civilized, intelligent discussion
All I can say is, "there goes the neighborhood!". Thank you for the kind words and what you saw in that video is the result of many many passionate Imagineers. When I see it I'm reminded of our team of super talents that put up with my obsessive nature and came through for all of us. Some names
you may never read about but deserve mentioning and so much more.
Asst Art Directors- Eddie Johnson (started at WED in model shop when walt was alive and can build anything. Invaluable on trains and vehicles), Susan Cowan (worked installation and helped me with staging props and dressings) and Deb Rager (led exhibit design for the Liberty and Discovery Arcades).
Prop Buyer Conradine Holtz. She found collections of San Francisco art and Cable Car memorabilia for our SF themed Cable Car bakery. It is an antique show of the highest order along with the funky Camera shop.
Sandy Mullally, was our lead interior designer with Juan Delgado and Kim Minichello in France (Sandy worked on the film "Camelot"). FYI. Every drapery was custom selected, each cord and tassle has matching custom thread colors. We had an assembly line process on all the stained glass too. I would draw the stained glass lead work and Maureen Johnson and Sparky Parker did the glass selections and that's how we determined color. It was a team effort.
Katie Olsen and I worked on the facade color, her husband John saw to it we had the scribed bricks and faux stone on the facades just perfect. Ron Esposito was the field exterior art director for aging and scenic finish.
Tom Yorke and Louis Lemoine hand lettered designs for much of Main Street as we wanted it to feel handmade. No computer fonts! Tom was our Rail buff and kept me honest with history on the vehicles and trains.
Jim Michaelson, a super talent responsible for those amazing DL Stream Train attraction posters and the Discovery Arcade City Posters. We had worked together at Landmark Entertainment in the past. (He started by doing album covers for the Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills and Nash, and Nixon's victorian inspired campaign poster!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mindpollution/322758321/.)
There are way more to mention but one designer Les Gobruggie was in his 80's and even moved to France for us. He was a set designer from WB and did the most Beautiful detail drawings for the Gazebo and the Town Square East. He took my sketches and renderings and turned them into something amazing and that's what you see out there. It was Les that made that "gingerbread" fit to eat. His name is on the WWII studio memorial on the Warner Bros. Lot.
So many more that deserve mentioning, but that is just a few. I just wanted to give you a small sense of how big the team can be and that is only the top level and some of the art department! There is production, engineering, show writing, estimating, production (which is huge), audio, lighting, graphics, architecture, legal (you have to get the rights or legal clearance to every name on every window or prop!) and that's all inside of WDI! Then there are the operations folks that get assigned for you to meet and negotiate with. You can imagine how many meetings you are in and you are still expected to design something by the end of the day!
