nev

At no point did I even refer to PASS - that's not my argument at all. My point is that the show opened unfinished, and still appears to be performing that way, and that that therefore is not acceptable. The reason for the post is that so many people have said "give it x weeks and it'll be ok". I know the shows are different, so I didn't compare them. The end result is that whatever show is in there, it is in to entertain and be staged professionally every time, and I don't think this is happening.

I work in the entertainment industry and this is really bad to hear. Nowhere else in the industry - other than a place with essentially a non-fee paying, captive audience - can a performance get away with this. Real, professional producers, theatre companies, dance party promotors, etc get one chance to make a good impression. If you open an average or unfinished theatrical production, it gets slammed by the critics and audiences, and closes within weeks. So why then do we as paying public put up with what is clearly a half-assed show and just accept that it will 'get better in time'? So many people on this forum have posted comments of a similar nature... we seem to have a show that is really fairly average, that people are saying "oh it's ok, it'll get better in x weeks" This kind of attitude just shows a complete disrespect from the park to its guests in my opinion. I wish I had the luxury of doing an average job the first time around and then polishing it over the course of the next few months. You only get one chance to impress someone - especially at a theme park where interstate visitors may only visit at the most once every year. At places like Disneyland, etc, shows of similar sizes with similar audiences are polished, professional productions staffed with real industry people that create productions worthy of Broadway seasons. Shows like Aladdin at DCA, the Big Band show at TDS, etc are all shows that their respective parks can be proud of. Now these shows perform to similar numbers of people each day as our shows do... so surely it's a standard that can be aspired towards. In so many ways our country's theme parks' shows and entertainment are just like our rides - nothing on the professionalism, creativity and standard as their overseas counterparts. rich (Oh and before I get flamed for it, when I say 'non-fee paying public' I am referring to the fact that people don't pay a specific fee to go and see a show in a theme park.)

Interesting article.... this afternoon's report on the Sydney Morning Herald website had a bit more negative tone.... Saying things like "remain closed indefinitely" sounds a little more pessimistic than "wait until the end of the week before they know when it will start turning again"

That and the big phallus in the Little Mermaid right?!

I swear this verse... ...sounds like it ends with "Pretty good and so is your mum" Or maybe it's just my filthy mind.... next time you go listen out for it

It follows the Disney story that is applied to every ride.... 1) Well meaning animal-esque character has a happy but un-fulfilled life 2) Character embarks on voyage of self-discovery 3) Character gets involved with the wrong crowd 4) Character goes to hell / gets cooked / near death experience and scares small children in the process 5) Character is magically rescued / saved / returns home 6) Everyone sings an overly happy song to finish it up Apply this to Splash, Mr Toad's Wild Ride, Pinnochio and even the old Dumbo ride and you have a winning formula

Gotta be Splash Mountain.... easily the longest ride out of all the options and really has it all - indoors, outdoors, the bunny hill drops, really cool lighting and visual effects especially before the big lift hill, great theming and so many surprises for first time riders. As much as I love tower, Indy and Space Mountain, Splash is still a heap of fun every time I ride it. rich

Mmmm I can just think of it.... nice dinner, drinks at Shooters, Mybar, Showgirls, Melbas, and then over to bring it all up on the skydiving simulator

You forgot a bungy tower! Few pieces of scaff and a big rope and before you know it; $100 a ride! rich

I know this awesome outside lighting contractor who'd do a pretty good job

Quite a funny response when you consider that the same company had no problem sending over 18,000 balls of fire and black smoke into the atmosphere over the last few years at their other property hey

Tool I think is one of the more forum-friendly words I'd use to describe that guy.... what a joke - and I thought Queensland was the smart state?

Blazing Saddles! The whole western area is literally one giant reference to that movie!

Having been there three times in the last four years with the most recent visit about a month ago, I still maintain that the only thing I've seen turned around at SFMM is the Colussus train

What we're forgetting here folks is that this ride is going into Magic Mountain, so it really doesn't matter how it's themed because in 18 months it'll be as dilapidated, badly running and full of twelve year old ride ops as every other attraction in the park

Just out of interest what makes you suggest it is a prototype coaster? The photos of the track you posted show what looks like pretty standard B&M track to me...

I'm going to point out the obvious here... The Soarin' system uses IMAX's omniMAX (also known as IMAX Dome) system - where the screen is actually dome shaped and riders are thrust in towards the centre of the screen. Parts of the projector, lenses and screens are all unique to the dome system meaning that it's not just a simple case of buying a standard IMAX projector from Southbank and throwing some new film in. Video stitching software really isn't an option for 'a bunch of digital projectors' because, quite simply, the brightness and image quality is still not on par with traditional film projectors.

There is NO such thing as a Nemo Pod. And the brand is Martin, not martian. If you can show me a link to a Nemo light I'll believe you. I know EVERY brand and model of professional moving light in this country, and that's no exaggeration, so I think I know what I'm saying. I'm not making a dick of you, you're doing that yourself. You're trying to state things as fact again that just aren't true... and there are more than enough lighting people on this board to catch you out. You won't get your head bitten off if you don't lie or make up ridiculous stuff. You can't admit to embellishing facts and then ask why people shoot you down can you?!

The Fremont Street Experience as it stands now is made up of LED bulbs that are matrixed together as opposed to standard pieces of video wall that you see at sports stadiums etc. Up until somewhere round 2003 or 2004 the display was all incandescent white globes - so no colours but still a pretty dramatic effect. The Beijing 'scroll' was made up of LED tiles like a conventional video screen - much higher resolution than Fremont, and I dare say slightly more resilient to people walking all over it ... In a word, no, but the logistics of doing such an installation would be enormous, not to mention the processing power needed to blend an image or video sequence down the length of the street. With the curved nature of the roof, non-uniform and non-regular projection positions it'd be a bit of a nightmare to setup, maintain and incredibly expensive to develop the content for it. A lighting rig is always going to be more effective, especially when you conside moving lights can swing down from the roof and light stuff on the street level... and as someone who has lit an event at night at Movie World before I can say it'd be awesome to have an arsenal of permanently installed gear as the effort needed to run power and rigging for temporary gear in the time between the park closing and the event starting really makes any elaborate setups impossible.... My 2 cents anyway... And the previous post will be understood by lighting guys I guess... but nowadays lights can pretty much spit out any colour, and I'm yet to use a lighting fixture that can do thousands of patterns. 24 maybe, thousands, no not yet. Yep, and we even had a brief thread about it on the ALIA (Australasian Lighting Industry Association) forum - www.alia.com.au - a while back. We've had a few theme park junkets that just 'happen' to tie in with lighting tradeshows, in fact Clint and I are off on one in a month's time! And then there was the TPR UK trip in 2006 where out of 30 people, 3 of us were lighting designers!

Hey djrappa, Will the roof use all of those 32 colours? Perhaps you can stretch it to 34?! Which lights are the ones that will do thousands of patterns? Can I get them in Sydney too? Will the lighting be as good as Big Brother??! Oh and for everyone else, it will look nothing like the LED roof in Vegas - mainly because it's not a huge video screen and therefore nothing like Las Vegas.

Not trying at all to be a prick but where is the park showing its age? I really can't think of anywhere off the top of my head with the obvious exception of everything that is the Batman ride...

I really don't think you can blame operating costs on a lesser guest experience. My business has exactly the same proportions of it's cash disappear into tax and dozens of other expenses that make me watch my bottom line, as does every business in Australia. The key to a successful experience is managing these costs and still providing your clients with an exceptional product. Now in Movie World's case, the product they need to provide is an exceptional guest experience - that's what they're selling. So if they can't afford to run and maintain their rides and subsequently fail in delivering the experience, then something's wrong with their management style. In the case of Scooby, the lighting and haze effects would be a blip on the radar in a management budget - nothing massive at all - certainly nothing compared with actual ride maintenance. So saving money is all well and good, but if it compromises your end product, then as a business you need to look at saving money in other areas.... rich

Nothing against MovieWorld but if a fly-by-night theme park attraction is being touted as Australia's premier cinema for launches, I think it's a pretty sad reflection on the whole cinema industry in Australia. Sure Fox Studios is a shadow of its former self, a ghost town almost all the time and almost depressing to be in, but the Hoyts theatres there were designed with premieres in mind with the enormous, elaborate foyer, good theatres and a pretty dominating facade that lends itself well to big red carpet exterior shots. No matter how much promotion or Village-steered marketing drive goes into the Roxy and its standing, having A-list celebrities enter through a makeshift dungeon and sit on moving seats with sprinklers 20km down the freeway from the nearest town centre is a bit of a stretch to try to establish it as the country's answer to Mann's Chinese Theater. my 2 cents rich

I reckon it will go to another network. Seven or Nine will pick it up but it will need to be reworked to make it new - and part of that I think will be to change the location of the house. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a payout made to Dreamworld. Most shows that work on repeat contracts have long term deals to drive prices down. I worked on a certain national television show two years ago that was planned to do a three year run. It failed after one, and the network responsible had to foot the bill for a good chunk of the three year contracts that were done with the venue and gear suppliers. One interesting thing tho is that if another network get the rights to the show and moved the location, it is pretty much a certainty that DW wouldn't be able to advertise the venue as being a "Big Brother" venue as they would no longer have any rights to the name. In theory if this happens quickly after the production ends this year, the end of the current BB compound as we know it could disappear within weeks after the production. And as a final note, It could very well be a case of ESS have to return the land on which the house has been built to its original condition following the completion of filming - another standard TV arrangement.

Scooby is interesting... The old hazers installed there used to be LeMaitre G300s. These machines are widely known to be expensive to run, even more so to fix and cost a small fortune in fog juice. They're incredibly unreliable - I try to avoid them at all costs everywhere. Aside from the reliability, at a conservative estimate these things would be churning their way through $50 worth of fog juice a day. Add to this what I can only assume would be constant breakdowns, and then the added fact that the juice collects on the track and brakes, and it all really leads me to conclude that the combined cost, pain in the ass factor and added cost and time of maintenance however small lead to the removal of the machines. Unfortunately there's no alternative to haze / smoke. A fog screen is incredibly expensive - the units that run the Davey Jones effect in Pirates and the spiders in Indy at Disneyland are not cheap, and they require an incredibly controlled environment - ie - areas with no other air movement. They're also an incredibly two dimensional effect - sure a projection through a gobo or video projector would mask the final dip well, but it's a boring, 2D effect with nowhere near the depth of sheer coolness of the laser cone that used to be there. They might as well just dip the lights in that room if they want another way to re-instate the surprise. In the laser room, no amount of water mist or anything is going to recreate the same smoky atmosphere. I think it might be worth someone from WVTP with a lighting background (ahem, ahem) investigating some of the newer hazers and foggers that have been designed to run in sensitive environments. A few years ago the Sydney Opera House banned all atmospheric effects in the concert hall as they discovered oil residue from said machines collecting on the pipes inside the organ. There are now a few machines that are allowed in the venue. Many newer machines use predominantly water-based juices instead of the older oil-based systems. Many newer hazers are also far more efficient than the crappy old G300 units. Perhaps if someone were to propose a new, less expensive system that wouldn't impose the same level of maintenance to both the ride and the effect then it might be reinstated again? All this aside, Gazza I fully agree with you here. Like any theme park that doesn't begin with 'D and end with isneyland', the attraction is past its peak and hence begins the long road of abandonment that every other attraction goes down. Hey, at least they haven't moved the entrance and changed the Scooby video to monster truck DVD loops yet