Don't worry this might be a bit long too haha
First off thank you for the compliment, that's really humbling as honestly just a little over a month ago I started this up not knowing if it was going to have legs or if people would be continually interested in team brainstorming over a long period of time. However now it's really exciting to see so many people involved and willing to help -- and the icing on the cake with Tom as our advice "guide" for the project, we all have the potential to create something truly special and never seen before if we put our heads together!
I would be honored to take the project "lead" and help oversee/organize everything. Fair warning in that I've been slightly holding back a bit in terms of organization and involvement because I didn't want to scare away any people who are trying imagineering for the first time, and I wanted everyone to have a say. So if at any time it's going too fast or a bit much you can yell at me to slow down lol. But with this newfound advice/feedback from Tom, you're on the right track Douglas with what you're talking about. The General Layout and Tone are the essential first steps...and I'll also add -- organization/vision.
What happened was...we started with just a land (Fantasyland) -- and a bunch of people chimed in with what they wanted to see. Mary Poppins, Tangled, Snow White, Pooh, etc and then someone said...what about a Villains Land...what about World's Fair...how about Tomorrowland...what's our castle?
I think that was in hindsight a very backwards approach to all of this. While we definitely have a ton of great concepts and attractions lined up....not only is there room to improve...but there is room to produce a finite objective to our "Magic Kingdom"
You're off to a great start with your analogy for N E W S (always find it cool how news is the cardinal coordinates haha) anyway -- getting off track...I wholeheartedly agree with that philosophy.
To add onto that -- somethings we might want to consider.
A - What do we want the "story" of the park to be. This can be told through art or narrative, but the natural progression of the park. While each area can have its own specific story, how does one area flow into the next?
For example -- the Columbia Harbor House transition into Liberty Square is one of my favorite narrative spots in all of Disney Parks. If you're in Fantasyland -- you're in medieval Europe - the sign out in front of the Fantasyland entrance to the CHH has an image of fish and chicken (rather than the words below) - this is because many people in medieval Europe were illiterate, so a picture of fish and chicken will tell them that this restaurant serves those foods.
As you transition into Liberty Square and Colonial America, the entrance to the Columbia Harbor House says "fish and chicken" -- because more people could read and it shows the progression in time.
This can be discussed throughout the whole park...but basically what I'm getting at is -- for instance I think one of our weaker points is the transition from Main Street to "Fantasia Gardens"
Why does this happen? As bizarre as it may sound...the transition from a turn of the century Main Street to a Castle setting is deliberate and flows progressively...but a turn of the century Main Street to Fantasia Gardens? How does that flow?
-- Perhaps we take a page out of @Tom Thordarson 's book -- think DIFFERENT! And dream BIG!
Let's not limit ourselves to the confines of Main Street U.S.A. -- let's brainstorm several possible entrances to the park -- and how each entrance would fit our park's overall "story" How does one transition into the other.
My last point for now as I've been rambling is ....I'm wondering if a few new "threads" for organizational purposes would help keep things together and concise.
I love long threads haha -- but for this specific project I think it might suit us better if we all don't have to catch up on a bunch of pages. If someone has work in the morning, they might be 5 pages behind by lunch for instance. I tried this before, but I found that even with the original recap thread....I still felt disorganized. I didn't think it was doing much of anything because we were always in the same land, if you know what I mean.
How about we keep this thread for brainstorming and our plethora of ideas...but once we've decided on a concept...or story point...we place that in our "Park Thread" -- the thread which organizes the park "from scratch"
By from scratch -- I mean from inception to the details. Starting with the overall "weenie" -- to create the "1,2,3 read!" aspect to the project...enticing readers/viewers/potential guests into looking forward to more if we don't overwhelm them at first.
This thread won't be started until we have a concrete concept for the overall park -- but just wanted to throw that out there along with any other potential threads.
Lastly (sorry I'm almost done haha)
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Sub-Leads....I like that idea.
Also people with special talents could possibly float in and out of these threads. For instance art directors (cough @MonorailRed ) who specialize in art and enjoy it, could possibly be on call for several lands. Just an idea! Let me know what you all think!
I like/agree with everything you just said when I joined I had around 90 pages of brainstorming and I didn't know where to start. More threads would help people introduce themselves. I said this before we need an idea just one idea that we can all get behind to inspire the entire park. I also like the idea of sub-leads.
