a good film can trigger dozens of emotions using right camera angles and music and the HM will also use this. This HM is not just to frighten guests, it is also about laughter, sadness and sympathy. That is also why the story is so important. The basic outline of the story is about a family that lived in the house and that got torn apart under mysterious circumstances and was murdered(more about this in Part III). During the trip in the HM, the guests will hear and see each of the family tell their side of the story. This involves that some family members are malicious and some are pitiable. Guests will hear the story from multiple angles and do not know how it all connects. Slowly it will all make sense and the stories combined will form a story. The big finally will be like “the six sense”, it will blow you out of your seat. Guests will hear the last and most important story that will combine all the angles into one genius plot. A story is important but I also like technique and I know what is possible. The Haunted Mansion will be filled with state-of-the-art Hollywood effects to make the experience as real as possible because I believe that the only way to really feel afraid is to think everything is real. That is also why I would like to avoid animatronics where possible because the technique is not far enough to make them run fluid all the time. There are some parts that will use animatronics but those will be the best in the market and custom made to ensure that the world we create in the mansion will not be undone by sloppy engineering.

If you ever been to a dungeon like the London Dungeon, Amsterdam Dungeon, etc then you know how they work. Guests are moving from one room to the other in groups of 20 persons. In each room they are told a story and then a door opens that will lead to a second room. Between the rooms is a small hallway to get a walk-through effect. This is exactly what I want to use in the HM. Guests will move in groups of 20 - 30 persons through the mansion. Let me make one thing clear: guests may never hear/see/smell anything that should not be in the scene. Audio calls like “attention, the doors will open in your direction” are prohibited in the HM. We will make sure that the doors will open the other direction to avoid this call or make sure that guests can never be trapped between the doors. Another example is that an attraction employee says “Please proceed to the next room.” WRONG, the show elements will make sure that guests want to on the other side of the door. As you may understand, I am very consistent in keeping the experience real. Compare it with this: Would you be impressed by David Copperfield if you knew how he did his tricks?

So what can guests expect? A part of the attraction is walk-through this also includes a maze. Next to that I would like to implement a Madhouse (best madhouse in the world is Villa Volta in De Efteling, click here to see a youtube movie of the attraction, a kind of freefall ride because I have a really good idea how to implement a story in an elevator and perhaps some kind of a roller coaster/ dark ride.

At the moment I am designing the Mansion in 3ds max and Google Sketchup to get a good overview of the shape and room division of the house. I think I will post the first pictures in two days. In the next post I will start with the story, I will only tell one side of the story and that one is the information we will use for the marketing campaign that I designed (Part XII). Later on in part XI I will connect all the rooms with the pieces of story. For now, I hope you like the idea and suggestions are always welcome.

© 2009 Pieter van den Broek

Haunted Attraction

Since a few years, I am fasinated by Haunted Attractions but then not the type you see in the USA. Every halloween thousends of Haunted Attractions open their door, the most famous and biggest are Scarehaunt, the Darkness, etc. What these attractions have in common is of course the scary part but also that it should be disgusting. They should have blood on the walls, intestines should be splattered all over the floor and the puke should be dropping from the ceiling. The monsters are as ugly and possible and the smell is horrible.

I have a total different idea of a haunted attraction and I came to the idea when I was in the Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris. The Phantom Manor is one of my favorite attractions and what I like about it that it is not scary but beautiful. That is exactly my idea of a haunted mansion. The mansion that I designed is beautiful but also scary (in contrast with Disney).

I am not a big fan of the evil dentist with his slaughter machines or the deranged psycho. I like subtle effects more like claustrophobia, darkness, cold air and ghostly appearances. This is why I choose for a haunted mansion as the basic outline for the attraction. Guests will walk through the house that reveals parts of the story in every room. More details about the script will be given in a different article.

The first question I ask a person when he/she wants to make something new: "What is the Story?" I believe that something only works if the story is solid. Look at movies, the story is most important aspect of the movie and that is also what Disney does. The Phantom Manor has a whole background (You can read it here) and that makes it credible. My haunted attraction will follow a story like a thriller. Guests will receive little pieces of information in every room but they will find out the truth in the end with the grand finale. The walk through is a mix of attraction and show. In the next few weeks, I will share my idea of my haunted attraction that would be situated near Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I will discuss technical details, storytelling, theming and marketing because I thought about almost every aspect of this plan.

Location

First the location: I choose Amsterdam in the Netherlands because I live in this country and it is easier for me to find information to give the story a credible background. Next to that, Amsterdam has a lot of tourists visiting every year and has a perfect setting.

A short market analysis would show that guests would be interested in this kind of entertainment as long as it is not too scary. Same with Amsterdam Dungeon: it is more a dark museum tour than a haunted attraction. The most ideal place for my haunted attraction would be the USA because Americans are more in the Halloween theme and they are more effusive. Stil I like the setting of Amsterdam because it has something sinister and I love the style of the old side of Amsterdam with the canals and high buildings. I will talk later about the style of the house but it should be free-standing.

I hope you enjoyed the first edition of the Haunted Mansion Project. In the next post I will give a more detailed idea of the story and how guests move inside the Mansion.

© 2009 Pieter van den Broek

Augmented Reality

Augemented reality is a combination of real world and computer-generated data. Augmented reality is not new but we can say that the technic behind it is finally come to a point that companies can use it to promote there products over the internet.


First a small explanation of how it is used with an example of the Walt Disney Website. Guests are asked to print the new marketing poster of "summer nightastic", the new evening shows in Disneyland Anaheim, and then guests should install a small programm. After installing you can open the website (the requirement is that you have a webcam) you see yourself sitting in front of your webcam. When holding the poster in front of the screen, it will turn into a 3d scene. If you move the paper, the scene will move with it. The programm has recognized the poster and knows that he should put a 3d layer of that part of the screen.


Here are a few examples of websites that use augmented reality:


Disneyland Anaheim
As described above, the Disney website will launch a 3d scene with the Disney castle and the Dragon from Fastasmic. A player can interact with the dragon using the keyboard. Click here to see it yourself.


Star Trek
To promote the new star trek movie, the marketing team made also an augmented reality website where guests get a tour around the Enterprise. After the introduction guests can play with the ship by shooting lasers or flying to warp speed. Click here to go to the website.

Assassins creed II
The new game Assassins Creed also uses Augmented Reality to give show some art work. Click here to go to the website and then click on the small logo under videos.

As you can see, augmented reality can be used for these kind of practices but were are still waiting for the real work. At the moment several car dealers are thinking of enhancing their brochures with augmented reality or even lego building boxes. In the store you can see put the lego box in front of the screen and the product can be seen on the box and how it is made. To conclude, a lot of possibilites and we will hear more of this technology.

Marketing trends

How do you differentiate a movie? Use the right marketing campaign, most marketing campaigns are standard which means that they release a teaser, a trailer, a second trailer and that's it. Sometimes they release some featurettes like the movie "UP" and more is not in it.

There are however more interesting campaigns and there is a new trend and that is: Make the movie real by using the internet. A good example is the dark knight. The marketing team released all kinds of websites with strange names and fake newspapers to create the world of batman. The reader could get to know more of the background and already got excited before the movie was released. Eventually they released a fake evening show "Gotham tonight" with interviews. Politics, gossips and everything else that you expect of a normal tv show was in there and it made the movie alive.

I am pleased to announce that the movie 2012, which also just released there trailer, uses this technique but even better. 2012 is about the end of the world and follows the story of Jackson Curtis, a writer who tries to save his children. A world organization has made a plan to save a part of the humans to start again (sounds familiar). The director also directed "day after tomorrow" and "independence day" and again the story is not much but

the special effects are better than ever. Back to the marketing campaign: the team released four websites to make this movie real and used Twitter, Youtube and Facebook to support the story.

The first website is the regular website with the trailer and the normal nonsense that a you expect. the second website is much more interesting: www.thisistheend.com.

Thisistheend.com has video's about some guy who explains the end of the world as told in the movie. The guy, Charlie Frost, is played by Woody Harrelson who plays a part in the movie. You can be a friend of Charlie via Facebook or watch his videos on youtube.

The third website is about the organization that will save a part of the humans via a giant ship (Looks like the Ark of Noach) and uses a lottery. The Institute for Human Continuity is a website full with background information about the organization, their purposs (projection human kind from extinction) and you can even subscribe for the lottery (newsletter). It all looks very professional.

The fourth website is about the main character; Farewellatlantis.com. As I told before, the main character of the movie is a writer and this website promotes his book. It gives the reader again a feeling of the background.

The point of this whole marketing campaign is to create a world beyond the movie. It gives the storyline more credibility, you don't need to explain everything in the movie because visitors could have read in on the website and you make people curious. Movies like "Lord of the Rings" do not need this kind of campaigns because it is based on a book which gives the reader already an insight in the world. Especially Lord of the Rings is a good example since the author also wrote a separate book just about the world and the history.

To conclude, these campaigns are very interesting to see and make you curious about what the movie is about. I am looking forward to "2012" but I am afraid that the storyline is not that great. See you in theaters November 2009.

Around the World

I just want to share this logo, that I created for the event that I had to organize. Below you can find a small description of the event:

“The event will be a six course charity dinner show. This dinner show will have the theme: “Around the World”. There will be a story line that will take the guests along a trip around the world. Each of the six courses will bring the guests to a new continent, starting in the Netherlands (Europe) and ending in Nicaragua (North-America). During and/or in between the courses (depending on the course), there will be entertainment for the guests. This entertainment will be in the style of the continent of which that course origins. The tour will pass the six continents: Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, South-America and North-America.”

© 2009 Pieter van den Broek

I just wanted to mention that Bolt is a fantastic movie. I like how they rendered the backgrounds, it really looks like paintings and of course the brilliant voices of John Travolta, Susie Essman and Mark Walton who really bring the movie alive. I cannot deny that all the voices are talented but I would like to give a special credit to Mark Walton. The way he brings Rhino the Hamster alive is dazzling, he really gives the audience a deranged hamster with a serious fan addiction.

Next to that, the soundtrack is stunning, the songs written by John Powell are a treat for the ears and the song with John Travolta and Miley Cyrus will put a smile on every face. If can advise everybody to buy the full cd.

To summarize, Bolt is a fantastic movie with a great story, fantastic voices, a great soundtrack and Mark Walton who brings Rhino not only alive but makes him immortal.

Efteling Bosrijk

Just six months away and then Efteling Bosrijk will open. For persons who do not know De Efteling: de Efteling is de largest theme park in the Netherlands and fifth park in Europe. The Efteling differentiates itself from other parks with there unique Anton Pieck design and the Efteling imagineers are the single best in the world, after the Walt Disney Imagineers of course because nobody can beat Disney.

to continue with my story, De Efteling is an amusement park which is fun for one day and they already have a hotel. They now decided to invest in a bungalow park instead of building another awesome attraction which I think is not smart. The minimum stay in bosrijk is three nights but there are no other facilities like a swimming pool or other fun things. So you would only stay there to go to De Efteling.

Let me make myself clear, De Efteling is a fun park however just for one day and not for more. I wouldn’t know what to do in the four days I am staying at Bosrijk. It is just too long and the there is nothing else in the area to do.

To conclude, Bosrijk will be visually fantastic concept but not suited for De Efteling since the park is not big enough for more days of fun. Still I am looking forward to Efteling Bosrijk because as mentioned before the atmosphere will be fantastic. Click here to watch the art.

Fantillusion

Visitors of Disneyland Resort Paris are blessed with the Fantillusion parade but most visitors do not know that this parade is originally from Disneyland Tokyo. Not to downgrade the Paris version but the Tokyo version is much more spectacular and to show you, I included two youtube videos. The first one is from Paris and I shot it myself. The second one is from Tokyo and only shows the beginning. You will notice that the parade is longer and includes more show elements.

It is a pity that Paris did not include these elements but at least Paris has a proper castle!

Spectromagic

As many of you know is Spectromagic the evening parade in Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom. Spectromagic has a magnificent soundtrack, not as good as the Fantillusion parade, but better than the Main Street Electrical Parade. The MSEP is of course a fantastic parade and runs since 1972 but the music is not up to date anymore and it does not really impress. I will post the Fantillusion Parade video later on. In the meanwhile, enjoy Spectromagic!

The Future of Communication

I had a lecture a few months ago about communication in the hospitality industry and the lecturer showed us this video about the future of communication. It is a short and funny video about how it could look in the future.

One Laptop per Child

I found a wonderful organization and they made a video about their mission. I think it was on the news a few years ago but I never heard anything about it anymore. I guess they are still alive and growing.

Their mission is to give every kid in the world a laptop to stimulate the education. It is a nice idea because of globalization and the infinite knowledge of the internet but is it really necessary?

The computer costs around 200 US dollar and is quite cheap. It runs on open source software and this allows the computer to grow and it uses a smart network to give every child connection to the internet. In Europe it is illegal to use internet from your neighbors because you steal their bandwidth but this laptop just connects thousands of users via one internet source. This sounds not reasonable to me and probably is not working, you should see the look on the faces of the network provider when the MB/per second is rising in GB/per second.

To conclude, I have my doubts about this pc but it sounds noble and why should we keep all the knowledge to ourselves. We will see what the future brings us.

David Hyde Pierce

David hyde Pierce is famously known for his part in the Sitcom Frasier which aired for ten years. David plays the brother of Frasier Crane, Niles Crane in the sitcom and they are both Psychiaters. Here is a funny video from the "Just for Laugh" festival where David performed.