New Fantasmic Video

[DrStephenCW]

Hi Everyone,

I made a home video of Fantasmic back in 1992 when I lived near Disneyland. I went to the park shooting video of the show several times over a period of a year and a half, so it's like a six camera shoot. I recently bought a digitizer so I digitized it and posted it at

http://drstephencw.blogspot.com/2006/08/fantasmic.html

Have fun, it's free, and I hope you enjoy it.

[BrandonH]

For both the Fantasmic and fireworks videos, the video is in slow motion, while the sound is at normal speed. Since these shows thrive on timing, I could not enjoy watching them out of sync. The editing I saw in the first couple minutes of Fantasmic was great, and I'm sure the rest is too.

If anyone is able to watch these in sync, please let me know what your setup is.

[DrStephenCW]

They are in DivX format. Try downloading the latest DivX player from http://www.divx.com .

(Works on my machine!)

[BrandonH]

I'm using Windows ME, so I won't be able to download the latest player. If I think of it, I will check this topic again after I upgrade to Vista.

[DrStephenCW]

Bummer. Sorry it didn't work out. I know about 15 people have downloaded the video - comments anyone?

[Disney Duster]

Well, I don't know if it's just because I don't have the right software, but Windows Media Player only played it as an audio file.

[DrStephenCW]

That would be consistent with a system that doesn't have the DivX codec installed. You can get it at http://www.divx.com . It's a safe download.

[Disney Duster]

Well, I got the Divx software and finally saw your video. It was pretty good! You got shots of almost everything people needed to see, and although I felt some shots needed close-ups and some close-ups weren't needed, the close-ups were pretty much where they should have been. There was a sort of jerkiness to the video, like it was always skipping a mili-second of video, or something. I don't know if it was just my computer, though. I enjoyed the video. It was a lot like the Fantasmic! I saw in Disney World except there was a medly of music from a whole bunch of Disney films that showed scenes in bubbles, a segment from Pocahontas with John Smith's ship in place of Peter Pan's segment, and Ursula never came out. I'm also pretty sure their were more villains shown in the magic mirror. I have the CD, so I could predict when a lot of scenes were coming. It was cool. Not a bad video at all. So I'll say your video of Fantasmic! was almost fantastic! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to see the Disneyland's Fantasmic! in a video that wasn't crappy.

[BrandonH]

I was able to open the file with Windows Media Player, and it worked just fine. No jerkiness, skipping, or sync issues.

The video itself is quite amazing. It captured just about every great moment in the show, and the closeups of the boat characters were particularly pleasing. The grand finale of the show still packs a wallop 13 years later, doesn't it?

It would be cool if Disney ever released an official DVD celebrating their shows, fireworks, and/or parades in the theme parks. I plan on contacting Disney customer service and giving them the suggestion.

[DrStephenCW]

Thanks for the feedback!

One idea I had, after cutting all that together, was to work with Disney on a "Encyclopedia Fantasmica", which would be an interactive DVD that would let you click on any item in the show and then it would tell you about it - either where it came from, or the tech that was used to create it in the show, or whatever. I work in the games business but and I've even worked with Disney on some things but I never got around to 'pitching' my idea.

It would be cool if someone made it.

[Disney Duster]

It would be cool if Disney ever released an official DVD celebrating their shows, fireworks, and/or parades in the theme parks. I plan on contacting Disney customer service and giving them the suggestion.

One idea I had, after cutting all that together, was to work with Disney on a "Encyclopedia Fantasmica", which would be an interactive DVD that would let you click on any item in the show and then it would tell you about it - either where it came from, or the tech that was used to create it in the show, or whatever.

Both of these ideas are terrific! The "Enclyclopedia Fantasmica" would be a very cool DVD feature, but I think it should give an option to click on any character during the show, too, so you could find out about them and see some unaltered clips with them in it, as well.

[DrStephenCW]

Right, by item I meant anything - characters, boats, light effects.