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Arrow Suspended documentary

Sam

TS Member
Introduction

With my writings, I've tried to upgrade the standard of prose about theme parks and rollercoasters. But I've become more frustrated as I've written these articles, that the written form doesn't allow me to express what I want to say completely. I'm not sure how well the visual excess and jazzy rom-pom-pom of the world of theme parks translates into dry written pieces.

I've become interested in the idea of documentary, of college. Watching amateur rollercoaster documentaries, I've been very disappointed with their quality. They are often, let's be honest, un-watchable. I think this is down to two main reasons:

  1. People using their own footage, which is often poor quality, and looks unprofessional. It also only tends to be obvious that they only have access to their local park.
  2. People narrating themselves. Very few people have access to studio-quality microphones, but worse than that, their own voices often sound almost comically unprofessional. Especially if they have anything approaching a Bolton/Liverpool accent.

In making my own work, I've eliminated both completely. The former, by using a cut-up college style, trying to weave dozens of found clips into a coherent visual narrative. The latter, by using subtitles instead of a voice-over.

The work that I've made is ostensibly a documentary about Arrow's suspended rollercoaster, but I hope it's more of a visual essay on the bizarre aesthetics of the rides than an academic history lesson. I've entirely assembled it from archive footage from dozens of different sources, and merely pieced it together into an interesting patchwork.

I've tried to make rollercoasters beautiful, even movingly so, by juxtaposing archive footage with carefully selected music choices. A few people I've previewed this to have commented that they think the Bat/Leonard Cohen section of the film is too long, but I disagree. For me, it forms the heart of the film, and the balance of that song ('Suzanne') and that grainy footage is very moving.

This work is heavily inspired by the documentaries of Adam Curtis, particularly The Century of the Self (2002) and All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011). If you haven't seen his stuff, I'd recommend you do so as soon as you can. Thanks Adam.

The film

I've put it on Dropbox because I don't really know what else to do with it. I recommend you download the file and watch it from your computer rather than streaming it from Dropbox, if you want the best visual experience.

I hope you find it interesting and enjoyable if you watch it. I recommend full-screen. Thankyou for saying nice things about my geeky stuff in the past. :)

Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/57287212

Music list:
The Velvet Underground - Sunday Morning
Aphex Twin - Jynweythek
The Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For My Man
Leonard Cohen - Suzanne
Cocteau Twins - Evangeline
Air - Sexy Boy
Boris - Statement
 
How do you mean? After the 'Thankyou for watching' right? I hope it all uploaded OK! :)

Sent from my HTC One V using Tapatalk 2
 
Sam, have I ever mentioned how much I adore you? I've only seen about 2 minutes so far (If Dropbox doesn't stop buffering around, I'm going to SEND IT TO CHINA!) but I already know it'll be a great documentary because every single essay thing you've done before is, well, wow :p [/understatement]
 
Sam said:
I'm not sure how well the visual excess and jazzy rom-pom-pom of the world of theme parks translates into dry written pieces.

All I can do here Sam, is give you my personal opinions of your pieces. As soon as I see "Theme Park: New Coaster/ YEAR" etc, it is getting read.

The quality with which you have translated the near impossible, into text, is at times astonishing. Your classic Europa Park thread I found extraordinary.

I can continue with superlatives, but this is where you truly excel on this forum. I'm very much looking forward to this video, on a coaster manufacturer that fascinates me.

I come here to offer opinions, my thoughts on things, and sometimes get stuck into a meaty debate - I doubt that I will ever be able to match up though, to the quality, and knowledge that are contained in your brilliantly enjoyable threads.

Keep up the great work! ;D
 
Rowe said:
Sam, have I ever mentioned how much I adore you? I've only seen about 2 minutes so far (If Dropbox doesn't stop buffering around, I'm going to SEND IT TO CHINA!) but I already know it'll be a great documentary because every single essay thing you've done before is, well, wow :p [/understatement]

Thankyou so much! :D

If you have the bandwidth to do so, I recommend downloading to your PC and watching like that instead of streaming. I'd put it on YouTube, but it has copyrighted music in it!
 
Err, warning. I think not all of it has uploaded. Trying again now, I think it's cut it off halfway through. Disabling link for now. :/
 
So I watched the incomplete version, I must admit I enjoyed it very much! I learned a few things from that documentary, such as Arrow getting the inspiration from the flying turns coaster. Plus I saw some new footage of The Bat at Kings Island! =)

So far Sam, You've made a fantastic and very interesting documentary and I can't wait until you upload the full version (Good luck in doing so by the way)

=)
 
I'm sorry everyone! Trying to get the full 23 minute version uploaded as quick as possible. I think the one I put up earlier cut out at the 15 minute mark.

Thanks for your kind words so far though, it means a lot to me. :)
 
Video is now back up online, full version, after I uploaded it to Vimeo. :)

Also uploading another version to Dropbox, I'll update this post when I'm done. But for now, enjoy the Vimeo version, and sorry for the inconveniences!

If you only saw the 'abrupt ending' version, please give it another try! :)
 
Just seen the entire thing now after the 'Abrupt Ending' version disappeared and as ever, I'm incredibly impressed by your work and research! I'm not particularly a rollercoaster enthusiast but the documentary has certainly educated me on them further!

Well done on it!
 
Brilliant! Very professionally done, the cutting together of clips and the music overlay do make it feel like a proper TV style documentary. Very informative as well :)
 
Watching the clips of Vampire's original trains makes me want to experience the coaster with them even more! :(

Great documentary, Sam! :)
 
Wow Sam that's absolutley fantastic, well done! I really enjoyed watching it and it was very interesting. Very well put together also, you chose the perfect clip for the introduction of the B&M inverted coaster!

Thanks!

:)
 
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