Sept. 11, 2023
Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood Opens; D23 Announcements
Halloween Horror Nights has opened in Hollywood, and we share takeaways any attraction can apply to their operations.
Halloween Horror Nights has opened in Hollywood, and we share takeaways any attraction can apply to their operations.
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From our studios in Los Angeles and
Tampa. This is Green Tag Theme Park
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and thirty. I am joined as
always by my glorious co host, Scott
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Swinson of Scott Swinson Created Development.
We are here, We are both alive,
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and we hope that our listeners are
also alive and surviving the Halloween season.
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I know this is business. This
is the busy season for everybody in
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our collective industry. Yeah. They
either they either just opened. They either
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just opened or in the last the
last sprint to try to get things and
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then next week they will be working
on Christmas if they are already. Yeah,
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the majority of what I'm working on
now, I actually I've actually got
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clients who now have me design Halloween
so that it can change over to Christmas
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quickly, so we work on them
both simultaneously. I don't even call it
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Halloween season and Christmas season anymore.
It's now the fourth quarter holiday holidays.
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We just called them the holidays.
We watched them all together. Yeah,
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oh gosh, yep. Well,
on that note, Halloween Horror Nights has
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opened in Hollywood, and I was
there as invited media for the opening night
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for media night, and I don't
want to you know, go too much
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into it. I mean, you
know, we have videos pop out,
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you know, if you are curious
about what it looks like, you can
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you can certainly find videos. There's
plenty of videos. I just wanted to
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highlight three things. I think they're
the most interesting for at least for our
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our audience. And the first is
that the mazes are very different, even
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the IP mazes are very different.
And that was not the case in the
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past. You know, they've been
they've been more it's more like they've followed
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the same show beats you know,
in the past. And it's not like
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that the beats are entirely different,
but the scenes are are different. I
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was I think I was pleasantly surprised
to see that they were different in them,
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especially once like the Last of Us, where it's still based on the
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game and it's still Ellie and Joel
who are going through the Pittsburgh area.
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But in Orlando, they focus more
on the two story sets, right because
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they have the space, they focus
more on let's let's bring to life some
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of these big scenes. They have
the car crashing in to the subway area
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and you know, they have this
big things. But in Hollywood, It
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starts off where they have Joel and
Ellie outside and Ellie is just telling terribly
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corny mushroom jokes to Joel as you
are as you are entering, and they're
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you know, the actors are just
telling terrible jokes because it's that's part of
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the game, is her, like, you know, doing making jokes and
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just relieving the tension type of thing. And then it's more where you can
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see the story, like you hear
the jokes. Then you walk in and
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they found it. They find a
dead body and they're like, this person
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wasn't infected and they're like, wait, it must be hunters, and then
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you see the Hunters. So it's
really more i'd say, more actors,
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more story, which seems more Hollywood
versus you know, Orlando that has the
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sets. And it just got me
thinking that it seems like it seems like
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just from my like one night visit
and look at these two, that the
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parks are are leaning a little bit
more into their assets. Like we've always
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talked about that how people, you
know, people in our industry know,
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but the public doesn't really realize that
the set up in Orlando gives you the
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ability to make two story sets because
you can build all year, but you
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have the talent pool in Hollywood,
especially right now with the actor strike,
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and especially because the actors can't promote
anything that is from a studio, which
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is why they're so which is why
they're always mentioning the video game. And
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it's not based on the HBO movie. It's based on the It's based on
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the video game. So I think
they kind of seemed to me to lean
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into that where there seemed to be
more more acting scenes and a lot of
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the areas you know, and Chucky, there's a lot of there's dolls that
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are coming out, and there's there's
there's scenes like the vignettes of the movies
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are happening inside these verses versus the
really more reliance on sets and on effects
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that you can build, you know, bigger effects and bigger sets in Orlando.
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So that's what I that was one
of my like my main big takeaway
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well, and that actually kind of
makes sense even even in terms of the
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trends of what's happening in the parks
themselves. I mean, we are on
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this coast having a significant trouble casting
period because the actor's strike you know,
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has not has not affected the rest
of the country the way it's affected California.
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It perhaps New York, but you
know, here in Orlando, it
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hasn't affected it at all, and
we still have a limited talent pool,
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and we still have an ever growing
amount of seasonal events that need to be
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cast. So you know, relying
on and the fact that a giant soud
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stage, you know, you say
you can build year round, which is
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not one hundred percent accurate in Orlando, because those sound stages do get rented
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out and the parks do actually have
to pay the studio for the use of
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that space. So whenever they start
using it, they start paying for it.
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It granted it's coming out of one
pocket going into another, but it
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still has to come out of the
budget for the event. The fact that
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that cost in Orlando for a giant
sound stage is significantly cheaper than the cost
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for a similar sound stage in California. I think that's the real factor.
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It's the fact that you know,
as you say, it's their assets,
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and it's what they can it's what
they can utilize, it's what they can
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pay for and and what they can
find. It's it's much easier obviously in
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California right now to find actors,
and it's much easier in Orlando to find
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space to do you know, over
the top, big stuff. But I'll
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go back even to you know,
when I when I the last time I
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visited, which was over twenty years
ago, the last time I visited her
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nights in Hollywood and in Florida,
and it was significant. It was always
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it's always been more theatrical, theatrical, less cinematic, remarkably so, but
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more theatrical in California and more cinematic
or grand scale in Florida, simply because
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of the size of the space.
You know, it's and to be completely
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honest, back in the debt,
back in the day, I used to
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I significantly enjoyed Hollywood more than I
did Orlando, simply because that's my personal
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preference. I like the more intimate, stronger storytelling than the big giant effects.
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Big giant effects are once you've seen
one or two of them, it's
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great and you're done. And secondly, they all have to be set,
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so it's there's always the pulse and
the weight of oh, something cool is
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about to happen, something cool is
about to happen, Something cool is about
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to happen. Meanwhile, you're getting
the operations people trying to push you through
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the maze because they've overbooked the night, so they're trying to get everybody through.
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So that's why I have a tendency
And again I also come from an
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acting background, so I have a
tendency to like the reliance on actors more
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than the reliance on on giant special
effects. But you're absolutely right, they're
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leaning into they're finally leaning into what
what they have available to them, And
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I think, what's what's driven that
is budget? You know, Yeah,
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yeah, I mean, yeah,
well, you know, I was it's
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like restrictions are the what necessity of
creativity or something? You know, It's
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like it something like that. Yeah, but you put a box around somebody
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and suddenly it's way more creative than
if they could do whatever they want.
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But yeah, it just a I
do think it is very interesting how they
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how they've not even the same scenes
really, which is which is a departure
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from before where they just tried to
take the same each story beat, like
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they took the same beats, the
exact same beats, and they tried to
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put them on both ends and they're
just very different. You know, even
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yeah, they're very different. You
know, the the Joel and Ellie exam
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Bowl, you know in Orlando,
they made a big deal about how the
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there's one scene in that game where
Ellie it's the first time she takes a
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gun and protects Joel, and that
is in the Orlando area because you can
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have the two story thing and she's
there with a she has a big shotgun,
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and they made a big deal about
how she never she always has a
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shotgun behind a curtain, right,
you see the actor doing this behind the
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curtain because they don't want it to
be inside of the guests. They don't
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want her to point out the guests, you know, all that kind of
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stuff. After the what happened in
and sixteen, they made a point of
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talking about that that scene's not in
Hollywood at all, you know, it's
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they're using a different scene entirely to
convey the same the same sentiment, but
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it's a scene that's more intimate.
It's them being in I think it's a
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like a like a locker room or
like a it's a smaller you know,
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a smaller space, you know,
a smaller scene. So they've chosen scenes
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based on like the size of the
scene even to convey you know, same
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thing with stranger things. You know, in the Orlando version, you have
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the the scene where Eddie they're fighting
the bats, and the bats are all
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circling around. There's projections, and
it's this huge scene. I mean there's
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there's bats projected all over twenty feet
in the air and they're all the tacking
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and everything. That's crazy you're walking
through. But in Hollywood, it's that
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simple scene between the two actors where
she has the lantern and she's like,
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no, go away, you know, I don't want to be around you
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right now. And it's just that
intimate scene between the two between two characters.
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So if I was, I was
pleasantly surprised in essence of just that's
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great. Yeah, it's it's clear
that this has become a either a cyclical
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or the pendulum swinging back and forth, because again, twenty years ago,
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the two parts, in fact,
they didn't even have the same ips.
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The two Halloween Horrornites didn't even have
the same ips back in the day.
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Then they swung. So they tried
to find an economy of scale so that
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they could do you know, basically
design design. Once installed white or installed
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two different locations, and now they're
swinging back to the other direction. Everything's
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a pendulum right in this in everything
is a pendulum. Yep, to everything
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there is this sand the only other
The only thing I wanted to mention about
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that event is just that very late
in the game, I think last week
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they announced that there's two activations coming
from Blumhouse. I'm not sure why they
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waited that late. I am assuming
that has something to do with IP approval
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that didn't get approved until way later
than it should have. But basically,
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they have a new water show that
is held in the water World Arena and
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it's all themed on the Purge,
and it's a fifteen minute show and it's
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just one of the senators comes in
and they're using that area as a safe
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celle and they're like, oh,
we found this great safe place for you.
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It's in the middle of nowhere,
in the middle of water, and
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nobody can get to us, blah
blah blah blah. And then of course
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the Purgers like drop in from a
plane and end up killing everybody. So
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the Purge wins, so spoilers the
Purge wings. But it's it's shouldn't say
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spoiler alert before, Okay, but
it's a I was I was happy.
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You know, it's just interesting.
They've added live entertainment. We've just talked
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about live entertainment coming and going and
abbing and flowing, and you know,
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Disney investing less in it. But
here's Hollywood that is adding and it's a
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big crowd suck. We talked about
crowd sucks too. It's a big crowd
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suck. They're doing four showings of
this a night, and it's a big
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theater. I think it's a two
thousand seat it's close to two thousand seat
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theater, so it's it's the water
world space fits a lot of people.
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So it's a good crowd suck to
have back in there to be used for
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horror nights. And there's a lot
of complicated effects, you know, so
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it wasn't just dialed in. I
mean there's a man sets on fire.
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Like to have someone set on fire
four times a night and fall into the
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I mean, that's it's a lot. I mean those actors are doing are
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doing a lot. There's a lot
of blood, were there were there were
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there effects that were used exclusively and
now the excuse me, exclusively in the
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third show that we're not used in
the daytime. There everything is the same
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as fact. You know, there's
there's gunshots, there's people set on fire.
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You know, there's just not that
big plane that you know, launches
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and that's not in the Purge one. But so it is the same effects.
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So they're already they're probably the same
pool of actors that are trained in
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all that safety, you know,
because I put up a video and I've
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been hearing from people NonStop about hunting
how unsafe it is, and I'm like,
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well, they're professionals. This is
what they do. They've been doing
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it for twenty years, you know, when not like but anyway, and
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the only other thing, the only
other piece of Blumhouse added. Blumhouse added
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a Behind the Screams which is supposed
to be like a BTS tour. It's
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in the Shrek the Old Trek forty
theater. And what happens is you walk
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in and you see props from some
of the movies, so you see the
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five Nights at Freddie's Dolls, which
everyone is going bonkers about, you know,
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and while you're waiting and then you
get let into the forty theater and
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the forty theater starts off as a
presentation and then gets interrupted by Megan and
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she comes out and kills the presenter
and then she dances and then you leave.
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So it's weird because it's you spend
more time queuing in the pre show
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room than the actual show, which
is about two minutes and thirty seconds,
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and then you leave. So but
again it's a crowd suck and that you
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need, you desperately need crowd sucks
in Hollywood, you like, you desperately
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desperately need them because the layout of
the park is so strange and really not
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built for this many people to be
there at once, right the park,
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I mean the park was never laid
out as a park. I mean you
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just have to kind of take that
into Yeah, whether I go, whether
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I go to two Universal Studios California
during the day or at night, it's
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it's it's a weird it's a weird
layout for a theme park. Because again
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I'm used to theme parks that were
built as theme parks. So so that's
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that's about it that I think I
have. You know, you can people
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can watch the videos and everything later, but from a industry standpoint, that
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those are my biggest takeaways, and
also this weekend. Of course, our
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next story is D twenty three XBO
happened. It was a thing we did
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not really make notes on the We
didn't plan on discussing D twenty three XBO.
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And the reason is because so much
of it is just talk, right.
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It's it's like to me if it, I like scan through the news
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and I'm like, does this have
a data attached to it? If it
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doesn't, I kind of just ignore
it because you know, you know what's
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going to change or not happen at
all or so so much of it just
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doesn't materialize or changes or whatever.
And I'm not sure, Scott you your
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take, but I I do kind
of feel like more and more Disney has
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been and I think to an extent
universal as well. I think they've been
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like putting ideas out to just see
what people talk about. I think they're
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they're not doing Yeah, they're they're
finding a way. And this kind of
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ties into something that we've talked about
with you know, selling tickets to media
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and night. Basically they've found a
way to get focus groups that generate red.
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They're big enough, they're big enough
companies, they have enough die hard
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followers what I used to call sneezers, those people who will spread the virus
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of their brand. And so what
they're what they've done, and what they've
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continue to do it at at you
know, D twenty three is the expo
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is that they'll float all these ideas
out there and they'll see which ones are
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exciting and and which ones get the
most chat, which ones get the most
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have the most traction, and those
are the ones that seem to get moved
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forward or further developed or you know, uh, sometimes they look at it
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and go, okay, well we
thought that was a great idea, but
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it really nobody likes it. The
only what was what I thought was interesting
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is there were only two things in
there that really had a date date.
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They were they were They gave some
vague, vague areas of years, but
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that the date date was today.
Figments started at the time of recording this,
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Figments started appearing at Epcot, and
I've I saw people on social media
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today already who said, I haven't
done a rope drop at Epcot in years,
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but my kids so want to meet
Figment. So I was like,
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okay, well that worked and uh
and then of course the new Moana Journey
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of Water or Journey into Water that
is of course opening and that's you know,
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that opens I think next weekend,
if I'm not mistaken. They've already
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done media previews and and friends and
family experiences. But what But basically with
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a lot of the stuff, And
the reason we're not going a whole lot
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into detail is because it's they've they've
floated it out there. But I gotta
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tell you, you know, this
is becoming more because things are getting more
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and more expensive to fully produce and
to fully flesh out. Even my clients
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are hiring me up front to come
up with some one sheet ideas for pretty
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much anything, everything from you know, new shows for Space Center Houston to
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new theme park shows. And so
the idea of putting these ideas out there,
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these top line concepts out there and
seeing what generates is a smart way.
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It's kind of replacing the focus group, and it's it's a focus group
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that generates revenue, which is fascinating
to me. That's uh, I think
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that's really I think that's really smart. And we've seen Disney do it a
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couple of times now, and as
you say, Universal is starting to do
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it more and more. But it's
something that you may want to find with
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even with smaller organizations or smaller attractions. Just throw some ideas out there because
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not only does it help you because
you get feedback, but it also makes
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those people who participate have a sense
of ownership. And anytime you can create
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mastery and control in your in your
audience, they become more loyal to your
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brand and will come and see stuff. When it comes to fruition, it
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used to be the exact opposite.
It was like, oh, we have
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to hold everything close to our chest
until until we're fully baked and then we
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can can show it. But I
think that again pendulum has swung the other
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way now that people want to feel
as though they are a part of it.
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It's it's the mentality of a social
media person. It's like all social
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media wants to feel as though they
are entitled and need to participate in the
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development of everything, and by doing
this they are allowing that to happen and
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using it to the company's advantage.
So I think that's I think that's very
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wise and taking advantage of the assets
that are there. I mean, when
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you've got, when you've got,
I will call them rabid Disney fans,
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the D twenty three folk. When
you've got folks who and lots of them
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who are just chomping at the bit
for any tiny piece of information, and
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the moment you share even the most
unbaked idea, they will start filling in
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the details. They will start saying, yes, we love this, no,
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we hate this. And you've got
all the feedback you really need from
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your most loyal fans. Yep,
super start. And I'm glad you mentioned
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about doing it on a small scale
because I think I think there's a way
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for trashets of any size to do
this. And I mean, first of
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all, as we talked about in
our the first step, of course,
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as we talked about in our seminar
last one we did about brainstorming should always
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be to get as many ideas out
there as you can from your team.
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You know, it shouldn't be to
just stop at the first ten. It's
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like one hundred ideas for you know
what we could do, and you know,
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of course they're only gonna you know, of course, when you're paying
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for something like we're paying for Scott
for one sheet, obviously you don't want
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to pay for one hundred one sheets. But you know, if it's something
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that you're doing with your internal team, you can sit down and come up
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with a hundred ideas and then you
can get Scott to help flesh some of
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them out right, you know you
would you'd want that idea step first.
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And then you know, then I
what I usually tell the even my smaller
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clients, as I tell them,
you can even go on Instagram and even
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if you put you know, your
top four ideas from you take your hundred,
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you nail them down to four with
your team, and then you take
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that and you put those four out
in Instagram polls or Twitter polls or you
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know anything. You just put them
out to the people that are watching.
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They will help guide it. And
then you can get your hire out,
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your creative director to help with you
know, the two that won in the
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polls. Well. And what's interesting
for me is, you know, you
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say that that I can't necessarily be
involved in the in the brainstorming, but
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actually I've had clients that will hire
me instead of to come up with ideas
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on my own or to to do
one sheets for some of the stupid top
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line things that they chatted at around
a table somewhere they've hired me to facilitate
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a brainstorming session. And and if
they hire me to facilitate the brainstorming session,
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then I can take all the raw
data. And the way I do
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a brainstorming session is we get a
top five from the or a top three
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or whatever number they want based on
those attending. And again, as we've
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talked about, the power of a
good brainstorming session is to make certainly you
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have people from all levels, from
all areas, and if you can do
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it, even throw in people who
are not employees so that you know who
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are who are fans, so that
you get the broadest spectrum of suggestions,
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and uh, don't don't go through
and edit them until you're done. And
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so I do that. I've done
that for several clients actually, and we've
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come up with some really fun stuff
that I probably would not have thought of
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on my own. But then what
they do is they then hire me to
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say, Okay, these are the
ones that we all liked, and you're
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already familiar with what was said.
Gives me a great jumping off point to
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go in and further develop these these
ideas that came out of the brainstorming sessions.
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Yeah, well okay, we're kind
of our version of commentary UNDI twenty
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three speaking of crazy crazy. So
the next story here is is basically that
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Halloween Horror Nights has set up a
store, a seasonal store inside of the
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Orlando International Airport. And I think
it's it's it's the same space that they're
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that they already had least for the
Universal Store, but they just transformed it.
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So it reminds me of what they
do with the Tribute Store, Uh,
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the smaller Tribute store over on the
Islands of Adventure, where you know,
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it's not a huge experience, but
there's theming, it is dark in
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there, there's different color schemes,
you know, there's there's props and sets,
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you know, mini sets and whatnot. So it's really a themed retail
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experience that is a temporary installation for
Halloween Horrornites. And I think that something
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stuff like that is a great idea. It extends the brand, you know,
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it gives you brand awareness and whatnot. It you know, I think
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it's more about reminding people that Horrornites
is a thing than it really is about
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I think that's that's the It's like
an advertisement, I think so basically,
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So basically you're saying they turned the
Universal Studio store into a spirit Halloween No,
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yeahs. And to be fair,
there are other parks. I mean,
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C World has has a store there
as well. Disney has a store
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in the in the airport as well. But I think it's I think this
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is especially unique in the fact that
they were able to transform it, or
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chose to transform it into something that
is seasonally based versus because I don't believe,
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and I'm not certain, but I
don't believe that the C World has
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transformed their store into Hollow Scream.
They may have some elements there, but
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it sounds like this is truly taking
retail tainment and expanding the experience, which
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again Universal is doing in a lot
of different areas. You know, they're
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doing it in Vegas at at Area
fifteen they're doing it, and with the
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family friendly park. They're trying all
these different ways to show the different facets
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of the brand, and not just
in a theme park realm. They're doing
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it from a shop standpoint, or
from a smaller version standpoint, from a
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bar and restaurant standpoint, which I
think is all great ways to again get
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someone to pay you to figure out
what works and what doesn't. Yeah,
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yeah, to underline that. Just
to clarify too, there are the because
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I was just there at the airport. I've been I've been there, you
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know, back and forth and looked
at the stores. You know, Disney
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has a store there. Of course, all the parks, you know,
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the Disney See World have stores there. Disney has a Halloween display with their
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like Halloween merch, and Sea World
has somehow a screen merch there. But
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we're not talking about you go look
at the pictures online if you're curious about
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this, because it's not a display. Just to be clear, we're not
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talking about they put They just brought
in their Halloween merch and made a display.
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This is really a full themed experience
where like you know, in a
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regular store, you know, there's
like white walls and it's you know,
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it's still a store, and then
there's a Halloween you know area. This
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is like, yeah, this is
like the walls have been painted and the
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and they brought in lights to add
you know, color Halloween colors and everything,
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and there's extended props along the walls. I mean, it's it's really
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more of a themed experience, So
that's really what we're mean. And obviously
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it's it's seasonal right because you're going
to have to change it back to like
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white walls for Christmas. So yeah, okay, And on that said,
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well, in that same line of
thinking, the Great Wolf Lodge, so
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select Great Wolf Lodge locations around the
country are debuting Pumpkin Spice suites. This
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is an older story. We haven't
had time to talk about it until this
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week, but so they're already they're
already running at this point in time that
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now we're talking about them now.
But basically the stick is they parted,
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they partnered with a designer and they
have decorated the rooms to be fall and
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autumn you know vibe, basically a
fall automn vibe type thing going on.
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And the room includes like bottomless pumpkin
spice lattes and pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls that
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are delivered in the morning. And
they start at four hundred dollars and go
369
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up depending on the property and where
it is and the weekend and whatnot.
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There aren't I think there's two suites
at each property or something like that.
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But but yeah, it's it's just
an interesting story, just because I think
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people like Great Wolf Loadge and the
gay Lord Palms. It's a great thing
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for them again to test and try, because I could see this expanding for
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Christmas, Like I could see you
having a ice themed room at the Gaylord
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for their Christmas, for their Christmas
properties, I could see you doing a
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summer beach thing. I just think, you know, the Disney properties,
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again, this is a model We've
seen other places do they do Disney character
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theme and they do whatever. But
I really like this concept of you know,
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they don't have an IP, but
but the season can be the IP.
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So let's just let's just make you
know, a themed season room and
381
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have it be I think there could
be a lot behind this, you know.
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I think you could you could adjust
this and kind of do it all
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year round and have it be something
that's just fun and helps, you know,
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even get media out there, you
know, things like that. The
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thing I really like about it is
unlike a Disney resort or a Universal resort
386
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that the rooms are themed beautifully.
The Lego Land, the Lego Land hotels
387
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are beautifully beautifully themed, and but
this is beautifully themed in a way that
388
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is true to a specific season.
So it's something that there's a fuse on
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it. So you've got to if
you want to experience the pumpkin sweets,
390
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pumpkin spice sweets, you have to
go at this time, you know,
391
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and there's a limited number of them, so you have to plan ahead.
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And it's you know, you say
that there's no IP, but I'll tell
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you. Pumpkin spice, where you
like it or not, is something that
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everybody knows and certainly equates to this
season. It also seems very closely adjacent
395
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to the Great Wolf Lodge overall brand, which is sort of that that homye
396
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feel, that comfortable feel, and
certainly that family feel. And so it
397
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just when when we first started talking
about this story prior to recording, the
398
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first thing that came to my mind
was I could smell what the room smelled
399
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like, which made me feel warm
and cozy and comfortable. So, yeah,
400
00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:12.119
I agree with you, and I
think that you know, we can
401
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go to you can go to go
from pumpkin spice to to gingerbread spice to
402
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I don't know, sporty spie.
No, No, you can whatever whatever
403
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other decor you want to do.
And I also like the fact that it's
404
00:28:26.279 --> 00:28:32.079
tied to a specific designer, because
there is a certain humanity about that that
405
00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:34.920
is really quite nice. And the
fact that they chose to lead with the
406
00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:37.720
fact, I mean, because they
could have just said, you know,
407
00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:42.799
they could have led with Great Wolf
Lodge is doing these these specially designed suites
408
00:28:42.839 --> 00:28:47.599
for the holidays, but they actually
led in their marketing with the fact that
409
00:28:47.640 --> 00:28:51.480
this is done by a specific designer
who is known for this kind of thing.
410
00:28:51.559 --> 00:28:53.279
And when you see the photos,
you look at it and you go,
411
00:28:53.359 --> 00:29:00.160
wow, that really is that really
is thought out and and well done
412
00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:03.240
and well decord and it's the kind
of thing that you'd kind of go,
413
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:04.279
wait, I wish I could hire
them to do the decord from my home
414
00:29:04.920 --> 00:29:10.759
because it really made it feel homey
and comfortable and yet very much in line
415
00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:15.279
and on brand with the fall holiday
season. So yeah, and I'm sure
416
00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:18.400
something like that might be out of
reach if are a smaller, you know,
417
00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:21.799
a smaller brand, just because they
have so many you know, when
418
00:29:21.799 --> 00:29:23.920
you add all the properties together,
you're actually talking about a lot of rooms
419
00:29:23.960 --> 00:29:26.799
that one design could be copied in
a lot of rooms. But I think
420
00:29:26.839 --> 00:29:30.880
you could look for local designers and
local people, and you know, again,
421
00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:33.240
you could, you could make it
more local. And the only the
422
00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:37.920
only other data data point that I
got was from this Last Chance World when
423
00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:41.480
I interviewed Little Spider Creations, who
does fabrication for theme parks, and they
424
00:29:41.480 --> 00:29:48.599
said that increasingly they're more their clients
are coming from Airbnb and hotels that want
425
00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:53.759
to make their experiences more themed,
even in Airbnb's to make them like so
426
00:29:53.759 --> 00:30:00.440
basically they're becoming home decorators instead of
theme park producers. I love so.
427
00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:03.880
I think it's accessible. I think
too smaller parks, you just just adjust
428
00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:07.359
it a little bit and make it
more local. And I was going to
429
00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:11.240
go take even half a step,
half a step further and to say,
430
00:30:11.319 --> 00:30:15.200
even if you don't have your own
hotel, if you have partner hotels,
431
00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:22.279
see if they would be interested in
doing a specific series of rooms that are
432
00:30:22.319 --> 00:30:26.279
themed to whatever your holiday holiday event
is. If you have a holiday event,
433
00:30:26.359 --> 00:30:27.759
if you have a seasonal event that
is bringing people in from out of
434
00:30:27.799 --> 00:30:32.200
town, see if one of your
partner hotels, Because every theme park that
435
00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:34.559
I know has some sort of partner
hotel, See if your partner hotels would
436
00:30:34.599 --> 00:30:40.960
let you come in and provide enough
decor to create a special experience so that
437
00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:45.279
the guests don't just experience your seasonal
event while they're there. They arrive and
438
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:49.000
they're at their seasonal event, and
they and they enjoy that seasonal event right
439
00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:52.000
up to the moment that they check
out. That's, you know, something
440
00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:56.000
that Disney has been doing for years, and this is an opportunity to test
441
00:30:56.039 --> 00:31:00.599
that with partnership hotels, even for
smaller, smaller properties. All right,
442
00:31:00.640 --> 00:31:03.920
well s meet speaking of well,
I don't even know when I was speaking
443
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:07.559
of, we're out of time.
That's I was just gonna try to make
444
00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:11.680
a really good, smooth transition,
and I couldn't do it. So we're
445
00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:15.480
out of time. And we're really
glad once again that you spend the time
446
00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:18.160
listening to us. I know,
I talked to so many people who will
447
00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:21.559
say, gosh, I can I
can't wait until next week. In fact,
448
00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:25.079
I have somebody people that I actually
work with on certain projects, who
449
00:31:25.079 --> 00:31:29.200
are regular listeners, and I started
talking about what we were talking about on
450
00:31:29.200 --> 00:31:30.680
the show, and they said,
wait, I haven't listened to it yet.
451
00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:33.680
I don't I don't want to know. So we really appreciate you and
452
00:31:33.720 --> 00:31:38.119
we hope that you continue to share
whatever you get from our show with everybody
453
00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:41.240
in the industry, so hopefully they
can join us as well on behalf of
454
00:31:41.240 --> 00:31:45.039
Philip Fernandez with Hunted Attraction Network and
Gaintam Lighting in myself Scott Swinson with Scott
455
00:31:45.039 --> 00:31:48.359
Swinson Creative Development. This is Green
Tag Theme Park in thirty and we will
456
00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:49.160
see you next week
1
00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:05.799
From our studios in Los Angeles and
Tampa. This is Green Tag Theme Park
2
00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:10.000
and thirty. I am joined as
always by my glorious co host, Scott
3
00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.560
Swinson of Scott Swinson Created Development.
We are here, We are both alive,
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00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:19.640
and we hope that our listeners are
also alive and surviving the Halloween season.
5
00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:22.640
I know this is business. This
is the busy season for everybody in
6
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our collective industry. Yeah. They
either they either just opened. They either
7
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just opened or in the last the
last sprint to try to get things and
8
00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:38.560
then next week they will be working
on Christmas if they are already. Yeah,
9
00:00:38.679 --> 00:00:41.719
the majority of what I'm working on
now, I actually I've actually got
10
00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:44.920
clients who now have me design Halloween
so that it can change over to Christmas
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quickly, so we work on them
both simultaneously. I don't even call it
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Halloween season and Christmas season anymore.
It's now the fourth quarter holiday holidays.
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We just called them the holidays.
We watched them all together. Yeah,
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oh gosh, yep. Well,
on that note, Halloween Horror Nights has
15
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opened in Hollywood, and I was
there as invited media for the opening night
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for media night, and I don't
want to you know, go too much
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into it. I mean, you
know, we have videos pop out,
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you know, if you are curious
about what it looks like, you can
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you can certainly find videos. There's
plenty of videos. I just wanted to
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highlight three things. I think they're
the most interesting for at least for our
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our audience. And the first is
that the mazes are very different, even
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the IP mazes are very different.
And that was not the case in the
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past. You know, they've been
they've been more it's more like they've followed
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the same show beats you know,
in the past. And it's not like
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that the beats are entirely different,
but the scenes are are different. I
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was I think I was pleasantly surprised
to see that they were different in them,
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especially once like the Last of Us, where it's still based on the
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game and it's still Ellie and Joel
who are going through the Pittsburgh area.
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But in Orlando, they focus more
on the two story sets, right because
30
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they have the space, they focus
more on let's let's bring to life some
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of these big scenes. They have
the car crashing in to the subway area
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and you know, they have this
big things. But in Hollywood, It
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starts off where they have Joel and
Ellie outside and Ellie is just telling terribly
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corny mushroom jokes to Joel as you
are as you are entering, and they're
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you know, the actors are just
telling terrible jokes because it's that's part of
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the game, is her, like, you know, doing making jokes and
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just relieving the tension type of thing. And then it's more where you can
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see the story, like you hear
the jokes. Then you walk in and
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they found it. They find a
dead body and they're like, this person
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wasn't infected and they're like, wait, it must be hunters, and then
41
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you see the Hunters. So it's
really more i'd say, more actors,
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more story, which seems more Hollywood
versus you know, Orlando that has the
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sets. And it just got me
thinking that it seems like it seems like
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just from my like one night visit
and look at these two, that the
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parks are are leaning a little bit
more into their assets. Like we've always
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talked about that how people, you
know, people in our industry know,
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but the public doesn't really realize that
the set up in Orlando gives you the
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ability to make two story sets because
you can build all year, but you
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have the talent pool in Hollywood,
especially right now with the actor strike,
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and especially because the actors can't promote
anything that is from a studio, which
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is why they're so which is why
they're always mentioning the video game. And
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it's not based on the HBO movie. It's based on the It's based on
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the video game. So I think
they kind of seemed to me to lean
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into that where there seemed to be
more more acting scenes and a lot of
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the areas you know, and Chucky, there's a lot of there's dolls that
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are coming out, and there's there's
there's scenes like the vignettes of the movies
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are happening inside these verses versus the
really more reliance on sets and on effects
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that you can build, you know, bigger effects and bigger sets in Orlando.
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So that's what I that was one
of my like my main big takeaway
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well, and that actually kind of
makes sense even even in terms of the
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trends of what's happening in the parks
themselves. I mean, we are on
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this coast having a significant trouble casting
period because the actor's strike you know,
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has not has not affected the rest
of the country the way it's affected California.
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It perhaps New York, but you
know, here in Orlando, it
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hasn't affected it at all, and
we still have a limited talent pool,
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and we still have an ever growing
amount of seasonal events that need to be
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cast. So you know, relying
on and the fact that a giant soud
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stage, you know, you say
you can build year round, which is
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not one hundred percent accurate in Orlando, because those sound stages do get rented
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out and the parks do actually have
to pay the studio for the use of
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that space. So whenever they start
using it, they start paying for it.
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It granted it's coming out of one
pocket going into another, but it
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still has to come out of the
budget for the event. The fact that
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that cost in Orlando for a giant
sound stage is significantly cheaper than the cost
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for a similar sound stage in California. I think that's the real factor.
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It's the fact that you know,
as you say, it's their assets,
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and it's what they can it's what
they can utilize, it's what they can
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pay for and and what they can
find. It's it's much easier obviously in
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California right now to find actors,
and it's much easier in Orlando to find
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space to do you know, over
the top, big stuff. But I'll
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go back even to you know,
when I when I the last time I
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visited, which was over twenty years
ago, the last time I visited her
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nights in Hollywood and in Florida,
and it was significant. It was always
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it's always been more theatrical, theatrical, less cinematic, remarkably so, but
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more theatrical in California and more cinematic
or grand scale in Florida, simply because
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of the size of the space.
You know, it's and to be completely
87
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honest, back in the debt,
back in the day, I used to
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I significantly enjoyed Hollywood more than I
did Orlando, simply because that's my personal
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preference. I like the more intimate, stronger storytelling than the big giant effects.
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Big giant effects are once you've seen
one or two of them, it's
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00:06:31.720 --> 00:06:35.759
great and you're done. And secondly, they all have to be set,
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so it's there's always the pulse and
the weight of oh, something cool is
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about to happen, something cool is
about to happen, Something cool is about
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00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:48.360
to happen. Meanwhile, you're getting
the operations people trying to push you through
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the maze because they've overbooked the night, so they're trying to get everybody through.
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So that's why I have a tendency
And again I also come from an
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acting background, so I have a
tendency to like the reliance on actors more
98
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than the reliance on on giant special
effects. But you're absolutely right, they're
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00:07:05.639 --> 00:07:11.079
leaning into they're finally leaning into what
what they have available to them, And
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00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:16.240
I think, what's what's driven that
is budget? You know, Yeah,
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00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:20.399
yeah, I mean, yeah,
well, you know, I was it's
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like restrictions are the what necessity of
creativity or something? You know, It's
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00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:29.959
like it something like that. Yeah, but you put a box around somebody
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00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:32.040
and suddenly it's way more creative than
if they could do whatever they want.
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00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:36.360
But yeah, it just a I
do think it is very interesting how they
106
00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:44.120
how they've not even the same scenes
really, which is which is a departure
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00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:47.519
from before where they just tried to
take the same each story beat, like
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00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:50.360
they took the same beats, the
exact same beats, and they tried to
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put them on both ends and they're
just very different. You know, even
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yeah, they're very different. You
know, the the Joel and Ellie exam
111
00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:03.959
Bowl, you know in Orlando,
they made a big deal about how the
112
00:08:03.959 --> 00:08:09.079
there's one scene in that game where
Ellie it's the first time she takes a
113
00:08:09.079 --> 00:08:11.600
gun and protects Joel, and that
is in the Orlando area because you can
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00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:16.439
have the two story thing and she's
there with a she has a big shotgun,
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00:08:16.759 --> 00:08:20.519
and they made a big deal about
how she never she always has a
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00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:22.040
shotgun behind a curtain, right,
you see the actor doing this behind the
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00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:24.839
curtain because they don't want it to
be inside of the guests. They don't
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00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:26.519
want her to point out the guests, you know, all that kind of
119
00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:30.879
stuff. After the what happened in
and sixteen, they made a point of
120
00:08:30.920 --> 00:08:35.679
talking about that that scene's not in
Hollywood at all, you know, it's
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00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:39.360
they're using a different scene entirely to
convey the same the same sentiment, but
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it's a scene that's more intimate.
It's them being in I think it's a
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00:08:43.480 --> 00:08:46.480
like a like a locker room or
like a it's a smaller you know,
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a smaller space, you know,
a smaller scene. So they've chosen scenes
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00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:54.840
based on like the size of the
scene even to convey you know, same
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00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:58.440
thing with stranger things. You know, in the Orlando version, you have
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00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:05.639
the the scene where Eddie they're fighting
the bats, and the bats are all
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00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:09.200
circling around. There's projections, and
it's this huge scene. I mean there's
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00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:11.919
there's bats projected all over twenty feet
in the air and they're all the tacking
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00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:16.279
and everything. That's crazy you're walking
through. But in Hollywood, it's that
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00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:20.720
simple scene between the two actors where
she has the lantern and she's like,
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00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:24.840
no, go away, you know, I don't want to be around you
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00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:26.960
right now. And it's just that
intimate scene between the two between two characters.
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00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:33.720
So if I was, I was
pleasantly surprised in essence of just that's
135
00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:37.559
great. Yeah, it's it's clear
that this has become a either a cyclical
136
00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:39.720
or the pendulum swinging back and forth, because again, twenty years ago,
137
00:09:39.879 --> 00:09:43.200
the two parts, in fact,
they didn't even have the same ips.
138
00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:46.679
The two Halloween Horrornites didn't even have
the same ips back in the day.
139
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Then they swung. So they tried
to find an economy of scale so that
140
00:09:50.679 --> 00:09:54.559
they could do you know, basically
design design. Once installed white or installed
141
00:09:54.679 --> 00:09:58.440
two different locations, and now they're
swinging back to the other direction. Everything's
142
00:09:58.440 --> 00:10:03.399
a pendulum right in this in everything
is a pendulum. Yep, to everything
143
00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:07.679
there is this sand the only other
The only thing I wanted to mention about
144
00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:11.360
that event is just that very late
in the game, I think last week
145
00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:16.559
they announced that there's two activations coming
from Blumhouse. I'm not sure why they
146
00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:20.720
waited that late. I am assuming
that has something to do with IP approval
147
00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:24.120
that didn't get approved until way later
than it should have. But basically,
148
00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:31.000
they have a new water show that
is held in the water World Arena and
149
00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:35.480
it's all themed on the Purge,
and it's a fifteen minute show and it's
150
00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:37.799
just one of the senators comes in
and they're using that area as a safe
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00:10:37.799 --> 00:10:39.639
celle and they're like, oh,
we found this great safe place for you.
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It's in the middle of nowhere,
in the middle of water, and
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nobody can get to us, blah
blah blah blah. And then of course
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the Purgers like drop in from a
plane and end up killing everybody. So
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the Purge wins, so spoilers the
Purge wings. But it's it's shouldn't say
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spoiler alert before, Okay, but
it's a I was I was happy.
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You know, it's just interesting.
They've added live entertainment. We've just talked
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about live entertainment coming and going and
abbing and flowing, and you know,
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Disney investing less in it. But
here's Hollywood that is adding and it's a
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big crowd suck. We talked about
crowd sucks too. It's a big crowd
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suck. They're doing four showings of
this a night, and it's a big
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theater. I think it's a two
thousand seat it's close to two thousand seat
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theater, so it's it's the water
world space fits a lot of people.
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So it's a good crowd suck to
have back in there to be used for
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horror nights. And there's a lot
of complicated effects, you know, so
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it wasn't just dialed in. I
mean there's a man sets on fire.
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Like to have someone set on fire
four times a night and fall into the
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I mean, that's it's a lot. I mean those actors are doing are
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doing a lot. There's a lot
of blood, were there were there were
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there effects that were used exclusively and
now the excuse me, exclusively in the
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third show that we're not used in
the daytime. There everything is the same
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as fact. You know, there's
there's gunshots, there's people set on fire.
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You know, there's just not that
big plane that you know, launches
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and that's not in the Purge one. But so it is the same effects.
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So they're already they're probably the same
pool of actors that are trained in
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all that safety, you know,
because I put up a video and I've
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been hearing from people NonStop about hunting
how unsafe it is, and I'm like,
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well, they're professionals. This is
what they do. They've been doing
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it for twenty years, you know, when not like but anyway, and
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the only other thing, the only
other piece of Blumhouse added. Blumhouse added
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a Behind the Screams which is supposed
to be like a BTS tour. It's
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in the Shrek the Old Trek forty
theater. And what happens is you walk
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in and you see props from some
of the movies, so you see the
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five Nights at Freddie's Dolls, which
everyone is going bonkers about, you know,
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and while you're waiting and then you
get let into the forty theater and
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the forty theater starts off as a
presentation and then gets interrupted by Megan and
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she comes out and kills the presenter
and then she dances and then you leave.
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So it's weird because it's you spend
more time queuing in the pre show
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room than the actual show, which
is about two minutes and thirty seconds,
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and then you leave. So but
again it's a crowd suck and that you
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need, you desperately need crowd sucks
in Hollywood, you like, you desperately
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desperately need them because the layout of
the park is so strange and really not
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built for this many people to be
there at once, right the park,
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I mean the park was never laid
out as a park. I mean you
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just have to kind of take that
into Yeah, whether I go, whether
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I go to two Universal Studios California
during the day or at night, it's
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it's it's a weird it's a weird
layout for a theme park. Because again
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I'm used to theme parks that were
built as theme parks. So so that's
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that's about it that I think I
have. You know, you can people
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can watch the videos and everything later, but from a industry standpoint, that
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those are my biggest takeaways, and
also this weekend. Of course, our
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next story is D twenty three XBO
happened. It was a thing we did
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not really make notes on the We
didn't plan on discussing D twenty three XBO.
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And the reason is because so much
of it is just talk, right.
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It's it's like to me if it, I like scan through the news
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and I'm like, does this have
a data attached to it? If it
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doesn't, I kind of just ignore
it because you know, you know what's
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going to change or not happen at
all or so so much of it just
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doesn't materialize or changes or whatever.
And I'm not sure, Scott you your
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take, but I I do kind
of feel like more and more Disney has
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been and I think to an extent
universal as well. I think they've been
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like putting ideas out to just see
what people talk about. I think they're
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they're not doing Yeah, they're they're
finding a way. And this kind of
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ties into something that we've talked about
with you know, selling tickets to media
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and night. Basically they've found a
way to get focus groups that generate red.
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They're big enough, they're big enough
companies, they have enough die hard
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followers what I used to call sneezers, those people who will spread the virus
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of their brand. And so what
they're what they've done, and what they've
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continue to do it at at you
know, D twenty three is the expo
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is that they'll float all these ideas
out there and they'll see which ones are
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exciting and and which ones get the
most chat, which ones get the most
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have the most traction, and those
are the ones that seem to get moved
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forward or further developed or you know, uh, sometimes they look at it
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and go, okay, well we
thought that was a great idea, but
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it really nobody likes it. The
only what was what I thought was interesting
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is there were only two things in
there that really had a date date.
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They were they were They gave some
vague, vague areas of years, but
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that the date date was today.
Figments started at the time of recording this,
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Figments started appearing at Epcot, and
I've I saw people on social media
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today already who said, I haven't
done a rope drop at Epcot in years,
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but my kids so want to meet
Figment. So I was like,
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okay, well that worked and uh
and then of course the new Moana Journey
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of Water or Journey into Water that
is of course opening and that's you know,
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that opens I think next weekend,
if I'm not mistaken. They've already
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done media previews and and friends and
family experiences. But what But basically with
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a lot of the stuff, And
the reason we're not going a whole lot
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into detail is because it's they've they've
floated it out there. But I gotta
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tell you, you know, this
is becoming more because things are getting more
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and more expensive to fully produce and
to fully flesh out. Even my clients
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are hiring me up front to come
up with some one sheet ideas for pretty
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much anything, everything from you know, new shows for Space Center Houston to
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new theme park shows. And so
the idea of putting these ideas out there,
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these top line concepts out there and
seeing what generates is a smart way.
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It's kind of replacing the focus group, and it's it's a focus group
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that generates revenue, which is fascinating
to me. That's uh, I think
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that's really I think that's really smart. And we've seen Disney do it a
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couple of times now, and as
you say, Universal is starting to do
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it more and more. But it's
something that you may want to find with
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even with smaller organizations or smaller attractions. Just throw some ideas out there because
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not only does it help you because
you get feedback, but it also makes
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those people who participate have a sense
of ownership. And anytime you can create
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mastery and control in your in your
audience, they become more loyal to your
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brand and will come and see stuff. When it comes to fruition, it
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used to be the exact opposite.
It was like, oh, we have
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to hold everything close to our chest
until until we're fully baked and then we
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can can show it. But I
think that again pendulum has swung the other
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way now that people want to feel
as though they are a part of it.
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It's it's the mentality of a social
media person. It's like all social
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media wants to feel as though they
are entitled and need to participate in the
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development of everything, and by doing
this they are allowing that to happen and
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using it to the company's advantage.
So I think that's I think that's very
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wise and taking advantage of the assets
that are there. I mean, when
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you've got, when you've got,
I will call them rabid Disney fans,
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the D twenty three folk. When
you've got folks who and lots of them
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who are just chomping at the bit
for any tiny piece of information, and
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the moment you share even the most
unbaked idea, they will start filling in
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the details. They will start saying, yes, we love this, no,
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we hate this. And you've got
all the feedback you really need from
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your most loyal fans. Yep,
super start. And I'm glad you mentioned
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about doing it on a small scale
because I think I think there's a way
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for trashets of any size to do
this. And I mean, first of
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all, as we talked about in
our the first step, of course,
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as we talked about in our seminar
last one we did about brainstorming should always
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be to get as many ideas out
there as you can from your team.
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You know, it shouldn't be to
just stop at the first ten. It's
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like one hundred ideas for you know
what we could do, and you know,
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of course they're only gonna you know, of course, when you're paying
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for something like we're paying for Scott
for one sheet, obviously you don't want
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to pay for one hundred one sheets. But you know, if it's something
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that you're doing with your internal team, you can sit down and come up
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with a hundred ideas and then you
can get Scott to help flesh some of
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them out right, you know you
would you'd want that idea step first.
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And then you know, then I
what I usually tell the even my smaller
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clients, as I tell them,
you can even go on Instagram and even
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if you put you know, your
top four ideas from you take your hundred,
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you nail them down to four with
your team, and then you take
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that and you put those four out
in Instagram polls or Twitter polls or you
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know anything. You just put them
out to the people that are watching.
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They will help guide it. And
then you can get your hire out,
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your creative director to help with you
know, the two that won in the
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polls. Well. And what's interesting
for me is, you know, you
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say that that I can't necessarily be
involved in the in the brainstorming, but
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actually I've had clients that will hire
me instead of to come up with ideas
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on my own or to to do
one sheets for some of the stupid top
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line things that they chatted at around
a table somewhere they've hired me to facilitate
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a brainstorming session. And and if
they hire me to facilitate the brainstorming session,
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then I can take all the raw
data. And the way I do
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a brainstorming session is we get a
top five from the or a top three
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or whatever number they want based on
those attending. And again, as we've
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talked about, the power of a
good brainstorming session is to make certainly you
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have people from all levels, from
all areas, and if you can do
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it, even throw in people who
are not employees so that you know who
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are who are fans, so that
you get the broadest spectrum of suggestions,
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and uh, don't don't go through
and edit them until you're done. And
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so I do that. I've done
that for several clients actually, and we've
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come up with some really fun stuff
that I probably would not have thought of
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on my own. But then what
they do is they then hire me to
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say, Okay, these are the
ones that we all liked, and you're
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already familiar with what was said.
Gives me a great jumping off point to
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go in and further develop these these
ideas that came out of the brainstorming sessions.
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Yeah, well okay, we're kind
of our version of commentary UNDI twenty
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three speaking of crazy crazy. So
the next story here is is basically that
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Halloween Horror Nights has set up a
store, a seasonal store inside of the
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Orlando International Airport. And I think
it's it's it's the same space that they're
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that they already had least for the
Universal Store, but they just transformed it.
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So it reminds me of what they
do with the Tribute Store, Uh,
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the smaller Tribute store over on the
Islands of Adventure, where you know,
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it's not a huge experience, but
there's theming, it is dark in
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there, there's different color schemes,
you know, there's there's props and sets,
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you know, mini sets and whatnot. So it's really a themed retail
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experience that is a temporary installation for
Halloween Horrornites. And I think that something
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stuff like that is a great idea. It extends the brand, you know,
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it gives you brand awareness and whatnot. It you know, I think
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it's more about reminding people that Horrornites
is a thing than it really is about
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I think that's that's the It's like
an advertisement, I think so basically,
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So basically you're saying they turned the
Universal Studio store into a spirit Halloween No,
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yeahs. And to be fair,
there are other parks. I mean,
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C World has has a store there
as well. Disney has a store
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in the in the airport as well. But I think it's I think this
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is especially unique in the fact that
they were able to transform it, or
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chose to transform it into something that
is seasonally based versus because I don't believe,
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and I'm not certain, but I
don't believe that the C World has
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transformed their store into Hollow Scream.
They may have some elements there, but
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it sounds like this is truly taking
retail tainment and expanding the experience, which
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again Universal is doing in a lot
of different areas. You know, they're
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doing it in Vegas at at Area
fifteen they're doing it, and with the
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family friendly park. They're trying all
these different ways to show the different facets
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of the brand, and not just
in a theme park realm. They're doing
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it from a shop standpoint, or
from a smaller version standpoint, from a
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bar and restaurant standpoint, which I
think is all great ways to again get
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someone to pay you to figure out
what works and what doesn't. Yeah,
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yeah, to underline that. Just
to clarify too, there are the because
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I was just there at the airport. I've been I've been there, you
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know, back and forth and looked
at the stores. You know, Disney
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has a store there. Of course, all the parks, you know,
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the Disney See World have stores there. Disney has a Halloween display with their
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like Halloween merch, and Sea World
has somehow a screen merch there. But
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we're not talking about you go look
at the pictures online if you're curious about
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this, because it's not a display. Just to be clear, we're not
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talking about they put They just brought
in their Halloween merch and made a display.
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This is really a full themed experience
where like you know, in a
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regular store, you know, there's
like white walls and it's you know,
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it's still a store, and then
there's a Halloween you know area. This
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is like, yeah, this is
like the walls have been painted and the
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and they brought in lights to add
you know, color Halloween colors and everything,
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and there's extended props along the walls. I mean, it's it's really
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more of a themed experience, So
that's really what we're mean. And obviously
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it's it's seasonal right because you're going
to have to change it back to like
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white walls for Christmas. So yeah, okay, And on that said,
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well, in that same line of
thinking, the Great Wolf Lodge, so
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select Great Wolf Lodge locations around the
country are debuting Pumpkin Spice suites. This
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is an older story. We haven't
had time to talk about it until this
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week, but so they're already they're
already running at this point in time that
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now we're talking about them now.
But basically the stick is they parted,
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they partnered with a designer and they
have decorated the rooms to be fall and
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autumn you know vibe, basically a
fall automn vibe type thing going on.
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And the room includes like bottomless pumpkin
spice lattes and pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls that
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are delivered in the morning. And
they start at four hundred dollars and go
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up depending on the property and where
it is and the weekend and whatnot.
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There aren't I think there's two suites
at each property or something like that.
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But but yeah, it's it's just
an interesting story, just because I think
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people like Great Wolf Loadge and the
gay Lord Palms. It's a great thing
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for them again to test and try, because I could see this expanding for
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Christmas, Like I could see you
having a ice themed room at the Gaylord
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for their Christmas, for their Christmas
properties, I could see you doing a
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summer beach thing. I just think, you know, the Disney properties,
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again, this is a model We've
seen other places do they do Disney character
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theme and they do whatever. But
I really like this concept of you know,
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they don't have an IP, but
but the season can be the IP.
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So let's just let's just make you
know, a themed season room and
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have it be I think there could
be a lot behind this, you know.
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I think you could you could adjust
this and kind of do it all
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year round and have it be something
that's just fun and helps, you know,
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even get media out there, you
know, things like that. The
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thing I really like about it is
unlike a Disney resort or a Universal resort
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that the rooms are themed beautifully.
The Lego Land, the Lego Land hotels
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are beautifully beautifully themed, and but
this is beautifully themed in a way that
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is true to a specific season.
So it's something that there's a fuse on
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it. So you've got to if
you want to experience the pumpkin sweets,
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pumpkin spice sweets, you have to
go at this time, you know,
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and there's a limited number of them, so you have to plan ahead.
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And it's you know, you say
that there's no IP, but I'll tell
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you. Pumpkin spice, where you
like it or not, is something that
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00:27:37.799 --> 00:27:44.880
everybody knows and certainly equates to this
season. It also seems very closely adjacent
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to the Great Wolf Lodge overall brand, which is sort of that that homye
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feel, that comfortable feel, and
certainly that family feel. And so it
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just when when we first started talking
about this story prior to recording, the
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first thing that came to my mind
was I could smell what the room smelled
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00:28:03.079 --> 00:28:10.599
like, which made me feel warm
and cozy and comfortable. So, yeah,
400
00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:12.119
I agree with you, and I
think that you know, we can
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00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:17.319
go to you can go to go
from pumpkin spice to to gingerbread spice to
402
00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:22.160
I don't know, sporty spie.
No, No, you can whatever whatever
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00:28:22.279 --> 00:28:26.279
other decor you want to do.
And I also like the fact that it's
404
00:28:26.279 --> 00:28:32.079
tied to a specific designer, because
there is a certain humanity about that that
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00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:34.920
is really quite nice. And the
fact that they chose to lead with the
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00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:37.720
fact, I mean, because they
could have just said, you know,
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00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:42.799
they could have led with Great Wolf
Lodge is doing these these specially designed suites
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00:28:42.839 --> 00:28:47.599
for the holidays, but they actually
led in their marketing with the fact that
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00:28:47.640 --> 00:28:51.480
this is done by a specific designer
who is known for this kind of thing.
410
00:28:51.559 --> 00:28:53.279
And when you see the photos,
you look at it and you go,
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00:28:53.359 --> 00:29:00.160
wow, that really is that really
is thought out and and well done
412
00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:03.240
and well decord and it's the kind
of thing that you'd kind of go,
413
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:04.279
wait, I wish I could hire
them to do the decord from my home
414
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because it really made it feel homey
and comfortable and yet very much in line
415
00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:15.279
and on brand with the fall holiday
season. So yeah, and I'm sure
416
00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:18.400
something like that might be out of
reach if are a smaller, you know,
417
00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:21.799
a smaller brand, just because they
have so many you know, when
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00:29:21.799 --> 00:29:23.920
you add all the properties together,
you're actually talking about a lot of rooms
419
00:29:23.960 --> 00:29:26.799
that one design could be copied in
a lot of rooms. But I think
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00:29:26.839 --> 00:29:30.880
you could look for local designers and
local people, and you know, again,
421
00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:33.240
you could, you could make it
more local. And the only the
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00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:37.920
only other data data point that I
got was from this Last Chance World when
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00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:41.480
I interviewed Little Spider Creations, who
does fabrication for theme parks, and they
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00:29:41.480 --> 00:29:48.599
said that increasingly they're more their clients
are coming from Airbnb and hotels that want
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00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:53.759
to make their experiences more themed,
even in Airbnb's to make them like so
426
00:29:53.759 --> 00:30:00.440
basically they're becoming home decorators instead of
theme park producers. I love so.
427
00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:03.880
I think it's accessible. I think
too smaller parks, you just just adjust
428
00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:07.359
it a little bit and make it
more local. And I was going to
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00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:11.240
go take even half a step,
half a step further and to say,
430
00:30:11.319 --> 00:30:15.200
even if you don't have your own
hotel, if you have partner hotels,
431
00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:22.279
see if they would be interested in
doing a specific series of rooms that are
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00:30:22.319 --> 00:30:26.279
themed to whatever your holiday holiday event
is. If you have a holiday event,
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00:30:26.359 --> 00:30:27.759
if you have a seasonal event that
is bringing people in from out of
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00:30:27.799 --> 00:30:32.200
town, see if one of your
partner hotels, Because every theme park that
435
00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:34.559
I know has some sort of partner
hotel, See if your partner hotels would
436
00:30:34.599 --> 00:30:40.960
let you come in and provide enough
decor to create a special experience so that
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00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:45.279
the guests don't just experience your seasonal
event while they're there. They arrive and
438
00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:49.000
they're at their seasonal event, and
they and they enjoy that seasonal event right
439
00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:52.000
up to the moment that they check
out. That's, you know, something
440
00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:56.000
that Disney has been doing for years, and this is an opportunity to test
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00:30:56.039 --> 00:31:00.599
that with partnership hotels, even for
smaller, smaller properties. All right,
442
00:31:00.640 --> 00:31:03.920
well s meet speaking of well,
I don't even know when I was speaking
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00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:07.559
of, we're out of time.
That's I was just gonna try to make
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00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:11.680
a really good, smooth transition,
and I couldn't do it. So we're
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00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:15.480
out of time. And we're really
glad once again that you spend the time
446
00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:18.160
listening to us. I know,
I talked to so many people who will
447
00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:21.559
say, gosh, I can I
can't wait until next week. In fact,
448
00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:25.079
I have somebody people that I actually
work with on certain projects, who
449
00:31:25.079 --> 00:31:29.200
are regular listeners, and I started
talking about what we were talking about on
450
00:31:29.200 --> 00:31:30.680
the show, and they said,
wait, I haven't listened to it yet.
451
00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:33.680
I don't I don't want to know. So we really appreciate you and
452
00:31:33.720 --> 00:31:38.119
we hope that you continue to share
whatever you get from our show with everybody
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00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:41.240
in the industry, so hopefully they
can join us as well on behalf of
454
00:31:41.240 --> 00:31:45.039
Philip Fernandez with Hunted Attraction Network and
Gaintam Lighting in myself Scott Swinson with Scott
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00:31:45.039 --> 00:31:48.359
Swinson Creative Development. This is Green
Tag Theme Park in thirty and we will
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00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:49.160
see you next week












