It took two weeks, but I finally finished up cutting the video that I shot at Holiday World for their new ride, Thunderbird.
I'm very happy with the content that I got out of the interviews. They're good people there, super passionate about their park. After the ugly lawsuit over ownership between family members, it felt like this particular event was the turning point where things were back to "normal." It's still sad to think that Will Koch is no longer with us, but if you believe in any kind of afterlife, you have to imagine that he's thrilled with the direction the park has taken.
Indeed, I think one of the most interesting things about this project is how far it ups their game. The station for Thunderbird and the surrounding area are above average nice, as nice as anything you would find at a bigger park, or even in Orlando. They didn't skimp on the details. If anything, it creates a problem because you can go back down the hill to The Voyage, and the station feels cheap with exposed particle board and vinyl siding. It's definitely a new era.
As for the video, I was a bit frustrated that I couldn't realistically bring more gear. My light kit would have made the exposure on the interviews much better (not to mention some back lighting would have helped with depth). I also recall how hard it is to shoot on that camera in bright sunlight without some kind of external monitor, where you can better see the white balance and focus. The image quality of that camera in the general sense is pretty good, but if you don't get the exposure right, you lose detail on the bright end and introduce a ton of noise into the bottom, even when you shoot on a relatively flat color profile.
Still, it's content that matters, and I feel like there was a solid narrative to pull together. I was more interested in telling that story than compiling more ride footage, which everyone has seen elsewhere. I hope the folks at the park like it too!
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