 |
|
|
||||
|
I have a passion for immersive storytelling through themed entertainment. Throughout my academic career, I have focused heavily on understanding the theme park and themed attraction as its own unique medium, and hold a First Class Honours degree in BA Media. Whether it’s through themed retail, dining, exhibits or theme parks, I believe I have the knowledge and talent to help influence this amazing and unique industry. Telling stories and immersing guests takes people to places they could only ever dream of, and with a particular interest in the future of the industry and the amazing possibilities opened up with the internet, video games and virtual reality, I think I can help guide guests to entirely new worlds of interactivity, immersion, fantasy and fun. I graduated as Valedictorian in 2010 with First Class Honours (the highest degree awarded in the United Kingdom) in BA Media from Nottingham Trent University, covering Film Studies, Globalization, Cultural Policy, Human Desire, Theorizing & Researching Culture, Popular Culture and more. I have also studied for six months at California State University Long Beach in 2009, covering Creative Writing, Script Writing, Media Aesthetics, Documentary Production and Alternative Media and graduating the year with a 4.0 GPA. Please feel free to read my dissertation, Disneyland Aesthetics - The Co-development of Disney Theme Parks and Film; and Analysis of Theme Parks through Film Theory. Here is the abstract; This dissertation examines the creative and aesthetic links between Hollywood cinema and contemporary theme parks, with specific focus on Disneyland. By examining the history of the industries, I identify the impacts each has had upon the other, with particular focus on synergy, and then use this to support the assertion that film theory can be used to creatively analyse theme parks and their attractions, supported by a case study example of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland. Data has been collected from literature concerning both film theory and theme parks, field research, quantitative analysis of Disneyland’s attractions, newspapers, articles and an interview conducted by myself with Eddie Sotto, former Vice President of Concept Development at Walt Disney Imagineering. The dissertation recognises the creative, cultural, economic and technological impacts of Disney theme parks, justifying them as credible creative texts, and then finds success in applying key film theory, including the frame, mise-en-scene and the three act structure, to Disneyland, additionally identifying new criteria of analysis specific to the medium. I then conclude by highlighting the trends which are currently leading the theme park industry away from film, increasingly incorporating techniques of video gaming to differentiate from the rise of immersive 3D cinema. Website design by Cole Younger. Photos by Kathy Chandler. |
To read my themed design blog, please
head to
Disneyology
|
|||
