Monday, August 27, 2018
Building the unseen
InPark Magazine: The Producers Group (TPG) defines itself as a company specializing in one-off visitor attractions, and has distinguished itself on several large, recent projects in Asia. TPG endeavors to supply “everything but the creative,” and to manage the lot. In the themed entertainment industry, creative management teams are often headed by designers, so theirs is a non-traditional approach.
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“We’re especially proud that this design challenge was met in 10 weeks,” says Chambers. TEN WEEKS for that MONSTER? Wow. This article does a really great job in just very quickly summarizing the duties of a full production team in a world outside of traditional theater and just emphasizes the importance of that “left brain” side of things when dealing with any kind of artistic or entertainment related endeavor. The tag line of “Unification through Communication” tickles me and really emphasizes how much of just what we do is really making sure everyone is talking to each other. While the first example is very much about the hazards that can be faced when living on the edge and working in an active construction zone, I think the tag line can absolutely apply to both examples very easily. It drives home the need for soft skills being taught to future managers and emphasized as just as important as the hard skills so that those hard skills can be brought together in a better union.
This article covers a lot about the behind the scenes work that goes into a production and the kinds of decisions and sacrifices needed when creating something new. Risks must be taken for there to be new and exciting displays. It also covers the differences between plans in virtual space and what it takes to translate that into the real world. This article also stresses the value of having a team that can communicate effectively in order to complete massive projects with such a short amount of time allotted. I quite enjoyed the descriptions of them figuring out how to go about their projects and the components that went into building the giant cranes, or the Lake of Dreams. As they said “...most of today’s projects rely on equipment that is available off the shelf, those pieces of sophisticated gear are being put together in novel, bleeding edge configurations that challenge designers and producers to the limits of feasibility” and that the process of taking risks to create something completely new is truly incredible. Also, remember the hardhats.
I am interested in the international logistics of this operation. As far as I can tell, most of the design companies are US-based, but most of the companies that produced deliverables are based in Singapore or thereabouts. Meanwhile, from what I know of event production in Singapore, even on a much, much smaller scale, there are many bureaucratic hoops to jump through. TPG mentions the 10-week design process, but there is not any further information on the timeline. I am curious: what where the legality and safety considerations? How long did it take to get from the finalized design to the beginning of the build? It seems like they were able to use many pre-fab parts; was there anything they had to get custom-fabricated?
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