Grove Shot 2

Here is another grove shot, from a wider angle so you can see pretty much the entire grove. And in this shot you can see two flying harvester projections on the wall. Enjoy!

The latest news

Here's the latest news.

1. Our audio recordings are almost ready. You'll be able to download full tracks of live Horizons stuff. No studio horseshit but real "in ride" recordings. You'll also get the tape called "Horizons Confessions"! We recorded this several months after Horizons closed while we drank beer and watched videos. We wanted an audio record of our adventures so we'd have something to listen to when we got old (like now).

2. We have had Google Analytics installed for a few weeks now. THERE ARE HORIZONS FANS ALL OVER THE GLOBE! It's amazing to see who's looking at this blog and where they're from. Japan, Taiwan, Romania, Australia, Germany, etc. WONDERFUL!

3. We get tons of views from Emeryville CA every morning at about 11am. We love you Pixar!

4. Tons more from Glendale. Keep up the good fight WDI!!

5. Orlando, Los Angeles......... build Horizons 2.0, Disney! What are you waiting for? We promise not to leave our ride vehicles.

Birthday Background

The birthday scene actually had a background painting behind it. It was almost impossible to see because of the Holograms and show lighting inside of the room but it was there. Another fine example of the detail in Horizons. In order to see it you would have had to climb on top of the Birthday set, as we did. You can see the window frames of the room as they come up and simply end.

Another shot. You can see a little bit of the Birthday room in the lower right corner.

Sweet detail....sweet sweet detail! Look at the little houses! The farm! The red thingys! I'm starting to change my opinion on where in Horizons I would live. This Space Colony painting looks very inviting.

Imagineering Disney Blog

I hope these guys get an itch to do some Horizons based projects. (hint hint)

I'm fascinated by this blog Well done, Imagineering Disney!

"Hoot and Chief Foundation" Achievement Award

This year's "Hoot and Chief Foundation" Achievement Award goes to none other than long time MVT fan Kyle!
In a daring act of Horizons passion, Kyle and his lovely partner Jenn of Tomorrow, were able to sweet talk the nice people at Mouse Surplus into making this incredible shot happen.
Kyle, who has displayed an unfailing love for Horizons through such ventures as "Hadley's Hope", is seen here "looking toward tomorrow" atop the famous $14,000 ride vehicle.

If Kyle can dream it, he can do it.

Hey!

It's too early to announce it but it looks like an independant film will soon be made about our adventures! We've been thinking about this for a couple months and it looks like everything is coming together. Several film makers have contacted us about such a project and we think we've found the right person to pull it off.

Mesa Verde Times won't change a bit except for an update or two about the film. In fact we see this blog going on forever because we have a SHIT LOAD of material!

Thank you for the kind words Horizons fans! We'll be here to entertain you for the rest of your lives.

We say it again and again

This blog is for YOU. If you found it you are welcomed to enjoy it because you found it for a reason. You love Horizons and you miss it!

Chief and I aren't the "masters" of this attraction like many disney fan sites claim (or want) to be. We just did what we had to do for our own memories and now we want to share it all with you. All of it.

Comment if you have the time. We like it and we want to hear from you.

Video Clip Explained

^

When we shot this clip we were under the empty Harvester seen here in the lower center. It was a hollow fiberglass prop with most of the back end missing. Of course, one could go under the groves if one were so inclined to walk like an ape through the metal supports and plywood. Chief and I, being two and not one, did it anyway and we liked it under there. The Harvester on the right is one in the video clip.

Here's a shot looking up at the Harvester. There was just enough room to place a camera as you see in the video posted by Chief. This happened totally by chance because I was peeking out through the hole and saw how fucking cool it looked.

This was one of those random times when we happened upon something that was too good for words. It had to be filmed right then and there.

I can't tell you how many times I watched this footage and I even made a six hour VHS loop of it that played over and over again.

I'm back!

Hiya Horizons pals! I was on a little vacation with Sunnycide and Hoot Jr.

I LOVE the idea of a party. LOVE IT. Let's not wait for our "cool people" count to hit a certain number let's just have a party. We'll make it far enough in advance so folks can plan on being there. "Hadley's Hope" has to be the band and that's a fact.

Our old friend "Anonymous" asked how the Harvester disk thingy worked. It was suspended by four strands of fishing line that pulled it up. Under the set there were piles of tangled line.

Party on!

Grove Shot 1 (Full)

We posted a while back about a couple of videos on YouTube that happened to be from our adventures. Well, here is the full version of that grove shot. It includes Hoot setting up the camera in the beginning, then after 6+ min or so, he comes back and picks up the camera to come find me. I have called this one 'Shot 1' because we have a couple more grove shots like this, but from different angles. Enjoy!

The holograms, Jim.

Kyle's right...

That man is going to EAT that baby! Look at him! This guy's suffering from "Space Madness"! He looks like he'd cry tears of sorrow as he caves your head in with an end table!

"Davey, daddy is going away for awhile......"

Birthday Party

Here's a cool shot we got by climbing up the outside of the apartment. Yes, those are paper shop rags under the characters so they could soil themselves at will! I know I said it before but that IS the same baby as was in Space Mountain's Home of Future living:

http://www.omniluxe.net/wyw/sm.htm

Smile, You're On Hoot & Chief Cam!

Ok, so we have explained in previous posts how we would stand in the load area watching for a gap of empty cars so we could jump out without anyone seeing us, as well as having enough empty cars to have some time to take pictures in a set, sometimes 30 seconds, sometimes a minute or two. And we have explained how we started staying inside the ride for extended periods, sometimes hours at a time.

Well, when we started the extended stay adventures, we quickly realized one little problem, how do we get back onto the ride??? We didnt have the luxury of standing in the load area and waiting for a gap. So we had to find certain places of the backstage areas that we could see the cars going by, so we could count empty cars, just like we did in the load area. So this video here is us scouting some of those locations and filming them to see if whether or not it appeared like the guests could see that spot. And as you can see, the camera sitting on the railing at the Nova Cite garden was quickly spotted by some teenagers. :)

But what we really needed was a spot close to the cave, because that was the easiest spot to get back to the cars, so the spot where we are looking thru the pine bush at the Mesa Verde grove control tower was that sweet spot. Anyways, it was good to know of alot of spots we could 'spy' at the cars, because it always helped us keep on top of what was going on: Were there alot of people riding, were they cycling guests out of the ride, were cast members riding thru, where were places we had to be extra careful to duck when walking behind the sets, etc...

Also as a bonus, at marker 5:20, you can see me climbing up behind the rocks on the side of the Mesa Verde farm looking down at the grove and cars. And you get a quick shot looking out of the cave facing the Kitchen at marker 7:45. Also I think I should mention that the long period of time in the garden shot, we were not standing there with the camera. What we would do is set the camera up somewhere, let it record for several minutes while we would go off and record some audio or take pictures, etc... Hoot did this several times, mostly to get some really cool grove shots that I will post in the future. Enjoy!