LIVE from Midsummer Scream 2023

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Mmmm from our studios in Long Beach
and Tampa. This is Green tagged theme

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park in thirty. I'm Philip.
I'm joined as always by my glorious co

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host, Scott Swinson, A Scott
since twentson creative development. That's easy for

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you. It's it's clear you're in
a trade show, isn't it. Yeah,

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yes, I'm in Long Beach because
I'm at Midsummer's screen the world's largest

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Halloween festival, I think is the
tag line or Halloween Convention. Uh yeah,

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it's been going for quite a few
years now, Scott, you've attended

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in the past. It is,
it's in the same footprint. It's just

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i think as a trend we've been
talking about with everything, everything is you

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know, the programming size has not
changed, as in there's not any extra

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rooms for programming or extra whatever.
It's the same footprint of the event,

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but there's just more people. You
know. It's clear people are really coming

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back much more now to events,
you know, and and nobody really is

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anxious. I'm anxio just actually about
the just can't walking through you know,

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you physically cannot walk through the space
at an even a brisk pace. It's

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more like a crawl that you're kind
of crawling your way from vendor vendor,

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but nobody seems to be deterred by
that, you know, or upset by

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it. So get all that and
the theme parks are back. We are

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having a Knots panel from Knots.
We have a six Flax panel. We

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have Halloween hor Knights is here to
do announcements. We have in Cheston Mystery

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House. We have a hot an
Upcoming Haunts panel this year. There's even

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a home Haunter that came from Denver
and brought his whole display over into the

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Hall of Shadows to set that up. And I guess for context for those

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that are not aware, I think
the big differentiator for Midsummer Scream is a

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that you have a lot of local
haunts that come and give their press conferences

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or press announcements here, and b
that there's a Hall of Shadows, which

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is a darkened area where Home Haunters
and other haunts of the like come and

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set up miniature versions of their displays
for people to walk through. There's what

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sixteen of them this year? Wow, sixteen, that's a lot I haven't

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see. I haven't been in several
years. And I remember it was crowded

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then, so if it's even more
crowded now, that's that's amazing. You

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know. I think it's interesting that
we continue to talk about, um,

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the fact that people are coming back
in to public in person things in droves,

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and yet there is still the misconception
out there that there is that attendance

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is down and revenue is down,
and yet you walk through stuff and you

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go, I don't see it.
So it may just be that strange sort

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of transition phase that we're going through. But because it's clear that, you

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know, things like this show,
which, by the way, Midsummer has

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always been one of my favorites,
I'm really disappointed that I'm not able to

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be there this year. But it's
it's an amazing it's an amazing show.

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And the thing that makes it so
cool is it's it's appropriate for both Haunt

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professionals and Haunt fans. You know, it's got it's got enough of both.

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Um. Of course, I've always
said, you know, Haunt professionals

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usually start out as Haunt fans or
become Haunt fans as they get involved.

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So it's a great way too without
sounding too cheesy, it's a great way

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to rub elbows with the people that
you're trying to trying to advertise too,

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and convinced to come to your hearted
attraction. So it's yes from a brand

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standpoint, as in from what the
theme parks are doing. There was a

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few years if we all remember,
where it was little not all of them

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were there, and it was kind
of like up and down or whatnot.

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But I think this year it's a
great example of what really theme parks everywhere.

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Everybody that listening is that works on
attraction. You should be doing this

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somewhere and whatever your version is in
your area. Here it's done. It's

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finally where we are. You know, all of the major Halloween events here

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have a panel presentation either on the
main stage or the second stage in the

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full room, and they're all bringing
characters. They're all coming out and having

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their creative team there and Scott it's
all people that we know, right we

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had Ted was on stage and John
Cook and Amy Holloman and even listener Brent

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from East and say Pantentry he's up
there berlino um because he's working now with

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Shaktoberfest. So there's they're up there. They're presenting about their event. It's

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basically like we've talked about doing a
press conference, but you're opening it up

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to the super fans because that's who
attends this event. You know, the

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super fans are there. They get
to tease it, they get to bring

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out the characters and do all that. And here's the thing, it's not

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just like with the Saw. Saw
also came and they did a they revealed

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the trailer for the first time,
and then they gave everyone an exclusive like

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to one minute, two minutes scene
from the the movie that no one has

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seen. But here's the thing.
You know, as soon as the trailer,

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as soon as we watched the trailer, it was up on line.

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You know, they like they posted
it as in they released at the same

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time the panel was happening from their
team, right. And it's like,

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so, you know, it doesn't
mean that you you can't still do your

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regular press, do it the way
the regular press is ready, you know,

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have your announcement set of whatnot,
you know, and have sent it

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out to all the outlets that aren't
there. It's just adding an extra experience

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where there's people in person getting excited
about it about what you're doing. Sure,

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yeah, well and you you actually
kind of got speaking of Saw,

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you got the opportunity to actually do
a pretty cool interview, didn't you while

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you were there. Yeah, I
actually thought that the That is the one

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thing I was most impressed by the
Saw team was did a whole press I

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don't know what to call it,
like a gambit type of thing there.

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You know that the press did have
reserved seating in the Saw panel, which

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was not the case for the theme
parks. By the way, even even

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credentialed Media at the show, there's
not any reserved seating for credentialed media for

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any of the other panels. So
Saw was the only one that actually like

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they they gave you their own credential
that they had created just for their panel,

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and they gave it to credentialed Media, and you had reserve seating area.

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And then they had a reception afterwards
with the credentialed media where you could

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interview the director and the editor and
cinematographer for the movie. And I had

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a few minutes to sit down with
him, and of course, you know,

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of course I had to ask about
how what they're doing translates into the

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real world, and they were they
were a little like, we don't know

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how to answer that question. Um, so it was it was interesting because

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they kind of, you know,
none of them had backgrounds in theater or

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backgrounds and in person experiences. And
it's funny because they had all gone to

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sleep no more, right, so
they have some immersive entertainment background, but

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none of them had really are haunt
people, you know, they're not.

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They don't know any of this world. But but they're storytellers. I mean,

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it's just a different but they're still
telling stories. And that's why I

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thought was so interesting is their answers
were exactly what we talk about. They

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just didn't know it. And and
that's thought was it was excellent to hear

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that. It really you know,
again reinforces it really doesn't matter. It's

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a good storytelling component. And so
to give a little bit of context,

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Saw X supposedly is going to be
the longest movie that in the franchise,

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and it's kind of the end of
the character arc for Jake saw for John,

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and it's dealing with John Kramer's battle
for cancer. Really that's what we're

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what's really the story. And so
basically it's a lot more story and it's

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a little bit longer, so really
more focused on the story of the person

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versus it being kind of a horror
and the things what's happening. And so

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what I asked them basically was,
you know that a longer film, it's

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a horror film. It's hard to
sustain the story and sustain suspense over that

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amount of time. So tell me
what tactics you're using to do that.

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And this is where we get into
everything. That's the same thing they talked

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about controlling the environment. Nothing should
be in the scene without a reason.

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Everything needs to be there for a
reason because you need to keep the focus

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for that long. You can't have
extraneous things, either extraneous or extraneous objects.

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And the thing controlling for light,
they said, you know, basically

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just like we do with a haunt. You there's pacing to it. You

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know, you need to be able
to show the contrast, continuously, show

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a contrast of light, contrast of
scene, contrasts of sound. Everything you

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control that you can contrast, you
need to do so. You need to

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let the audience rest as long as
you can, even though it's an action

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scene. Can you find a way
to bring the noise down if they need

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a rest even though there's action happening, can you build in those moments of

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contrast? They talked about really getting
your story nailed down, having it done,

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and then understanding that you can't give
it all to them at one time.

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You need to drip it out in
what they can handle and get those

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moments so that they it's not again, it's all about the pacing in a

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suspenseful thing. And I was like, there's a book that I feel like

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talks about these things, you know, And of course they're like, what

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are you talking about? Well,
you know, and by the way,

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if you want to find this book, you might be able to follow.

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Um, the story that we're talking
about here. As I smuggly smugly do

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a plug it's a it's a Is
that? Is that a smug smugly plugly?

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I don't know anyway, No,
it's it's great to hear that.

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It's great to hear that that the
storytelling rules and and we've known this,

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We've talked about this. I've talked
about it on a Scott in the Dark,

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You've we've talked about it here.
Um, the story storytelling is storytelling,

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and you know, the basic core
rules apply no matter what the medium

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is. And you know, I've
I've always said that when I walk,

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when I create walk through experiences,
UM, I've always done it very cinematically.

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UM. You know, I like
to walk around a corner. I

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like variety, I like change,
I like shift, I like metering out

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chunks of the story until you get
to the end. And then by the

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end you you have either some big
payoff or a full understanding of what the

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story is. Um. Any story
that can be told in one room should

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be told in one room. You
know. It's uh, it's it's it's

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it's great to hear that reinforced by
people who are working in a very different

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medium being incredibly successful. And that's
that's that's really cool. So I'm glad

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you were able to share that with
us. That's neat. Yeah. Yeah,

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I think that they're all a reminder
for all these things that we're looking

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at our stuff. Especially to me, what stuck out was him talking about

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you know, He's like, you
want to create the contrast, but you

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don't want there to be filler,
so you need to come up with ways

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to really you know, have it
fit the story in that way. So

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you know, there's there are scenes
that are going to be less exciting,

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and they have there has to be, they have to be there, but

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you shouldn't treat them like they are
things that are filler. You should treat

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every moment with importance, and you
should get rid of anything that's not there

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but those And that reminds me too, because I think that's that's where in

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the physical experiences we do. That
definitely is where I see snags most often,

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is where they have the end and
they have the beginning, and you

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know, they have these great huge
fire moments actors blah blah, but then

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you're looking at those moments in between, and they end up just being a

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black room or there's nothing there,
and it's you know, it can be

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a black room, but with a
dynamic actor or with some something that makes

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sense that fits that is not filler. It has to be a black room

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for a reason. Why is it
a black room? Yeah, yes,

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there's a there's a you know,
a new hot experience I'm working on up

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in Chicago that we do have total
darkness in certain rooms and then we have

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very bright stuff in certain rooms,
and we have it's so it's it's constantly

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taking you on a on a journey
that is filled with contrast and hopefully,

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as you say, every moment has
has a purpose. Um and all too

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often I think people misunderstand that and
they say, well, it doesn't really

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have a purpose, so we'll mean
it, so we'll leave it bland.

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That's not at all what we're saying. You can you can add stuff.

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You can make it visually impactful,
you can make it notorially impactful. You

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can make the lighting impactful. But
you just have to make sure that it's

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not just put in there to put
something in there. You know, when

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people go in and decide I'm going
to just put this stuff that I found

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at some Halloween party store on the
wall just because I've got room on the

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wall. That makes zero sense and
does not help you. In fact,

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it works against you. It takes
people outside the story. And that's whether

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you're walking through a live in person
experience or a film. If you know,

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if you're looking at a film that
is it can be. It can

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be. The set decoration can be
rich as all get out, but if

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it's not reinforcing the story, it's
it's distracting and not correct. Correct And

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see see this is what I mean, which is funnycause I told them at

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the end. I was like,
you guys, that was perfect, that

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was that's exactly how you should And
they're like, oh, we had no

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idea. And then we actually talked
about they're only really the thing they'd all

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done together they all could talk about
together was sleep No More. And I

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was like, well, think about
what you just said in contact of Sleep

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No More. Right, it's a
soundscape, know everything, as you know,

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you go like, there's nothing's out
of place, you know, and

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they're like, oh, yeah,
yep, nothing. Yeah. It's just

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funny that we we think that,
you know, theme parks are relatively new

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and and we've talked about this.
They're new in terms of the the arc

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of storytelling and human entertainment, right, and we think of them as this

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wholly different thing. You know.
It's like, it's not it's a retelling

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the storytelling. It's just how you
apply it to the medium it. Yes,

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it just makes sense. So being
at a at a Haunt convention where

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there are any other like big announcements
from other players in the industry, yes,

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you know, that's the whole stick. Everyone is on their announcements.

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Um, I don't want to go
through all of them, because you know,

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it's it's a little exhausting. I
think the most interesting was again Shaktoberfest.

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You know, we know all the
team involved in that, Amy's working

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on that a little bit. So
is Brett really know from Eastern State he

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came over to that. Um,
what's interesting about that is that they're going

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back to the Queen Mary and they
are going to be using the ship it

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as part of the haunt, and
the ship will be reopen for guests staying

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the night, and so in my
brain, I'm just thinking, you know,

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basically the Dark Harbor. I mean, I don't I really don't know.

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I wasn't clear. I'm sure they
would not appreciate that. And I'm

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sure when he listens whole yet will
tell me that Brett will text me.

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But I just, uh, watching
the presentation, I was like, I

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don't see how this is different than
Dark Harbor, except there's Shack, so

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maybe that's the difference, and there's
the block party in fairness, Dark Harbor.

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Dark Harbor didn't use much of the
ship either. I mean it,

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yes, true, So if they're
actually if they're actually bridging that gap and

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utilizing some of the ship for the
experience. I think that is a different

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point of differentiation. I think that
could be really good. So so I

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think that was one of my favorite
announcements just because, you know, it's

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kind of like with all the other
announcements, you know what to expect,

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but not you know, you know
they're going to announce. It's not like

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Cornits is going to say this year, we're going to do cheese and wine

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festival. You're like, no,
that's not you know what's going to happen.

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But with these of those type of
events, it's like, that's why

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I find interesting most interesting is when
it's the very nature of the event changes

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versus like we're just bringing this house
blah blah. Right. The other announcement

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we got on the friday that Midsummer
started was actually from Halloween Hornites in Orlando.

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They announced the entire event in one
go, and it's just interesting to

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look at it. I don't really
want to talk about the entire event.

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I have videos that you can go
watch about what was announced, but there

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are a few interests. The two
interesting things. First was again they're leaning

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into the whole ip thing to the
point where they announced three additional houses that

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are coming to both Hollywood and Orlando, and they are of course IPS,

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which means now I think it's like
six houses or you know that there's there's

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a lot of overlap. You know, it's the same. The big ips

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are going to both coasts basically.
So what happened is for Orlando, what

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that equates to is half of the
half of the houses are IPS that are

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also in Hollywood, and half of
them are original So we're up to half

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that are being doubled in both areas. And the ones they announced they announced

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Exorcists and they announced Chucky and then
Universal Monsters Unmasked, which I actually don't

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count as an IP because it's it's
you know, they control it directly.

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It's not something they're licensing, right, but it's to be honest, it's

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the only it is the only IP
to my knowledge that they do own and

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control directly, is it not.
Um, I think that's correct. I

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think that's correct except for the original
houses. So I think that's my I

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put it in the So that's why
I put it in the account of original

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house. So what I mean when
I say five and five is there are

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five they don't control and five they
do. Got it that's kind of what

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I that's kind of what I mean. UM, So it's just interesting to

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watch it now that to our point, it's now it's being split like that

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where it's here here are the ones
that are duplicated on both coasts, which

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I assume that's for creative control and
IP. It's just everything's easier when you

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can just do the same house on
well. And it also makes it so

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that you can get um usually since
you you know, since we're talking about

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um, since we're separating them out
as ones they control and ones they don't

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control. It also makes it easier
to negotiate if you're going to do two

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um, if you're going to do
the intellectual property for two different locations.

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Uh, it's it's usually not always, but it's usually more cost effective um

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than than trying to negotiate them independently
trying to negotiate them separately. YEP.

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I think the other interesting things,
UM, you know, exorcists fine,

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um check, he's fine. UM. The Universal Unmasked thing I think is

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interesting because they're going deeper into the
characters we have not really seen before Fan

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of the Opera, Hunchback and Notre
Dame doctor Jekalmister Hyde, Invisible Man,

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and I think it's interesting that,
you know, it's kind of like they're

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doing it like arcs. You know, they had like three years where they

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were doing telling an arc of a
story with the main of Dracula Wolfman,

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and now they're transitioning to new ones. So it's just good storytelling from from

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that standpoint, which I always appreciate. You know, That's always a thing

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to me is when they can't control
them, the stories tend to be better

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because they can control the stories right, and they're good. It's good storytelling.

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The original houses, I'll let people
read them on their own. They're

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changing their icon character this year to
doctor Oddfellow, so he has an origin

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thing and he has a he has
a camp and whatnot. But they're just

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doing interesting things. They have a
house based on the old Dueling Dragon's Ride,

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which I think is brilliant because again
it's super fans. It's like,

280
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hey, dueling dragons, so many
people they remember that. Now we have

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a house based on that, based
on telling kind of this fictational story of

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two wizards that were fighting and they
got turned into dragons trying to steal Merlin's

283
00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:02.880
tome and and so it has this
backstory and I'm like, well, that

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is great. So you're using you're
using kind of the ethos of the park,

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using the stories of the park to
create original mazes that is that is

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also good storytelling. Well. One
of the other challenges that I think theme

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parks in general have had is do
we do we build off of our existing

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brand or do we go in a
completely different direction? And I think that

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you know, certainly in the c
suite of most theme parks, they're like,

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well, we don't want to completely
ignore our park fans, you know,

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our park guests. So it's it's
always been a challenge to try to

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find that balance of you know,
how can we how can we make this

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fun for park people, and how
can we make it fun for Halloween people.

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I mean, when you go too
far in the opposite direction, you

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do build a fan base, but
you build a fan base that only comes

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in October. So you want to
build a fan base that then we'll come

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back throughout the rest of the year
and keep the park supported. I know

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that Universal doesn't really have that problem, but it sounds like they're fine a

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solution to that dilemma, which is
great. Yeah, I agree. Otherwise,

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I think a lot of them are. I think Scott. If I

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think Scott, if you went to
last year and then you read this,

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I think you would have the same
takeaway that I did, which is that

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it sounds like they are finding ways
to reutilize their assets, you know,

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under different skins. So there's when
you break it down. Remember last year

305
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there was one that was had had
a blues vibe and there was a sinc

306
00:20:26.640 --> 00:20:30.359
live singer in it. Well,
this year there's a darkest duel where a

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00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:34.359
musician is training his soul that sounds
like a singer in a you know,

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And I am all for that.
I love repurposing, reutilization. I think

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that makes sense from a business standpoint. I like the fact that they're at

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least making a creative effort to find
out, you know what, what new

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can we do with the cow much
we already have? Ye So yeah,

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00:20:51.079 --> 00:20:53.599
so yeah. I will be honest, I have not been to Orlando in

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several years, mainly because I'm working
too much and I can't go. But

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00:20:59.319 --> 00:21:03.680
this year, I based on these
announcements that I've seen, it's intriguing to

315
00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:06.440
me, so I may actually try
to find a way to finagle my way

316
00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:11.200
over there. Now, the most
interesting thing that I this is so funny,

317
00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:17.039
because of course the most interesting thing
I found something that made I'm just

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00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:18.440
gonna read it. So this was
buried by the way at the very very

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00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:22.200
bottom of the press lease. And
I haven't really seen anybody talking about it

320
00:21:22.200 --> 00:21:25.920
because they're all folks on the houses. It says for those dying to experience

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this year's a killer food and beverage. Before the event even opens, Taste

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00:21:29.720 --> 00:21:33.240
of Terror will offer guests an exclusive
preview of select items that will be featured

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at Halloween Horror Knights select nights from
August tenth through August twenty sixth. What

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00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:47.480
and then I go and look up
the information. Okay, right now they're

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00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:49.720
offering it on one, two,
three, four, five, six,

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00:21:49.799 --> 00:21:52.759
seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, eleven nights August ten through

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00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:59.279
twenty sixth. And how much do
you think it is? Well, it's

328
00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:03.079
so it's a color or driven event, because that's what it seems. That's

329
00:22:03.079 --> 00:22:06.960
what I just said. I'll read
you the outline before we because I really

330
00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:11.400
nobody knows right. Guests will check
in and experience Taste of Terror at sound

331
00:22:11.400 --> 00:22:15.960
Stage thirty three. The check in
time will be six to six thirty PM

332
00:22:17.799 --> 00:22:22.480
and it runs from six er to
eight thirty. Enjoy an exclusive before events

333
00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:25.200
start, or you can care to
it so all you can eat of the

334
00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:29.839
select tate of select food, but
it's tasting portion only. All alcohol,

335
00:22:29.960 --> 00:22:34.480
non alcoholic beverages included. Alcoholic beverages
included via a hosted bar, so by

336
00:22:34.519 --> 00:22:41.720
purchase and then you get a freestyle
cup and you get a photo taken at

337
00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:45.839
the Taste of Terror event. It's
a two hour like food event. Yeah,

338
00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:52.559
it's a foody what it is is
it's it's HHN Food and one Yes,

339
00:22:53.559 --> 00:22:57.799
but preview before HHN even begins and
then it's over when HHN starts.

340
00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:06.119
So it is starting at one hundred
and sixty dollars for two hours, and

341
00:23:06.279 --> 00:23:10.680
it'll sell out. I know,
That's the thing. I was actually worried.

342
00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:14.319
I literally was like, I better
get my it'll sell out. And

343
00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:18.240
and I it's interesting because you know, I've always said, and I deal

344
00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:22.119
with this with with multiple clients,
and I've tried to deal with this in

345
00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:26.920
the past and with everything moving forward, you need to incorporate food and beverage.

346
00:23:26.920 --> 00:23:33.000
You need to incorporate merchandise and this
is a whole new leap forward on

347
00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:37.160
incorporating food and beverage. And I
think, you know, if if I'm

348
00:23:37.160 --> 00:23:40.920
sitting, if I'm in my brain, I'm imagining, Okay, how did

349
00:23:40.920 --> 00:23:45.240
this come up? And what meeting
took place that. Um, you know

350
00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:48.720
they've sat around and said, hey, let's do this. I bet you

351
00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:51.640
someone said, you know, we
could we do all these really fun sort

352
00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:56.680
of culinary offerings during the actual event, and they get buried, they get

353
00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:02.200
lost because everybody's rushing from from haunt
to haunt to haunt to haunt to try

354
00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:04.000
to get them all in, which
of course you can't do. Um.

355
00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:08.960
But there so the focus on the
on the food for the event itself actually

356
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.799
takes a back seat. Um.
This sounds like it's a way to bring

357
00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:18.279
it to the forefront, even for
two hours, um in August, and

358
00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:22.720
uh that way so when they do
actually come to the event, they may

359
00:24:22.759 --> 00:24:27.160
decide, Oh, I really liked
the X y Z you know, Chucky's

360
00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:32.880
Cheeseburger or whatever the hell it is. Um, yeah, I think it.

361
00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:36.000
I honestly think it's brilliant. I
think it's wonderful. Oh I don't

362
00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:40.640
misunderstand me. I think This is
again as I feel like it as always

363
00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:45.880
with this event, a masterclass in
it. You know, I don't know,

364
00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:47.839
I don't know what it is,
but you know, I think some

365
00:24:47.880 --> 00:24:49.920
people, you know, what they
used to think about, like the Pixar

366
00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:53.720
stuff. I kind of feel similar
with a team there because it look at

367
00:24:53.759 --> 00:24:57.720
all these elements, right, you're
using assets. It's like everything that we

368
00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:02.119
talk about telling the story of using
the assets, you know, looking and

369
00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:04.359
then they expanding their nights to forty
eight nights. They're going through November four,

370
00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:08.400
blah blah blah plus plus these two
weeks. Then that's what I mean

371
00:25:08.480 --> 00:25:12.720
exactly. So now they've added it's
three three weekends. They've added, they've

372
00:25:12.759 --> 00:25:18.759
added more nights for this event than
most haunts do in a season. For

373
00:25:18.880 --> 00:25:23.319
this event. They've added in Augusta
and you know, just to really clarify,

374
00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:27.400
this is their ancillary event. This
is not the event. This is

375
00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:33.319
the pre event event. Um.
And I do think I'm sure that's a

376
00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:37.559
big test. But you know,
again, even what you said when you

377
00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:40.400
design first year events or whatnot,
what you want to kick it out of

378
00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:42.359
the park, right right, they're
not saying, oh this like I just

379
00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:45.559
want to compare compared to Disney,
who's like, oh, we're gonna start

380
00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:48.640
with with two or three nights or
whatever. Universal is like, if we're

381
00:25:48.680 --> 00:25:52.400
gonna do this, we're gonna start
with three weekends to give it time.

382
00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:55.440
And this is the price point in
this how it's going to go. And

383
00:25:55.519 --> 00:25:57.960
I'm sure it's a test and it
gets just what we talked about. It's

384
00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:06.720
how far can you extend your extra
quarter and if they can get because August

385
00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:11.119
tenth, the reason we're looking at
this is that is the same weekend that

386
00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:15.160
Mickey's Not So Scary holding party opens. So I'm sure they're sitting there saying

387
00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:21.279
if people are attending Mickey's Not So
Scary and they're paying for that ticket,

388
00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:23.720
there's probably enough demand. And the
question is how much demand is there?

389
00:26:23.839 --> 00:26:27.400
Right? And and you know what, for a small event and one sound

390
00:26:27.400 --> 00:26:30.400
stage like this, you'll only need
like five, like five percent or less

391
00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:34.279
of the people who bought the Mickey's
Not a Scary ticket to because Magic Kingdom

392
00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:40.319
versus a sound stage thirty three,
your capacity is very different. So I

393
00:26:40.359 --> 00:26:42.319
think I know. And again,
all you care to enjoy and people love

394
00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:45.759
that stuff. They love being able
to sample everything they love being able to

395
00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:51.640
be ready and you're not. The
other thing that I've I think this could

396
00:26:51.680 --> 00:26:56.200
be a takeaway for all of us
is that I don't know how to put

397
00:26:56.240 --> 00:27:00.640
it, but I was thinking about
this. You know, when you're at

398
00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:03.160
some of these events, and if
you're just going for a single night or

399
00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:06.839
even two nights, your focus is
we have to stand in line for the

400
00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:10.400
mazes. It's a terrible experience from
the guests persctive, but you know that's

401
00:27:10.519 --> 00:27:14.039
the reality of it, and you
don't you know, I always love the

402
00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:17.200
food. I love the shows,
and I love the food. Nobody wants

403
00:27:17.240 --> 00:27:18.720
to do those things with me because
they want to get through the houses because

404
00:27:18.759 --> 00:27:22.000
they feel like that's the point.
So what this does is say, hey,

405
00:27:22.039 --> 00:27:26.240
you can if you can come here
and enjoy all the food and not

406
00:27:26.279 --> 00:27:29.920
be stressed that you're missing the event
because it hasn't even started yet. Literally

407
00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:33.839
yeah, yeah, and well and
it's a it's a way too um.

408
00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:37.880
This is this is like taking pregaming
to a whole new level. You know.

409
00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:41.480
This is this is having the opportunity
to be the very first to say,

410
00:27:41.720 --> 00:27:45.319
oh and such and such a character, or they did such and such

411
00:27:45.359 --> 00:27:48.160
a they teased such and such,
because you know, that's what people are

412
00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:52.480
also thinking, is that that hopefully
they will get a chance to experience some

413
00:27:52.519 --> 00:27:55.880
of the stuff that they've already talked
about but they haven't really seen in person

414
00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:00.720
yet. And and there's there's an
exclusivity. It's a new velvet rope.

415
00:28:00.920 --> 00:28:04.319
And the other thing, too is
even if let's just take worst case scenario,

416
00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:10.960
even if this completely flops, there
are two things that they will be

417
00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:17.319
paying for. Number one, the
data that shows this didn't work and here's

418
00:28:17.359 --> 00:28:19.720
why. And number two, and
this is something that I don't think even

419
00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:25.480
people think about much. They have
just given the super fans, you know,

420
00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:30.160
say it shows it turns out that
it's thirty people. They've just given

421
00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:33.680
the superfans one of the most exclusive
experiences they could ever possibly have. I

422
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:37.319
don't think that's going to be the
case. But if it does go completely

423
00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:41.960
wrong, so they've they've added,
you know, the number of people who

424
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:47.960
attend as as super fans. Who
you know, who's to say that they're

425
00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:52.720
not even going to offer the multi
night you know, frequent frequent freight ticket

426
00:28:52.759 --> 00:28:56.079
or whatever the heck it's called now, the season pass for Horror Knights.

427
00:28:57.400 --> 00:29:03.039
There's this is a perfect way to
in the middle of the summer get you

428
00:29:03.079 --> 00:29:06.039
know. I mean, let's let's
be honest. You know, when we're

429
00:29:06.039 --> 00:29:08.200
recording this, we're recording this on
the last day of July, and this

430
00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:12.279
opens you said August tenth. Yeah, so they announced it like for ten

431
00:29:12.359 --> 00:29:15.200
days. Yeah, They're like,
you have ten days notice, ten days

432
00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:19.359
notice, you have two weeks.
They're creating this this fire in this fury,

433
00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:23.799
and who knows it could be because
they didn't have it finalized until now,

434
00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:27.039
that is a possibility. But I
think it's going to work to their

435
00:29:27.079 --> 00:29:30.400
advantage because I think, you know, just like you said, you're afraid

436
00:29:30.400 --> 00:29:33.119
you won't be able to get your
ticket because it'll all be sold out by

437
00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:37.200
the time you by the time you
buy it. So yeah, well it

438
00:29:37.240 --> 00:29:41.279
sounds like you've been You've You've had
a great deal of fun at this show.

439
00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:45.839
You've gotten a great deal of information. Obviously, it is. It

440
00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:49.079
is busy, it is impactful,
and I think that's one of the big

441
00:29:49.119 --> 00:29:53.440
takeaways is that people are definitely willing
and ready to get out and about and

442
00:29:55.359 --> 00:30:00.799
you know it will help in the
long run if you can expand your footprint

443
00:30:00.799 --> 00:30:03.640
a little bit or have a few
more offerings to eat up some of that

444
00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:07.079
additional crowd. But people are ready, and Midsummer has always been a show

445
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:11.960
that has been completely packed, completely
full, and with a queue that goes

446
00:30:11.079 --> 00:30:15.279
all the way to the water and
back from the convention Center. So it's

447
00:30:15.440 --> 00:30:18.079
it's it's an amazing show. And
it sounds like there's been a lot of

448
00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:22.079
great a lot of great takeaways from
the show that and I really appreciate you

449
00:30:22.160 --> 00:30:25.960
sharing them with our audiences today here
on Green Tag. But just so you

450
00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:30.039
have time to go and get your
ticket for hhn's preview, I'm gonna let

451
00:30:30.039 --> 00:30:32.160
you go because we're out of time, all right. That has been our

452
00:30:32.200 --> 00:30:34.720
thirty minutes, So thank you once
again for spending some time with us this

453
00:30:34.759 --> 00:30:41.039
week on behalf of Philip Hernandez excuse
me with on an Attraction Network and Gantam

454
00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:44.000
lighting in myself, Scott Swenson.
This is Green Tag Theme Park in thirty

455
00:30:44.079 --> 00:30:45.720
and we will see you next week.