Summary of the week: This week, we took down the installation at the Purnell lobby. We also ran two versions of our experience at the ETC Fall Festival!
Moving Back to the ETC
Angie got everyone donuts and Aldora got Starbucks for the team for the hard work. We took the installation down together as a group. First, we moved the pedestals and the props out of the way. Then, we started to move the clouds and umbrellas. We threw the pieces that we no longer needed away, such as the large clouds, and brought the other parts back to ETC. The take down process did not take very long, which was nice, the only trouble was finding a key for the lift to take down the UV lights. Once that was settled, we were able to complete the last part of the process and wrap up.
Aldora taking down the clouds with a special helper 🙂
Angie taking down the fishing line
John brought his car to the lobby so we could take everything back to the ETC, as Alex was busy with Playground work. We moved our items to the fab room to sort and clean for Festival!
Festival Version Plan
Due to the Fall Festival not including a showing of Lear, the team decided to have a version of the installation that fit the audience more. We planned to cover our assigned room, the board game room, with black cardboard and hide speakers in the walls so guests would get beamed with directional audio as they were encouraged to write their feelings on the walls. The audio included prompts that related to the themes of Lear, such as grief and regret, but allowing guests to write on the walls in an almost child-like manner, tying it back to Sesame Street and the processing of grief through the lens of a child. Once our installation and hardware were back at the ETC, we put this plan into motion.
Preparing for Festival
Angie, Aldora and Lauren painted cardboard sheets black and navy so people can write on them with the invisible ink pens during Festival.
Charlie recorded new lines and sounds for the festival experience and added manual lightning controls to the Unity project so that it could be triggered upon guest interaction. We reorganized the board game room to prepare for Festival as well as set up a vertical slice of our installation outside the third floor elevators, using one umbrella and one pedestal.
Livestream and Trailer
Aldora worked on the livestream for Festival, and the project trailer was presented in the livestream. The project trailer was created by Angie, who used recordings from the nights the installation ran as well as audio to build the mood of the installation. Aldora skillfully managed her time between Curtain Call and her livestream responsibilities and we are very grateful for her efforts!
Festival Night
On the festival day, Aldora had to run the livestream, Lauren had to run the dark ride class experience, and Jiaxin was sick, so Angie and Charlie took the shifts for the project. Angie took the first shift, giving guests context for the experience and how guests should interact with the installation. She found that some guests were timid at first, but when told that they could write or draw whatever they wanted, they opened up more. Angie also realized that some guests did not realize that the room was an experience when she sat behind the door, so she started standing in front of the door to allow guests inside. Charlie then took the next few shifts, as Angie ran to go run the Curse, with a short break in between. By the end of the night, the walls were filled with writing and drawings in the invisible ink pen by our guests!
