Monday, November 28, 2016
What can fans expect from parks' next generation of moving theaters?
www.themeparkinsider.com: Screen-based attractions take a lot of grief from theme park fans active on social media. But when it comes to the metrics that really matter — cost, attendance, and guest satisfaction — screen attractions in unique theater environments deliver for the parks that install them. Have you seen how many people queue for and rave about Soarin'?
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6 comments:
Even though people have complained about all the screen related rides and that they are moving more that way instead of live theatre, I really enjoyed those rides. I think the body of the ride moving while I am sitting there is why I like it. I feel more engrossed in the story when the body of the machine we are sitting on moves with the action of the movie. So this clip of a new motion theatre is a brilliant invention. I could imagine this attraction would be perfect in Universal for more Harry Potter attractions. They could get more people into the show at a time and they can make it both live and with video clips. The overlap is a nice medium. I assume that it would take a lot of money to make that attraction but if they made two and were able to pump out people faster they would definitely make up the money. I would definitely wait in a long line to try that ride out.
This is so cool looking! I actually really enjoy the movie-ride combo. I remember them as some of my favorites from childhood, and while I understand the desire to move away from these to more live experiences, I think this could be a really cool scenario when used in combination with virtual reality. I could also see this working in combination with augmented reality scenarios to create a really great experiential ride, and over time, more people can see the movie-ride than can see a live show. There is also something to be said for the fact that a live show is more difficult to maintain due to production costs and staffing. I actually think that the experiences are very different: one is a ride with a visual aspect and one is a live performance. This type of technology with the sliding walls and shifting seats could lead to an all-around experience that is fun for all riders (even those that do not love amusement park rides).
I think the problem that a lot of amusement park fans have with moving theatre style rides is that they tend to come off a bit lazy in terms of design. If I wanted to watch screens, I could do that from the comfort of my own home without having to pay premium prices at a theme park. I think it really just tends to walk a fine line. I know that I personally love theme park rides when they push the boundaries of what I knew was technologically possible (see: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Universal). There just really isn't anything about screens that feels incredibly innovative to me. I definitely feel as though moving theatre rides can be done in a way that is still innovative and exciting to patrons of the park, but it has to include a little bit of engineering and creative design in a way that doesn't make riders feel like they're paying hundreds of dollars to sit and watch a series of video clips that play on a loop all day long, regardless of how big and fancy the screen is.
Its hard to not sell an idea when you have a video with music like this article has. I understand the pros and cons of an in theater experience. On one hand, it is a totally fictionalized environment. When you walk in the doors of a theater you automatically expect to suspend disbelief for the sake of what you will experience. But it is a different case if you are outside or inside but not in a theater. So a theater is sort of a cop out for trying to make a good experience, but it also is a harder challenge to really make people completely dumbfounded. I think the simulation in this video would leave everyone dumbfounded. It combines practical sets and effects and video projection to create what can only be described as and incredible multimedia spectacle. I don’t think “theme park fans active on social media” could really give a lot of grief about an attraction so immersive and intense as what this article describes as the future of moving theaters.
Well… That ride looks like a recipe for motion sickness. The movement of the platform didn’t really seem to be assisting in the storytelling at all. It was like, now it’s an exciting part, try to keep your eyes on the screen will ya.
Aside from that I think the comparison the author makes to Soarin’s popularity is unfair. There is a kind of ride that commits to screens and designs the experience so that the screen becomes unimportant and you forget the mechanism of the story and just enjoy the experience. This experience does not look like one of those, it looks to augment a normal experience with physical interaction. While this is cool it really isn’t giving us anything new and the physical effects are going to have to be damn impressive for you to sell me on. And they really shouldn’t just be 2-3 scenes either. Then it’s just a movie with a party trick which just seems silly to me.
The Dynamic Theater concept shown in the article reminds me a lot of Walter Gropius' "Total Theater" which has always seemed really cool to me. The idea of an entertainment venue that can rotate the performance space, the audience, and movie screens seamlessly around each other to create a completely new form of entertainment out of the sum of its parts. I think of it almost like a collage, where you can pick and choose the style of imagery for each part of the artwork to really sell it to the viewer. In this case the screens, stages, and whatever else can be combined to create a seamless story for the audience. That said, I agree with John Walker's points that the examples they showed in the video weren't that fleshed out in most cases. I don't see the point of the seats rocking unless they need to for the plot, for example. And I thought the first transition, where the seating bank rotated from stage to screen was really week. But the scene where the helicopter took off on the screen, went flying over the city, and then the screen parted as the helicopter appeared behind it was an awesome use of the technology, and I can definitely see the potential for other really cool uses as well.
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