Originally Posted By mstaft ... who do you think will be the next generation Imagineers who will carry on the traditional Disney standard of great theme park attractions? Not films- real attractions.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper Honestly? Joe Rhode and Eric Jacobsen are the only ones I have a sliver of faith in.
Originally Posted By Manfried From what I understand, the next generation of Imagineers is going to operate more in the background for a while. That's good. They'll be judged by their product instead of how well they court and fan the fanbois network.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper Sounds like a good plan to me. I mean I met a few of the younger guys while SSE was coming back up from the 2007 refurb, and they seemed to really have a passion for the job, which is good.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>From what I understand, the next generation of Imagineers is going to operate more in the background for a while. That's good. They'll be judged by their product instead of how well they court and fan the fanbois network.<<< If they are actually used in any products...soon.
Originally Posted By MPierce I think real Imagineers will have less, and less to do with the attractions as Disney farms more, and more of the work out.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer Agreed. And unless there is some massive return to the ideals of real Disney showmanship, I don't see.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper As Universal has so amazingly pointed out, you don't need a huge, in house creative team to make amazing attractions. Whether or not it's the right way is up to each person's opinion, but I don't think it's a big deal that WDI will be a consulting arm on newer Disney attractions.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>As Universal has so amazingly pointed out, you don't need a huge, in house creative team to make amazing attractions. Whether or not it's the right way is up to each person's opinion, but I don't think it's a big deal that WDI will be a consulting arm on newer Disney attractions.<<< Both ways work, as we've seen, but I don't want them killing WDI's legacy of they just consolidate them into a very small branch.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper WDI's legacy won't die. WDI will still be the people coming up with the concepts. They'll just have people doing the implementation.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper WDI's legacy won't die. WDI will still be the people coming up with the concepts. They'll just have people doing the implementation.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>WDI's legacy won't die. WDI will still be the people coming up with the concepts. They'll just have people doing the implementation.<<<< Not sure if I like that... I would think that it would be better for the product if it was all done by the same people. But Potter, of course, still exists in the way that you describe. I'd have to see how Disney does it before anything...
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper Doing it the way Uni does it cuts down on cost without cutting too many effects. It has to. Just look at Potter. All that for 230 mil. With WDI's overspending, Potter would have cost them 400 without half the cool stuff.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>Doing it the way Uni does it cuts down on cost without cutting too many effects. It has to. Just look at Potter. All that for 230 mil. With WDI's overspending, Potter would have cost them 400 without half the cool stuff<<< If that's the case, I'm all for it. But we don't know if that's WDI's Modus Operandi ***IF*** they go for this. Here's hoping.
Originally Posted By Lee hisownself >> Just look at Potter. All that for 230 mil. With WDI's overspending, Potter would have cost them 400 without half the cool stuff.<< Just heard a couple days ago.... Forbidden Journey came in at just UNDER $90mil. Between $220-$240mil did the whole thing. And...in just around three months of operation...it's paid for itself. Phase two is on the way.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Doing it the way Uni does it cuts down on cost without cutting too many effects. It has to. Just look at Potter. All that for 230 mil. With WDI's overspending, Potter would have cost them 400 without half the cool stuff.>> I don't think it is a clear-cut as that. I won't comment on the Potter budget as I've heard that the main attraction alone cost more than that but there is this notion that WDI is a big bloated full-service organization which isn't the case. WDI has always tried to keep specialties in-house from creative to delivery. That is still the case. An attraction like Toy Story Midway Mania is a good case in point. All of the creative from concept design to show writing to show production was executed in-house. However the game design was outsourced to a vendor who followed the creative instructions. The ride system was outsourced to a Japanese manufacturer (who are exceptional now as this type of conveyance). Then you have the usual list of A/V equipment, sound, lighting, set design, millwork, drywall, concrete, ironwork, rigging, general contracting etc. that is all farmed out to vendors. This is the blueprint that Uni Creative also use although they tend to have a key creative and project management team and use contractors for everything else. Granted WDI could do with more generalists - folks who are multi-skilled rather than specialists - particularly on the delivery side but the problem is that no-one else in the industry designs and executes attractions on the scale of WDP&R - not even Uni Creative - so you need to decide what is the value of having that talent in-house. And you think that Uni Creative aren't ever overspenders? The original Terminator 3D movie cost $90m - not even Disney have spent that much on a movie and its theater.
Originally Posted By leemac <<I won't comment on the Potter budget as I've heard that the main attraction alone cost more than that >> Ugh - mumbling away. I misread the number quoted. Carry on.....
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<Just heard a couple days ago.... Forbidden Journey came in at just UNDER $90mil. Between $220-$240mil did the whole thing. And...in just around three months of operation...it's paid for itself. Phase two is on the way.>> FJ was under $90mil? Holy crap. Ad phase 2? This makes me very, very happy.
Originally Posted By leemac <<And...in just around three months of operation...it's paid for itself.>> Careful with your choice of language there. There is no way that IoA has generated $230m of profit or even free cashflow in three months. To put that in perspective WDP&R's entire business generated $477m of operating profit for Q3 (1 April to 30 June) - and the lion's share of that number comes from the resorts and DCL.
