A Dream House

A slight departure from strict themed entertainment today. I was talking to one of my friends and we somehow got on the topic of dream houses. Ok, we were hiking in the mountains of LA that are chock full of beautiful houses and we might have been a tad envious. Anyway, I was trying to explain that I’ve always loved the idea of taking themed entertainment and applying it to my house. The idea of having a house where you have one building but depending on where you see it from looks like completely different buildings fills me with so much joy. I also like the idea of having one hidden side of the house looking like the most boring  warehouse ever.  Plus, there’s so many great styles of architecture and this lets you have more than one and rake in all the benefits of each. Some of my favorite styles are Tudor and Modern and so when I got home I looked up some examples and came up with a quick sketch of what I was talking about. 

Ok, so yes it’s probably two really cliche facades, but hey they’re pretty and Falling Water especially is amazing. Also sort of alluded to here is how much I feel landscape design is just as, if not more, important than just the buildings themselves. Actually my main criticism of the Magic Kingdom in Florida is the lack of landscape in most of the park, and the continued deforestation of what remains. I think it’s actually something that we’ve seen disappearing or taking a backseat to fantastic constructions and massive rock work for a while now.. And nearly all parks could really take more advantage of elevation changes and stacking attractions or areas for much more visual and exploratory interest – but I digresss.

I imagine this house nestled somewhat on a hill. Immediately to the left there is a tunnel in the hill that leads towards the garage and “utility” side of the house that’s not visible from the street. The Tudor side with stream and background of large trees faces the street. Then the backside of the house is larger and lower than the front and positioned on an overlook over the water of the stream and/or waterfall that wraps around to the front of the house. 

Like it? Will someone build it for me? For free? Lol. Thanks for reading and as always I’m always grateful for thoughts and feedback.

Jolly Holiday – New Site Plan

Happy New Year! (Again, I think – I need to log on to this site more). Today I come with a new, more detailed site plan for Jolly Holiday. This is probably the closest I’ve gotten to something that could actually be built, and also stays relatively compact. I’m really happy with it. The only thing I would change is that currently there are two maintenance areas – one for vehicles, and one for the horses – and I think there’s enough room that they could just be combined into one.

MP_Site_Plan

While I’d be happy to see it anywhere, the design has always been geared towards Epcot and the UK pavilion – so as I’ve refined it I’ve definitely kept that in mind. As you can see it fits very nicely there (obviously getting rid of Millenium village is necessary )and leaves plenty of room next door for a new pavilion.

MP_Site_Plan_Map

So what do you think? Love feedback as always.

A Christmas Carol!

I was recently watching the Robert Zemeckis version of A Christmas Carol (the motion capture one with Jim Carrey) and it really struck me again just how well suited to a theme park or theatre experience it would be. I particularly love this version because of just how dark it is, to me really illustrating the vision of what A Christmas Carol should be. Aka a nightmare. (A happy dream isn’t going to change your bad ways is it?)

Also I probably should have cropped some of these images. You live and learn I guess starting off a new blog. LOL.

Anyway, I had a series of images mostly just pop into my head and I decided to try and put them down. So here’s an idea for a theme park show or immersiveish experience (at least one scene would make it impossible for normal theatre).

Main Curtain/Scene 1So the movie begins and ends with an illustrated book fading into the actual action of the movie. I’ve always loved this kind of effect, especially when done live (the Jungle Book show at Animal Kingdom used to do this). So the opening curtain is styled in the same way, like an illustration out of a book with a scene of Scrooge going about town. When the music starts the lights fade and it would line up perfectly with the real set and actors.  Continue reading “A Christmas Carol!”

Jolly Holiday Update! The Horse Race.

Today here’s an image from the climax of the ride where you join the horse race and the jockeys ride alongside you accompanied by a rousing score. The scene takes place in a series of 3 speed tunnels laid out in the shape of a horse track. The backgrounds are project but the jockeys are animatronics that ride along side you, neck and neck. Eventually Mary Poppins sends the wind to help you along and you’re lifted above the riders to the finish line.

horse race in jolly holiday

For the full rundown of the Jolly Holiday attraction please check out the page. What do you think?

Jolly Holiday Storyboards!

I’ve started working on some story boards for Jolly Holiday. They’re kind of crap but it’s nice to have something. I’ve gotten up to the carousel scene. (You can see how the quality drops as I got tired and started to speed up lol). Let me know what you think!

For more information on this attraction check out this page.

Portfolio!

Pen and Marker
Just one of the many goodies you’ll find.

Quick update. I’ve now added some of my work to the site. So you can now view my Mary Poppins ride concept, Jolly Holiday, here and just some general art here.

In the future, when there’s new content to add I’ll either be making individual progress posts and updating the pages themselves. Not entirely sure how I’m gonna manage the organization of that, but that’s not your problem. 🙂