Originally Posted By danyoung If we're talking about 1st class videos that would be available to the home viewer, then I'm all for it. After all, they have this media already on all the extinct attractions - just look at the clips they use for promotions. They wouldn't go into an attraction like Horizons and just pick a couple of pretty shots - I'm positive that they'd document the entire attraction. But if we're talking about some in-park thing, some way of seeing on your iphone some Horizons video while you approach Mission: Space, well I don't think this is a good idea at all. It would put each attraction directly in competition with all of its predecessors, and some times the current attractions don't hold up so well as what came before (like Timekeeper or Horizons or World of Motion).
Originally Posted By leobloom >> They wouldn't go into an attraction like Horizons and just pick a couple of pretty shots - I'm positive that they'd document the entire attraction. << I've wondered about this before. Does anyone with connections know for sure how thoroughly Disney documented their old attractions?
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>I'm sorry, but if you want Disney to appeal to a new generation, then you need to do it from a younger person's perspective in the lead. Otherwise it will remain trapped in the past, versus grounded in the past. Tony is sometimes trapped in the past. That's why he's a great interview subject, but should not be heading something like this up<<< OK, so who do you want leading this? Rhode? Davison? Tons of Celebrity WDIs out there...
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<Name one fan that has made a million off of Disney's intellectual property>> As an aggregate, the total sum. I wasn't referring to individual fans each making millions. But several of them are making six figures. When you combine all of the fans who are running their third party web sites, as well as selling books with photographs of the parks, DVDs and downloadable videos, and podcast subscriptions, it is running in the millions.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Would this also cover the nude pictures of myself weaing Mickey ears, that I sell for a mere $19.95?>> I really must be slipping 'cause I totally missed this (and all the opportunities for fun) the first read thru. Oh, and my take is you are likely safe and waaay down on Disney Legal's list of IP theft/copyright infringement. And I really had hoped Mrs. Pierce had stopped such behavior ...
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<( Welcome Home always sounds so phony,by the way)>> You mean like when they use 'have a MAGICal day' as another way of telling you to go (blank) yourself?
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<YOO HOO!! SPIRIT!!>> Right here ... although I don't lean in that direction. <<Can you give us a sense of how exactly Burbank sees this NEXTGEN, moving forward? I mean, do they have any idea what they want to produce or who precisely the target audience is? I'm just wondering how far this project has advanced in development. >> The target audience is likely anyone/everyone who has spent time at WDW (and all Disney Parks) in decades past and have seen massive (many not so great) changes happen to the parks. A fanboi who would much rather experience 'Magic Carpet Round the World' or 'Mission to Mars' or 'Timekeeper than MILF or 626 Belches on You. I don't know how far in development this is. I just found out about it during my recent less-than-MAGICal time in The Timeshare Kingdom of the World. My strong hunch is they are targeting the fan community that is buying retro merchandise and buys fan-produced DVDs and is a member (or potential member) of D23. <<Is there a team in Glendale working on it already? Or is Burbank still trying to figure out how they're going to cut off the fan entrepreneurs so they can steal the market from them?>> No comment.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<If Disney is attempting a takeover of the fanboy nostalgia market, then they need to have quality content that's accurate and emotionally compelling. Since Tony worked at DL in the sixties and has been at WED/WDI for the past 41 years, it would make the most sense to put him in charge of this project.>> I would agree that Tony should be involved in developing this (and/or) anything that reflects on the past history of the parks, especially the ones he has had significant developmental/creative role in. Besides, not taking advantage of Tony is kind of like NASA planning a lunar mission and telling Neil Armstrong 'ah, thanks for the advice and all ... but we're going to just talk to the 20-something test pilots ... but there are some cookies on the table in the conference room'.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 I've wondered about this before. Does anyone with connections know for sure how thoroughly Disney documented their old attractions? ---- I hope between some of those ultra security controlled walls in the archives in Cali -- this actually exists.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>Besides, not taking advantage of Tony is kind of like NASA planning a lunar mission and telling Neil Armstrong 'ah, thanks for the advice and all ... but we're going to just talk to the 20-something test pilots ... but there are some cookies on the table in the conference room'.<<< Kinda like going to the moon, building a space station, but then choosing to stay in low Earth orbit for the next 30 years. I went there.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<I'm not surprised that Disney has finally caught on to these small little fan-based gold mines utilizing their intellectual property. Fans are making millions with this stuff, but Disney never believed it amounted to more than a few thousand. Hogwash. It is a VERY lucrative business, if you keep the quality high and market yourself well. I've heard from several knowledgable individuals that a very popular WDW-centric site has been netting six figures annually, mostly through advertising. Six figures? From one site? Why wouldn't Disney want that action for themselves? Makes perfect sense, since the site is all about parks and resorts which they own and operate. NEXTGEN in the parks will be the first step, followed by online content to download or possibly even DVDs. The small fan-based entrepreneur stuff is going to become extinct, once Disney has their own stuff for sale. The Mouse is too greedy to allow these kinds of profits to slip through their fingers. The only thing that shocks me about this development is how long it took Burbank to actually wake up to it.>> To be fair, skinner, Burbank is behind this and has been awake for a while. The whole development of a squadron of publicists dealing on a 'personal' basis (doncha know they all are friends and they really respect the 'jobs' the bloggers and podcasters do and don't laugh at them over happy hour at TGI Friday's and Chevy's) with many of the same personalities is also designed to basically keep tabs on them ... again, you aren't dealing with media industry savvy pros, you're dealing with fans. But I don't want to derail my point, Burbank is more concerned with the much larger IP/copyright issues if they simply allow people to go on as is. If you allow people to use your properties and images for their own commercial use, then at some point you put the entire stable of Disney content at risk. Because you're saying 'well, Dude A is breaking laws and stealing from us, but he's smalltime, so that's OK' ... and in the courts that sets a precedent that can allow people to take more and make more off of Disney's content. I recall being at a TV Academy event last summer and this was a topic with a Disney Legal eagle and her peer from another large media company. It's not about going after individuals, it's about going after a cottage 'industry' that has sprouted up over the last 10-15 years. To paraphrase what the scary Disney lawyer said, the Mouse basically saw these endeavors as weeds in a distant field and not a cash crop. They were wrong. They don't care about one person or two ... they care about the fact the Disney Vault of content (even beyond the parks) has been kicked wide open by tacitly allowing this to go on. And, much like Iger's reaction to the Disney Family Museum and how that has led to/affected D23's development, there's a realization that if fans can monetize the 'Remember The Magic' parade ... or World of Motion ... or Sorcery in the Sky ... well, why aren't we doing this? NEXT GEN technology has allowed for options in Disney Parks of the Past that wasn't open before. Do you think $1.5 billion is being spent on just interactive queues, living art in hotel rooms, and RFID MAGICal bracelets? They are looking at monetizing everything at their parks, including their past.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<I've wondered about this before. Does anyone with connections know for sure how thoroughly Disney documented their old attractions?>> Very, very, very ... well. Why do you think the fanbois drool over D23? Because they are shown stuff that's been buried away in the archives for decades. This is a company that doesn't throw away anything (property control excepted ;-) )and documents almost everything.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>They are looking at monetizing everything at their parks, including their past.<<<< Which honestly would not be a bad thing if the current offerings of the WDC weren't so substandard to those past things. I mean, can we really compare World of Motion to Test Track? Or Imagination's different versions? Dead depressing.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>Very, very, very ... well. Why do you think the fanbois drool over D23? Because they are shown stuff that's been buried away in the archives for decades.<<< They have the blue prints and the props, but I don't think they filmed, right?
Originally Posted By leobloom >> Very, very, very ... well. Why do you think the fanbois drool over D23? Because they are shown stuff that's been buried away in the archives for decades. This is a company that doesn't throw away anything (property control excepted ;-) )and documents almost everything. << I guess that's what I'm questioning. We know how well they "preserved" the Animatronics from Food Rocks (just as an example). We know a few of the Animatronics from World of Motion were redressed for DL's Pirates. Same thing with America Sings and DL's Splash. I guess it's possible they filmed this stuff, but on the other hand the move toward capitalizing on nostalgia has been a more recent trend -- which leads me to wonder how well they documented the stuff from the 70s and 80s and 90s.
Originally Posted By leobloom >> They have the blue prints and the props, but I don't think they filmed, right? << This was my thinking, too, EE.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Disney either has everything (certainly what is being sold by fans, which is almost entirely stuff from the last 20 or so years) or they can acquire it largely from Imagineers who worked on the projects and filmed it themselves.
Originally Posted By leobloom That's good to hear. I know I've seen short, 4-5 second snippets from the old Epcot rides (probably from the Grand Opening special that was televised), but I've always wondered if they had the complete rides filmed like that. I suppose if the amateurs can find the footage and sell it, then Disney can, too. I've never actually seen one of these "unofficial" DVDs, so I have no way of knowing what they include.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 This is a company that doesn't throw away anything (property control excepted ;-) )and documents almost everything ---- I view this as a positive for the US -- as a country we are such a throwaway society - where you go to Europe and stay in B&B's that are 500 years old and meticulously maintained - yet here we bulldoze everything 50 years in- not even. How many large football stadiums did we build in the 60's and 70's that today are either in ruins or abandoned
Originally Posted By danyoung Very true. It really bothered me when they demolished Texas Stadium. Yeah, the new one is bigger and better and nicer and blah blah blah. But I have a lot of memories in that "old" stadium, and it still had a lot of potential uses.
