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PARK↓NG
October 1, 2008
Happy new month! This week brings
us to Cedar Point, a park that I have really mixed feelings about. There
was a lot there that I liked about it, but ultimately I didn't really come away
thinking that the park had a real identity. Sure, it has the whole "roller
coaster capital of the world" thing going for it, but that's not really my
thing. I loves me the rolley rides, but a park has to have more than that
to really get me. Cedar Point was lacking something that I really can't
put into words. It's not a bad park or anything, but I guess my
expectations were raised too high. Whatever.
A belated thanks to Lance over at Screamscape for giving us a link (and some
kind words) with the Geauga Lake video.
As the next episodes come online, I assure you they'll be a lot more park heavy.
I think we may have lost some folks when we went two weeks without a park.
I think we're picking up our stride now and starting to fire on all cylinders.
Don't forget to subscribe to the Youtube channel and PLEASE don't hesitate to
leave comments. We're working in a vacuum here if you don't give us some
input on what works and what doesn't work.
Okay, I'm shutting up. Go watch the video and stuff. And remember to
tip your servers.
-Steve
Steve@themeparksushi.com
Episode
6 - Cedar Point
Cedar Point. Voted the world's best amusement park in the
world multiple years running. So yeah, it doesn't suck.
September 24, 2008
Not a whole lot I can really add this week. This week was
a pretty fun piece to put together. We definitely would have fared a bit
better with stronger cameras for this segment. We were using a Panasonic
PVGS-150, which is a great camera for daytime stuff. In a dark restaurant
or a dimly lit prison, however, the camera has problems. We've since
upgraded our gear (to a pair of Sony VX-2100s), but that doesn't do a whole lot
of good now, does it?
It seems like I may be making excuses a lot (wah, the audio was weak. Wah,
the video is dark), but the thing you have to realize is that the production of
this video has been one big long learning experience. I think as we move
on in this project, you'll see where we figure out problems and make the
necessary corrections. And in future projects, you'll really see how much
we've picked up and taken from this.
And yes. There will be future projects. But that's later.
Right now, we're only on the fifth episode. This first series is planned
to run for 13 or 14 episodes, so there's a ways to go.
But let me stress again that you have to help us out here. If you don't
tell us what works and what doesn't work, we don't know what we should focus on
more. So leave some comments on the Youtube videos or shoot one of us an
email.
Karen@themeparksushi.com
Steve@themeparksushi.com
Episode Five - Mike's Mansfield Prison
A quick bite at Mike's Place in Kent, Ohio, a drop-in at the Mansfield
Reformatory,
and then we're checking in at Hotel Breakers at Cedar Point.
September 19, 2008
(sorry this is two days late. We ran into a ton of troubles getting
this week's video uploaded to Youtube. The first three attempts resulted
in some really jumpy, ugly video. Looks like fourth time was the charm)
Just to reiterate what Karen said last week...the five worst words
anyone in media production can ever utter are "We'll fix it in post."
You're not going to fix it in post. You're going to get to
post-production, realize that you've screwed up something that cannot be fixed,
and loudly proclaim that you'll never again utter that phrase. Then you'll
forget all about it and screw up the next time you're working on a project.
So we're in Aurora, Ohio this time around for Geauga Lake. This is a park
that never 100 percent grabbed me because it felt like it was in between
personalities. Everywhere you looked you'd see leftovers from the Six
Flags years. Cedar Fair didn't seem too concerned about giving the park a
new identity, and as a result the park felt weird. Even in 2006, it seemed
like a park that was on the brink of going away. When we visited in 2007
(after the removal of Steel Venom and X-Flight), the internets were abuzz with
rumors about the park's demise. You could feel it in the air, but there
wasn't any confirmation.
I probably liked the park more that time around, despite the fact that I didn't
ride a single thing while we were there (I had gotten all the credits in 2006,
and we were fighting light to get as much video as we could). When we
started out, I was all about the big parks like Cedar Point and King's Island.
By the middle of 2007, I had really gained a lot of respect for the smaller,
regional parks.
So of course they had to shut the place down a month later. My approval is
generally the kiss of death.
I'm pretty proud of what we pulled off with this video. I didn't think
we'd possibly pull a good segment out of this, but somehow it all came together
(except for some horrible line readings by yours truly. I promise I'll
work on that for future segments).
Hope to see you back next week (and what say you SUBSCRIBE to the Youtube
channel? Kthanks!).
Steve
steve@themeparksushi.com
Episode Four - Geauga Lake
Geauga Lake was a pretty nice regional park with a lot of history.
Now it's history.
September 9, 2008
Ok, I'm going to point out the elephant in the room. Our "live"
audio is not the best it could have been. We did some tests with our
microphones in our home and in our back yard, but that wasn't a true test of
what we'd be dealing with when we ventured away. We live on a quiet residential
road and we don't have a problem with noisy bugs. Too bad we were filming near
the highway at the height of cicada season. I tried to fix it as well I
could (within the confines of Premiere, that is) and it sounds MUCH better than
it did, but it's still pretty crappy. We could have cut the bad audio shots, but
by doing so, we thought we were losing some of the personality of the segment.
There's nothing like learning on your feet. Sure, it's nice to have someone tell
you all the answers when you have questions, but then you don't get the same
amount of satisfaction from the answer. Anyway, we got a wireless mic and have
used it in all sorts of places (we even filmed a wedding on a windy beach and
got near flawless audio.) Plus, I learned tons of little tweaks when I tried to
fix the mess in post. We're more knowledgeable and better equipped to handle
audio now.
You live, you learn and then you buy cool gear.
Next week: coasters!
Karen
Karen@ThemeParkSushi.com
Episode Three - The Amish President's Frank Bloody Nose
We've entered Ohio, and it's time to explore some of the alternative
destinations we scoped out.
We check out the Amish, a big ass clock, some good eats, and a couple of
corpses.
September 3, 2008
Most of the old amusement parks were built near or from other
attractions. Camden Park,
for instance, started as a picnic and rest area for the city of Huntington's old
street car system in the early 1900s. It's the same for a lot of the old girls.
(I think all old little mom-and-pop amusement parks should be called old girls.)
Some were even built near roadside attractions. After the roadside attraction
died off, the park manages (occasionally) to survive. This explains why many of
these little parks won't be found just off the modern highway system. Most of
these parks are going to predate it.
Now, most old girls won't have knock-your-socks-off-thrill-a-second coasters,
but they'll still have a certain *something*. Think grandparents or
great-grandparents in amusement park terms. (Ok, even I admit that's weird, but
follow me on this for a minute.) Like your own MawMa and Pap-Pap, these parks
can't really keep up with the times. It's ok, because we don't expect them to or
really want them to. There's something comfortable and familiar about spending
time with them. It's nice to know that, even though things change, there are
some places and people that won't. Strictly speaking, that's not always a good
thing. Old mom-and-pop amusement parks and grandparents are two exceptions.
With all that said. . . this week's segment doesn't feature a park at all. . .
well, that is, an amusement park at least. While we were in West Virginia,
we couldn't resist taking in a bona fide urban legend: THE MOTHMAN. I eat this
stuff with a biscuit, so I hope you enjoy.
As always, we welcome your thoughts, mom and comments.
Karen
Karen@ThemeParkSushi.com
Episode Two - The Mothman Museum
Point Pleasant, West Virginia is home to one of our country's best urban
legends. We stop in to check out the Mothman Museum and do some exploring
of our own.
August 27, 2008 - Part 1
Some time ago, Steve and I got fed up with a lot of the videos we'd see online
about visiting parks – that'd be theme parks and amusement parks for the uninitiated. If
it wasn't coaster porn, it was a music video featuring coasters, the occasional
flat ride and maybe some friends of the person shooting it to (occasionally)
add a laugh.
In the beginning, all was well. We'd hungrily search out videos and relish in
each second. After a while though, the videos became less and less satisfying.
That's not to say we never found quality vids; the truth is very much to the
contrary. There are some AMAZING things out there.
What was it exactly we were missing? Videos that would show us
the park and what it was like to actually visit it or if there were other
interesting things nearby. We tried "theme park" DVDs
and would be glued to the set whenever a TV show with a park in it came on.
Nothing really cut it for us. More often than not, the shows (and DVDs) were
dull, annoying and/or not very informative.
So, where do we go from here? The way we saw it, there were
two options: sit around and complain about it OR do something about it.
We chose to do something about it.
With all that said, we present to you our attempt to make the kind of videos
we'd like to see.
After you watch it, let us know what you think, even if you hated it, we still
want to know.
Thanks for reading . . .and watching!
Karen
Karen@ThemeParkSushi.com
Episode One -
Camden Park and Hillbilly Hot Dogs
Camden Park is a nice local park in Huntington, West Virginia. We
check it out as well as swing
by a local hot dog stand for some quality wieners.
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