Hello! Do you have a story that you've always wanted to tell? Or maybe you want to start a new one, from scratch? Well, I can help you plan it out!
In my new online class-- Story Structure 101-- we walk through the steps of developing a simple premise into a satisfying outline. By the end of 10 weeks, you'll have an actionable plan to start writing (the best possible version of) your story.
And I'm giddy to announce it here, to the theme park nerds of Tumblr! Y'all (and your discourse) helped me learn how to do this job.
When you tell a story, you need at least 3 people. A character, an audience, and a storyteller.
In this scene from Tevye, the protagonist is a character... and their antagonist is the storyteller!
It's a clever fourth wall break, which ripples over to us (the audience). It's like we're eavesdropping on a private conversation between Tevye & Sholem. Suddenly the entire book feels like gossip, which we overheard! Should we not have listened to this story??
So that's 2 complete interactive storylines, in just 1 gag! Character vs Storyteller, and then Audience vs Character & Storyteller. Impressive structure!
"An important part of design is taking your materials and somehow abstracting them so they become stronger & more exciting, even when a realistic interior is required."
-- Tony Straiges, set designer
Employees at the chain's New Jersey castle have launched a union campaign aimed at improving pay and safety at a surprisingly dangerous job.
HuffPost spoke to three workers supportive of the organizing effort, who said they want to be treated like the professional entertainers they are.
They said the pay at Medieval Times tends to lag behind comparable industry work, with many performers starting around the New Jersey minimum wage of $13 per hour and working years before reaching $20. And they believe some workers end up with crucial tasks, such as handling horses, without sufficient training.
Every two-hour show at Medieval Times requires careful planning and rehearsal. The knights are essentially stuntmen, leaping from horses and smashing wooden lances on one another’s shields as they joust. The show includes complex dressage movements, as well as a falconer who handles a bird as it flies through the arena over the crowd. Performers often do two and sometimes three shows a day.
“They treat it like a normal job, and it isn’t,” one worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said of the company. “Today [managers] will call us a sports team; tomorrow they’ll call us a theater. But we are treated like a business, like a normal 9-to-5 job.”
Inadequate staffing in a tight labor market has led to a number of safety concerns, the worker said. Some performers have felt overworked during the rebound from the pandemic and fear an accident during a live show.
With limited security at the shows, performers are the ones left to enforce boundaries and police the crowd — including when guests reach out to touch the falcon as it flies overhead, endangering the bird and themselves. And workers say the rotating cast of queens is subjected to unwanted touching during pre- and post-show meet-and-greets with fans, especially with so many bachelor parties on the weekends.
“If you mix children, alcohol and animals, it can be a very interesting situation if you don’t have enough eyes on it,” explained another worker. “Not having enough event staff, that puts a lot of people at risk.” [...]
“It feels like the customer experience so greatly outweighs not only our employee experience but our safety and our well-being,” the employee said.
Thompson, 25, said he and his co-workers are passionate about their jobs and wound up at Medieval Times because they love their craft. He has spent much of his life around horses and helps tend to the two dozen at his castle, each with its own personality. [...]
Three issues he hopes the union can force the company to address are safety, pay and “respect.”
“They treat a lot of the professionally trained actors like anybody can do this job,” Thompson said. “They treat a lot of the stablehands like we’re fully replaceable and they consider it an entry-level job. I’ve worked entry-level animal care jobs. This is not that. You can get hurt or die doing this.” [...]
“I know what acting unions are like, and I know that our situation has become pretty dire at the castle,” said one worker. “Something has to be done.”
To stay at the animal kingdom resort during peak season is still less than $600 a day. The Disneyland hotel is less than $500 a day. Per room. Let alone per guest.
If I was the sort of person who didn’t care about money and wanted a star wars experience I’d probably still opt for a different Disney hotel and just go to the galaxy’s edge section of the park. That price is more than I think even most super well off families are willing to save up for.
If I remember correctly: the hotel is supposed to be a Disney Cruise… but in space. And Disney Cruises are prohibitively expensive.
It’s disgraceful behavior, imo. The underclasses should be allowed to enjoy Star Wars & theme parks & ambitiously immersive hotels, at affordable prices.
Fuck Disney. I hope they lose a fortune, and that upper management is forced to retire in disgrace.
In Designing Games: a Guide to Engineering Experience, Tynan Sylvester describes his 3 objectives, when he's trying to immerse an audience into a video game. Here is my attempt to paraphrase them:
✅ Design your game around an activity that engrosses the audience. Once they get caught up in the flow, they'll forget their everyday concerns & and focus only on the game. This is a good place to show off for the audience, since they're paying close attention!
✅ Design the activity to get the audience pumped. Use the game to stimulate their emotions. Get them excited! Scare them! Flatter them! Pique their curiosity! Piss 'em off, until they're ready to fight back! Whatever's right for your game. It'll get the audience loosened up!
✅ Use the game’s “fiction layer” to help the audience process the experience they're having. Treat them as if they are characters in a story, and they may start to play the part!
Back when Tiffins opened, Joe Rohde posted an Instagram about how ordering the whole-fried sustainable fish is actually an Experiential Story that represents the very soul of Animal Kingdom
Because eating a fish who still has a head is the sort of broadening experience that you might have while traveling
And it gives you a greater respect for the animal who died for your sustenance
I wish I could find the post, because I swear he also said that the tastiest part of the whole-fried sustainable fish is its cheeks
It’s like a bonus for anyone who’s brave enough to dig into their dinner’s face
Well
Let me tell you
Tonight I ate the whole-fried sustainable fish
It tasted excellent, and it was a broadening experience
But it had no cheeks
Its head was hollow
I’m not sure what to make of that
Maybe I imagined that very specific and Rohde-esque recommendation
Or maybe they change the fish based on availability (although the waitress said they don’t)
My best guess is that it’s true, but Joe Rohde hoards it all for himself
There’s just a big barrel of fish cheek meat in the back
And the only way to open it is with a key that’s disguised as a Bhutanese earring
Despite the disappointment -- or maybe because of it -- Rohde & his team told me an effective Experiential Story.
It prompted me to arc, as a character. "A believer, who gets disappointed by his rabbi. He learned -- at Disney's Animal Kingdom -- that life wouldn't be as happy as Joe Rohde had promised. One glance into those hollow fried jaws, and Ian gave up on becoming an Imagineer."
That's a lot of nuance to fit in a fish's mouth! That's a hell of an Experiential Story! And I am grateful to Rabbi Rohde, for teaching me how to process life-changing moments like this.
For the record: I haven't given up completely on theme park design.
Because I've been researching how to tell an interactive story since 2007... and I'm finally ready to teach it, as a class!
So I'm making it! It'll be an online class -- with an interesting curriculum & a ton of creative prompts -- all (taught / spieled) by me.
Which means I'm gonna be using this blog more often, as I design the class. Tumblr helps me get into the teaching mindset.
TL;DR? To the 4 people who read my long posts: hello! I'm back now. I hope you're prospering!
There are many reasons why I don’t buy the cynical interpretation that Ariel gives away her identity for a man.
One of them starts in the next paragraph. Another one can be read here.
This screencap comes from Ariel’s introductory scene. She’s searching through a shipwreck for human artifacts–which is her passion–when suddenly she’s attacked by a shark.
While fleeing, she accidentally drops her bag full of artifacts right in the shark’s path. Without hesitating, she chooses her passion over her safety, risking her life for a dinglehopper.
The girl is an anthropologist who studies humans. That’s her passion, that’s how she spends her time…that’s her identity.
Sure, Eric is the catalyst that leads Ariel to changing her species and leaving her family–he certainly intensifies her feelings–but they’re feelings she already has, and they dictate most of her life.
If Ariel had the chance to become a human before she met Eric, everything that we know about her suggests that she probably would.
Also, what finally pushed her over the edge was her dad trashing her stuff. Like, the dude literally blew up everything in her cave. Ariel didn’t abandon her life and family for a man, she ran away from home because her dad was being an asshole. I don’t know about you, but I’d leave too if my dad did something like that.
Can we just talk for a second about how Disney fully could have leaned into the crazy Latina women and husbands who roll their eyes at it, but Felix is always so fuckin quick to validate her. Not one crazy joke, not even a single comment, just fully encourages her to feel her emotions.
when she’s crying at Antonio’s ceremony, he could fully have been like yo chill stop being dramatic, but all he says is love, you’re gonna get him wet. Not a, don’t cry, not an omg stop, just a gentle reminder to move the cloud over a little.
And with the whole hurricane wedding, he’s not, oh she ruined the weather or ugh it was a disaster. Just a, what a joyous day. Like she’s warning mirabel and he’s like fuck yeah I get to talk about one of the best days of my life
Look how fucking happy he is, getting pelted by hail by his fucking goddess of a wife
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