World of Color

[Sir_Cliff]

That's a big ride to close down for a show. It's not like closing StorybookLand for the parade at Disneyland. That's no big deal.

Sorry if this has been discussed and discounted already, but I got the impression that WOC was going to be a bit like Illuminations at Epcot and basically close the day at the park. If that's the case, shutting down Screamin' before the show started wouldn't be a huge deal.

[tcsnwhite]

Found an article about another lagoon show in the style of WOC for a theme park in France...if anyone wants to check it out...

http://www.entertainmentengineering.com/v6.issue12/19

[JonasClark]

I'm going to say that I doubt the show at Futurescope is anywhere near as complex as World of Color will be. Just taking my best guess, I'd say there's a high probability the show was constructed by Aquatique Show International, which does a lot of waterscreen projection work, both of the standard single-nozzle type and of the "curtain of rain" type. Their multimedia shows WITHOUT a story are usually of the type industry people may call "monkey at the controls" - that is, there's a lot of stuff happening. Fountains dancing! Fire! Video on water screens! Lasers doing scanning patterns! Brightly colored lights! It's not necessarily paced well, and the best effects aren't saved for solos or just the right moments, but there IS a whole lot of exciting stuff happening, all at once in rapid succession.

This show does seem to have a plotline, but I'm still betting that the lasers, fire, fountains etc. are mainly there to provide the exciting surroundings, whereas in WoC everything has a specific, sometimes multi, purpose and every effect is a key player in making the story come to life. Going to go look up the Colorscope show now, see if I can find any footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egJm0YvoW5U

Have found footage, and admittedly, it does look cool. The video projection interacts with the laser effects, and the fire shown does work. I'm 90% certain this is an Aquatique "Water Theatre", one of their regular product 'lines' which is customized to the needs/wants of the show. I like the light-tipped 'candles' standing in the water. This does look like it's a cohesive storyline show...

...but it won't hold a candle to WoC, I don't think. Nothing else will match up, really.

[Jspider]

Buzz kill or not, doesn't change the fact that PP still has a very concrete and cold feel to it. A steel coaster themed to a wooden coaster just makes it feel even more chilly.
Placing a new show right smack dab in the middle of this mess isn't going to improve esthetics.
It's what you'll be surrounded by for 45 minutes or so, a tacky carnival, it has a "quick fix" look all over it.
It's everything but warm and nostalgic.
Like I said so many times before...this area fails to transport me anywhere, fancy new show or not, I can still see powerlines and ugly hotels beyond the parks perimeter.
Everything Disney has added to PP is lipstick.


I call it like I see it, Disney used to raise the bar, haven't seen that happen in a long time.

Funny, I actually liked the look of the ferris wheel before the Mickey makeover.

I think its a mixed bag at this point. I can definitly agree that changing the sun on the Wheel was probably a waste of money. I do like the added lighting effects they've done though and am curious to see how it will play out with the new show.

Overall I can see were you get the cold cement feeling up close to the Pier but from across the bay I can't say it really hurts that much. Granted that area has had its own issues to deal with but we still don't know how that area will come out from the walls and fortunatly most of it is still uprooted and torn apart.


From the distance the Pier tends to look rather pretty to me as the rides are balanced out in an order much more pleasing to look at then a tacky carnival and the lighting is top notch. I suppose the convention center is a blight though I can't say they're uncommon for actual Piers. I do wish they'd do more to spruce up the Paradise Pier hotel but that is a seperate budget and to me also fairly ignorable. Certainly the Paradise Pier hotel isn't the blight that the Swan and Dolphin hotels in WDW are inappropriatly towering over pavilions in Epcot.

The power lines are an issue I'm unsure of how to address but I don't think they're quite the easy focal point they are in other places in the park like say right by ToT.


The cold cement feeling really creeps about up close were I don't feel it effects the show. Mainly when you walk under the coaster and its blatantly steel with no detail to it up close. The bland queue to the Sun Wheel and the fact that the walkway is still predominatly cement. The new game fronts and Midway Mania facade are great but not enough. I'm curious to see what happens when the shops go down. While I agree they're externally ugly the inside was surprisingly detailed and fun for matching the theme. While I disliked how early DCA had better stores then rides, I don't necessarily want the pleasent shops to become more bland just for themes sake. I hope there's still alot of fun detail to be had in the shops.


On the issue of the Mailboomer. While I dislike seeing it from innappropriate placeds like areas inside Disneyland. I can't say I hate the ride itself. It is something to do and is actually a rather amusing ride. It doesn't clash with the Pier as far as I'm concerned and matches the visual blance of the rest of the rides while inhabiting a very small footprint. I don't think it will detract from the show at all either.


Overall I think it will all work together since the show should be bright and colorfull and that's exactly what the Pier is. not too much more they can do about it if your just not a fan of the Pier theme in general. There are quite a few blights but with the distance you have from them they shouldn't detract from the WoC at all. Now if you want to talk about the Pier exerience in the daytime I think that's soemthing else

[sweeper]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egJm0YvoW5U

...but it won't hold a candle to WoC, I don't think. Nothing else will match up, really.

This show gives a hint of what we can expect and I mean hint. With Disney story telling WOC is going to be so cool. That video is interesting but I couldn't follow the "story." Well, not without some serious intoxication What's the sketer doing with crazy chanting crabs????

[tcsnwhite]

I'm going to say that I doubt the show at Futurescope is anywhere near as complex as World of Color will be. Just taking my best guess, I'd say there's a high probability the show was constructed by Aquatique Show International, which does a lot of waterscreen projection work, both of the standard single-nozzle type and of the "curtain of rain" type. Their multimedia shows WITHOUT a story are usually of the type industry people may call "monkey at the controls" - that is, there's a lot of stuff happening. Fountains dancing! Fire! Video on water screens! Lasers doing scanning patterns! Brightly colored lights! It's not necessarily paced well, and the best effects aren't saved for solos or just the right moments, but there IS a whole lot of exciting stuff happening, all at once in rapid succession.

This show does seem to have a plotline, but I'm still betting that the lasers, fire, fountains etc. are mainly there to provide the exciting surroundings, whereas in WoC everything has a specific, sometimes multi, purpose and every effect is a key player in making the story come to life. Going to go look up the Colorscope show now, see if I can find any footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egJm0YvoW5U

Have found footage, and admittedly, it does look cool. The video projection interacts with the laser effects, and the fire shown does work. I'm 90% certain this is an Aquatique "Water Theatre", one of their regular product 'lines' which is customized to the needs/wants of the show. I like the light-tipped 'candles' standing in the water. This does look like it's a cohesive storyline show...

...but it won't hold a candle to WoC, I don't think. Nothing else will match up, really.

Well, I'm not saying that production is on the level of WOC, but just that there are other places out there doing something similar...and that at least it gives a taste of what can be done.
We all know Disney is going to take it much farther...

[JonasClark]

As to non-WoC discussion regarding Paradise Pier in general, please give them time. It looks as though they intend to address ALL the issues. But one step at a time - the shops will take time, the boardwalks and walkways, etc. First step is: Get WoC finished and running. Get the Little Mermaid attraction finished and running. This gives two big draws. From there, once DCA has bigger crowds coming in, they can get a better idea of what else to address in what order.

Going off WOC topic for a moment:
Yes, the "Blue Note" show at Colorscope gives us a tiny hint of the kinds of things we might see. I was actually surprised at how well its laser, video etc. mesh, and how the fire seems to be well-timed, not simply thrown in at random for 'wow factor'. A lot of what Aquatique Show and other foreign fountain companies put together involve a not-too-smoothly-executed mix of WET Design-style chasing jets in arcs and circles, at least one segment of 1950s Dancing Waters type effects, and a lot of special effects, all sort of mashed together, to provide a general sense of excitement devoid of any cohesive flow or pacing. In any water show, one must remember to save some effects for solos, or for just the right moment, and leave some wow for the finale.

I've seen very few theme park lagoon shows outside of Disney that really looked good. One example of a lagoon show done right (in my opinion) though nowhere near Futurescope's scale, was "Bohemian Rhapsody" at Hard Rock Park. The show used some simple fountains, a lot of fireworks, strobes, lasers and some special effects, run to the entirety of the Queen song, to do a nifty little show that worked, despite having no storyline to portray. Fireworks timing was spot-on, green YAG lasers did some nice basic scanning, the Hard Rock signature Gibson guitar sign's neon strings came out for the guitar solo using the correct strings (and vibrato courtesy of each string being two neon tubes side-by-side, flickered for effect, but again only where it actually is in the solo) and a spectacular finale of a pyro chase all the way around the lagoon followed by a really unique, showstopping effect I don't think anyone else has done before. This one took me a few looks before I figured it out; it adds a really sweet, flowing "human" element, and anyone who loves the song will love this effect which portrays that last guitar line. As far as I know, "Bohemian Rhapsody" at Hard Rock Park was designed entirely without the benefit of any big-name fountain firms. Video footage is on YouTube, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfQc0IW8I0A

This is the way, I think, to really do pyro. You need little going on below when you're supposed to look up, and vice-versa (LuminAria wouldn't have done better with higher pyro, it would've just tempted viewers to look up away from the images) and special effects - the guitar's strings, the lasers, the finale effect - are given solo time. If one watches the Waltzing Waters promo vids, there too are certain effects like the opening/closing Wings given solo spots where they, maybe along with something simple, are the center of attention.

...By the way, the reopened Hard Rock Park, now going by "Freestyle Music Park", attempted to redo it, with a mash-up of tiny bits of classic rock tunes as though the listener were scrolling past stations on a radio, and it uses up all the good effects too early and seems to fail to do what seems to be its purpose: to portray the general, unspecific idea of 'classic rock'.

WoC, by the way, probably won't do the "solo spotlight" gig, but that's more appriopriate to shows not trying to tell a story. If there's a storyline, the choreographers have free reign to lead the viewers' imagination as they see fit. If non-story, daytime water shows were run, they'd probably want to be very careful with what is used, when - give the Duals' fans a solo workout, give the Dancers a solo, maybe with surrounds of low Chasers. Fog would be key by day (though I still don't really like the idea of daytime shows) to hide the nozzles and equipment. The best way I can see to do a day show and preserve the magic would be to pump a ton of fog onto the water, upwind, and as it flows down across the water, raise the platform in sections and turn on their fog, giving the jets no opening to be seen. Close the same way - shut off the fog at the upwind-most platform first, and drop them in sequence. The effect, as seen by viewers, has a huge cloud of fog come rolling across the lake, which anchors itself in one large area, and out of it materializes the show; when the show is over, the entire massive cloud slowly moves onward and evaporates into thin air. A similar ending could be done with the night show (I think I described this before) on an even more spectacular scale by tilting vertical and then firing the center screen jet just as the platforms submerge, forcing the fog cloud out off the water so that it washes over the audience and evaporates, leaving a moment of confusion to hide the big ripples as everything submerges and then nothing but calm, empty water.

[Jspider]

So in Al's latest update he talked a bit about the show capacity for WoC.

I gotta say if things turn out as he claims it could get a bit dissapointing and frustraiting for the first year.

I really think if they run the Grr machines as showpass it will be overly complicated and that if they are serious about using a showpass system they need to just move forward with putting machines in Bugsland or forget the whole thing.

Of more importance is the parks opperating hours. I think DCA really needs to extend its hours even if it's only for the Pier. Perhaps leave as many rides around the Pier as possible opperating along with the Entrance of the Park and then have a second showing of WoC twenty min or so after the first? It really dissapoints me to think that DCA may not greatly extend its hours into the night considering that is when the Park looks best.

I've also got to say I really hate the standing idea but can understand why it may be necessary. I'm hoping the guests at the Grand Californian deffinitly get something nicer for their stay and once again wonder why Disney doesn't create some sort of pay for balcony for WoC and why they've also failed to recreate this for Fantasmic. Seems to me that Disney could really benifit from the extra $$ as it'd be a nice option to at the very least pick off a few of the richer AP's and maybe even sell to the occasional tourist :P


I also found it strange that Al only mentions Midway Mania as opperating durring the show, what would prevent operating the Carousel/Mailboomer/Jumping Jellyfish/Mullholland Madness? I'd assume when Mermaid is up it would also be opperated. The WoC would shut down most of the Pier for sure but it wouldn't have to shut down everything (and those rides could also stay open for the extra 30min of Pier opperation or whatever).

[1FoolishMortal]

Video of the fire effects being tested from the DisneyParks blog:



The original blog post from Steven Davison:

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blo...ourney-begins/

[Mortimer]

Awesome!