The Smiler - Construction Discussion

.Will · Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:15 pm

Yeah that's just your bog standard fibreglass insulation.

Why would they paint the inside? It's dark in there so it's reasonable for them to keep it the original colours, I also doubt if they changed the insulation it's probably been the same since it was erected.

Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:29 pm

Fibre Glass, that's a nasty, itchy job right there. I saw the boards up this Monday, I'm kind of suprised it's all just happening all of the sudden. I'm quite happy too see the X Sector finally get some attention.

Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:32 pm

Blaze wrote: The stuff was cleared out of the tent a while ago, wasn't it? I always thought it was, especially with the original plan being to use the site for 2012.

Well, so it begins...here's to 11 months of getting excited by mounds of dirt!

As far as I could tell they kept part of the original entrance way and the stairs down to where the platform was, but that's it. Everything past that was removed.

Scarefest brought back some memories. Shame about what was actually being done in the tent that year.

djtruefitt · Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:37 pm

I bumped into "TFF Member Rob" on park today and he said that they were taking the tent down already. I thought it might have been another week or two before we saw any action. Im guessing they will remove all the inside stuff first, then we should start to see the main tent coming down over the next couple of weeks.

Its also nice to see the old colours inside!

Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:53 am

starbugger1303 wrote: I've just had a thought.

The Blackhole tent first opened in 1984 and is being demolished in 2012. 28 years later......
And
Corkscrew opened in 1980 and closed in 2008. 28 years later....

Coincidence?......
:para:

Nemesis, only another 10 years?!

barryzola · Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:45 am

Might be an idea for someone to get footage of the tent coming down : )

I'm very busy at the moment otherwise I would try to find out when it's coming down and get myself over there. It'll only happen once.

DiogoJ42 · Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:21 am

The important question is, "will they sell off bits of the tent to us geeks?"

.Will · Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:46 am

DiogoJ42 wrote: The important question is, "will they sell off bits of the tent to us geeks?"

I think they'd probably give it to you.

The tent was almost spooky, I don't know why I felt so unnerved by it maybe because of the vast expanse of canvas or the fact it was such an odd shape but it really freaks me out.

DiogoJ42 · Fri Apr 13, 2012 6:09 am

Merlin? Give? When????

...

:-k Hang on, you're serious, aren't you? :chuckel:

Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:27 am

DiogoJ42 wrote: The important question is, "will they sell off bits of the tent to us geeks?"

Are you still planning on decorating your house with various pieces of theme park junk?

Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:41 am

Interesting pictures of twisty tracks on the "coming soon" posters.....bit of a teaser trailer that one..!

Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:40 am

Possible interesting experiment/idea

TTF members do a great job of documenting changes on park, especially construction of new rides or attractions. While this is a good source of information, it's not always easy to follow the construction process from beginning to end when photos are focussed on different points. Something that I found interesting after The Swarm's construction was watching the time-lapse video where you could clearly see what went up when from a good viewpoint.

Now for one person to go to AT on a frequent regular basis to take construction photos in this way is both expensive and completely unreasonable. However, there seems to be someone from TTF there most days, and we all have cameras, even if it's just a phone.

We could agree a spot (or several spots) in X-Sector with a good view of the Black Hole tent area to take pictures from. That way, all photos will be from the same angle. They can be posted onto the forum and at the end they could be collated to form our own time-lapse-esque montage.

I wouldn't mind sorting the images if people want to send them to me (might keep the forums clearer actually) and I could edit them to fit together. I'm not certain this would definitely work. There's lots of variation cameras e.g colour, contrast, focal length etc but I'm quite adept at colour correction and so-forth in Lightroom so I could try to work round it. I accept that it won't be flawless, image quality will differ and there will be gaps when no one is on park for a while, but I don't think that really matters.

Is this something you would like to see? We can discuss what the best angles would be and I could make a topic with simple guidelines for where to point the camera with a small map of our agreed photo points.

It could well turn out that AT make their own time-lapse for SW7, I doubt they're starting from the very beginning though, i.e. now. We could tailor this to focus on areas we want to see change.

Win or Fail?

(I won't take it to heart :P)

Fri Apr 13, 2012 12:13 pm

Very good idea. One of the places should probably be the 3rd tier of Oblivion's queueline - you get a very good view of the tent there and it would be easy for many people to stand in basically the same place.

Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:09 pm

A very good idea. I doubt you'll be able to get it as a true time lapse video. The camera should really remain fixed otherwise you'll get a very jerky picture when you string them all together. But I'd certainly enjoy scrolling through pictures taken from the same spots and be up for joining in. Location wise you want either the 3rd tier of Oblivion's queueline for the height and vantage point or somewhere near submission looking at where the intertwined inversions will be. If the park is doing one I bet it’ll be taken from either the 3rd tier of Oblivion's queueline or actually at the top of Oblivion so keep an eye out for lobsterpot cameras.

Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:17 pm

Nightfall wrote: A very good idea. I doubt you'll be able to get it as a true time lapse video. The camera should really remain fixed otherwise you'll get a very jerky picture when you string them all together. But I'd certainly enjoy scrolling through pictures taken from the same spots and be up for joining in. Location wise you want either the 3rd tier of Oblivion's queueline for the height and vantage point or somewhere near submission looking at where the intertwined inversions will be. If the park is doing one I bet it’ll be taken from either the 3rd tier of Oblivion's queueline or actually at the top of Oblivion so keep an eye out for lobsterpot cameras.

Would have thought placing one actually on Oblivion would be a bad idea - surely the vibrations could cause slight differences in the placements of each picture which would effectively ruin the flow of the timelapse video?

Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:22 pm

Good point. I hadn't thought of vibration. In which case I believe it’ll be somewhere on that queue line tower if there is one.

Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:25 pm

Considering there was a time lapse set up for The Swarm, it wouldn't surprise me if there's an official one set up for SW7.

This was the company that did it, so keep an eye on their site to see if there's anything for SW7 set up.

Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:47 pm

Ages away then if one of their first shots was early October - they seem to want to document the actual construction of the track rather than the more mundane concrete footer placements etc.

Longy · Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:52 pm

Would it possible to have a camera on top of Enterprise's op cabin?
Or is this too low?

I like that idea though. It should be fun!

Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:03 pm

Longy wrote: Would it possible to have a camera on top of Enterprise's op cabin?
Or is this too low?

I like that idea though. It should be fun!

I think that the best place would be if they could affix one to the huge floodlight post in the grassy bit where the Oblivion test seat is - but that could be quite difficult.