So, about two months ago, as part of our unit on Fantasy, we took a trip to Florida, and while there, we visited Walt Disney World.

The purpose of going to Disney World was to help us get footage and interviews for a project we were doing about how Disney’s imagineers used rides and shows to bring fantasy to life. Each of us chose a specific ride, and made a video about how that ride made fantasy “real”.

I chose to do my project on the Haunted Mansion; I enjoyed the dark and creepy feel of it, and the fact that it was created not based on a movie or show, but rather as its own little word, meant that it was perfect for the project I was working on.

One of the issues I didn’t think about when I chose the Haunted Mansion as a ride was how difficult filming in the dark would be. A lot of my footage ended up being unusable, so most of the footage in my video of the actual ride is footage I pulled from YouTube videos.

I went through a few different drafts of my video, mostly to add more information or replace visuals in order to make them more effective. However, the actual content video stayed pretty consistent throughout all the drafts, since it mostly focussed on the requirements I’d had from the beginning: give some background information on the ride, explain how the ride makes fantasy “real”, get some interviews with other Disney World attendees or with cast members.

My final video ended up looking like this:

The main things that I feel I could have improved about my video are that I wish more of my own footage had worked out, and that I wish I could have gotten more information on how the mechanics of the ride worked. Overall, however, I think the video answered the question and showcased the ride pretty well, so I’m happy with how it ended up.

Toodles!