EPCOT Test Track to be reimagined

Mr. Sullivan

Mr. Sullivan

Well-Known Member
DCBaker said:
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This shows us absolutely nothing but I gotta say, I do really like this recent trend of letting as actually hear from some of the creative people who're working on things and hear what exactly they do. It's easy to think of Imagineering as this big faceless monolith that has no personality, but this is very humanizing. It's very neat to get to see individual faces and hear individual voices come from it talking about their small part in a big job. I love seeing people passionate about what they do get to talk about it.
 
Mr. Sullivan

Mr. Sullivan

Well-Known Member
HauntedPirate said:
Well, I, for one, am glad to have the video reminder that this project was still happening. The construction outside didn't give any clues. ;) But in all seriousness, I don't know what the point of that video was. Show us a couple of decent bits from the inside, not just a random WDI person being highlighted walking down the up-ramp after load.
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The point was to focus in on an Imagineer and let them speak about what they do as part of these projects. It's been a focused effort of the company as of late to showcase different employees who perform different roles and allowing them to talk about how their job contributes to the big final things we get to see. This wasn't a ride preview, it's just a showcase of one Imagineer who happens to be working currently on this specific attraction.
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Mr. Sullivan said:
This shows us absolutely nothing but I gotta say, I do really like this recent trend of letting as actually hear from some of the creative people who're working on things and hear what exactly they do. It's easy to think of Imagineering as this big faceless monolith that has no personality, but this is very humanizing. It's very neat to get to see individual faces and hear individual voices come from it talking about their small part in a big job. I love seeing people passionate about what they do get to talk about it.
Click to expand...

Mr. Sullivan said:
The point was to focus in on an Imagineer and let them speak about what they do as part of these projects. It's been a focused effort of the company as of late to showcase different employees who perform different roles and allowing them to talk about how their job contributes to the big final things we get to see. This wasn't a ride preview, it's just a showcase of one Imagineer who happens to be working currently on this specific attraction.
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But this isn’t really showing the actual job. It’s still about perpetuating the false notion that all of this work is done single handedly by Walt Disney Imagineering. Show set designer, like many jobs at Imagineering, is an office job. Showing the people actually doing the work now on site would really mean showing not just non-Imagineers, but non-Disney employees. This is even more puzzling as, outside of the creative leadership roles, show set designer would probably be the quintessential Imagineering role that people would understand as they’re the ones who design, develop and document the majority of the aspects of a theme park seen by guests.
 
WondersOfLife

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
Mr. Sullivan said:
This shows us absolutely nothing but I gotta say, I do really like this recent trend of letting as actually hear from some of the creative people who're working on things and hear what exactly they do. It's easy to think of Imagineering as this big faceless monolith that has no personality, but this is very humanizing. It's very neat to get to see individual faces and hear individual voices come from it talking about their small part in a big job. I love seeing people passionate about what they do get to talk about it.
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While I mostly agree... I kind of still have some sort of negative headspace about it... With today's social media culture, none of it seems genuine anymore. You can look at old videos of when imagineers were talking about working on attractions such as American Adventure and hear the imagineers' actual passion for the attraction they're working on... The intense level of research... The passion... They were given guidelines, but they were free to be completely creative... Look at the interviews of people working on things like Muppet Vision... Haunted Mansion... Heck, go back SEVERAL years to some of the super retro Disneyland projects. Everyone just seemed so into it.

Nowadays it just sounds like "They're telling me to do exactly this, so that is what I am going to do." and "This is going to make us a lot of money." It all sounds extremely scripted. Very Disney Channel-esque.

I'm sure these people HAVE creative juices... They're just restricted by the corporation and scared to lose their jobs.

Don't forget when Iger told us he has no intentions of creating original characters, with original stories (that isn't a sequel to a pre-existing movie), and original ideas anymore. THOSE are the creative juices we're missing now. And THAT'S why I couldn't give a hoot about today's imagineers. They're just construction puppets with no creative freedom telling us the same ol' social media spiel over and over again with that big flashy "imagineer" title that has a dying legacy.

............You didn't ask for this response. But...

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
 
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Gusey

Gusey

Well-Known Member
WondersOfLife said:
While I mostly agree... I kind of still have some sort of negative headspace about it... With today's social media culture, none of it seems genuine anymore. You can look at old videos of when imagineers were talking about working on attractions such as American Adventure and here the imagineers' actual passion for the attraction they're working on... The intense level of research... The passion... They were given guidelines, but they were free to be completely creative... Look at the interviews of people working on things like Muppet Vision... Haunted Mansion... Heck, go back SEVERAL years to some of the super retro Disneyland projects. Everyone just seemed so into it.

Nowadays it just sounds like "They're telling me to do exactly this, so that is what I am going to do." and "This is going to make us a lot of money." It all sounds extremely scripted. Very Disney Channel-esque.

I'm sure these people HAVE creative juices... They're just restricted by the corporation and scared to lose their jobs.

Don't forget when Iger told us he has no intentions of creating original characters, with original stories (that isn't a sequel to a pre-existing movie), and original ideas anymore. THOSE are the creative juices we're missing now. And THAT'S why I couldn't give a hoot about today's imagineers. They're just construction puppets with no creative freedom telling us the same ol' social media spiel over and over again with that big flashy "imagineer" title that has a dying legacy.

............You didn't ask for this response. But...

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
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I'm sure that some people in old Disney promotional material overhyped their excitement for marketing like we see here (One comes to mind is the Christmas Special from 2002, where an Imagineer was talking about Primeval Whirl being the next amazing addition to Animal Kingdom). Is this Test Track video overproduced and forced, it definitely feels like it. But it is designed for social media, something for people to scroll past that catches the eye and quickly tells them that Test Track is getting on update in 2025. Not everyone is engrossed in Disney Parks news as we are,.so they may only be finding out about Test Track's update through this video
 
Mr. Sullivan

Mr. Sullivan

Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o said:
But this isn’t really showing the actual job. It’s still about perpetuating the false notion that all of this work is done single handedly by Walt Disney Imagineering. Show set designer, like many jobs at Imagineering, is an office job. Showing the people actually doing the work now on site would really mean showing not just non-Imagineers, but non-Disney employees. This is even more puzzling as, outside of the creative leadership roles, show set designer would probably be the quintessential Imagineering role that people would understand as they’re the ones who design, develop and document the majority of the aspects of a theme park seen by guests.
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But its platforming a job. Yes, in the real scheme of things she would not often if ever be on the job site, she is still in the video getting to talk about a small part of what she does and that’s where I derive value.
WondersOfLife said:
While I mostly agree... I kind of still have some sort of negative headspace about it... With today's social media culture, none of it seems genuine anymore. You can look at old videos of when imagineers were talking about working on attractions such as American Adventure and here the imagineers' actual passion for the attraction they're working on... The intense level of research... The passion... They were given guidelines, but they were free to be completely creative... Look at the interviews of people working on things like Muppet Vision... Haunted Mansion... Heck, go back SEVERAL years to some of the super retro Disneyland projects. Everyone just seemed so into it.

Nowadays it just sounds like "They're telling me to do exactly this, so that is what I am going to do." and "This is going to make us a lot of money." It all sounds extremely scripted. Very Disney Channel-esque.

I'm sure these people HAVE creative juices... They're just restricted by the corporation and scared to lose their jobs.

Don't forget when Iger told us he has no intentions of creating original characters, with original stories (that isn't a sequel to a pre-existing movie), and original ideas anymore. THOSE are the creative juices we're missing now. And THAT'S why I couldn't give a hoot about today's imagineers. They're just construction puppets with no creative freedom telling us the same ol' social media spiel over and over again with that big flashy "imagineer" title that has a dying legacy.

............You didn't ask for this response. But...

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Click to expand...
I get you, I totally do. But like someone said above, any time something is shot for PR purposes, it’s always going to feature some heightened delivery of their excitement. The value I get, even if they’re staging something, is hearing about what these people do, their history that brought them to that point, and what they’re doing to contribute to an attraction, no matter how small or remote it may be.
 
WondersOfLife

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
Mr. Sullivan said:
But its platforming a job. Yes, in the real scheme of things she would not often if ever be on the job site, she is still in the video getting to talk about a small part of what she does and that’s where I derive value.

I get you, I totally do. But like someone said above, any time something is shot for PR purposes, it’s always going to feature some heightened delivery of their excitement. The value I get, even if they’re staging something, is hearing about what these people do, their history that brought them to that point, and what they’re doing to contribute to an attraction, no matter how small or remote it may be.
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I'll agree to disagree, except for the stories part. I agree with that one. I wish their creativity was utilized better.
 
Mr. Sullivan

Mr. Sullivan

Well-Known Member
WondersOfLife said:
I'll agree to disagree, except for the stories part. I agree with that one. I wish their creativity was utilized better.
Click to expand...
Yes I also wish they’d do more than these little vignettes. I would love for them to do more proper highlights of individual Imagineers working on something on like the Parks Blog or something. I’d love to be able to follow how someone got their start all the way to how they got such an import role on developing an attraction.
 
Gusey

Gusey

Well-Known Member
Mr. Sullivan said:
Yes I also wish they’d do more than these little vignettes. I would love for them to do more proper highlights of individual Imagineers working on something on like the Parks Blog or something. I’d love to be able to follow how someone got their start all the way to how they got such an import role on developing an attraction.
Click to expand...
It's such a shame that the We Call It Imagineering series ended so abruptly after 2 episodes. We could have had an episode about the Imagineering work that takes place outside of the parks
 

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