compare and contrast 2 entertainment concepts
Back when I attended MindCamp last Fall - it seems like such a short time ago - I heard a 5 minute lightning talk from Jack Huang which inspired me to share this idea with him. I post this e-mail exchange here with his permission. (Yes, I re-threaded the mail so the most recent is last. The trouble I go through for you!)
Unfortunately I will be unable to attend tonights "Ignite Seattle" which promises to include more of the same. Tuesdays are my nights to support the rock band by staying home with the kids. If you are available, you should go!
-----Original Message-----
From: Elizabeth Grigg [mailto:egrigg9000@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2007 3:21 PM
To: jack at digio.com
Subject: your 5 minute mindcamp pitch
Jack - do you remember your pitch at Mindcamp? It was rather late. It had
something to do with restaurants, correct? Let me know if you have written
this up somewhere, I would like to comment.
----- Original Message ----
From: Jack Huang <jack at digio.com>
To: Elizabeth Grigg <egrigg9000@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 4, 2007 9:22:09 PM
Subject: RE: your 5 minute mindcamp pitch
Hi Elizabeth,
The UFO restaurant is an idea I've dreamt about for awhile now. I have not
post it any where, but Mindcamp felt like a good crowd so I blurp it out.
The idea is really simple, I want to design and create a fleet of UFO
spaceships, each with a different visual style, cuisines and staff.
Business arrangement wise, it would work very much like the Funfairs that
travel around the mall parking lots. The "set" will be designed to be
assembles and reassembled. But all the "rides & activities" will be
contained inside the spaceship, with a little bit of dinner theater and
whole lot theme restaurant stuff, with robots, alien outfit and all things
Sci-Fi.
Being an UFO and all, the restaurant's "marketing" website will track the
UFO sightings in tabloid theme, and people can post pictures of their
experiences at the spaceship restaurants. Being a game designer, I would
naturally create some Alternate Reality games to go along with this.
I envision the arrival of each UFO as an event people will look forward to,
and hopefully, will want to have the experience of boarding every UFO when
they "land" in a mall near them.
Since I am not wealthy enough simply do this, by sharing the idea, I hope
that someone who is able will love it as I do, and they would allow me to
participate in making this idea a reality...
Jack Huang
http://www.jackhuang.com
----- Original Message ----
From: Jack Huang <jack at jackhuang.com>
To: egrigg9000@yahoo.com
Sent: Sunday, February 4, 2007 10:41:55 PM
Subject: UFO restaurants
Hi Elizabeth,
I have not posted that idea anywhere, just got into the mood at Mindcamp and
decided to share. I wish I had the funds and the connections to make
something like that happen.
I have many versions of it in my head, including UFO pods, which are
basically huts all dressed up. The idea is to basically replace those
Funfairs with something with an UFO theme, add some dinner theater, sprinkle
of Vegas and add bunch of Sci-Fi activities/games.
So what did you have in mind?
-----Original Message-----
From: Elizabeth Grigg [mailto:egrigg9000@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 11:37 AM
To: jack at digio.com
Subject: Re: your 5 minute mindcamp pitch
Hi Jack,
After some searching around this morning, it turns out I have not posted
this idea anywhere either. It seems to me like we have ideas with about 85%
overlap however without reducing the originality of either side. Here is
what I had initially.
The world's first artificial revolving restaurant
Name of Restaurant: "As If"
Location: A small town on the I-5 corridor, easy to get to by car, but car
required. Should be a destination restaurant, people will drive to get
there.
Property Requirements: Large footprint parking lot. Existing restaurant
roughly in the middle of the lot. Ideal building would be circular, such as
the Denny's built in the 1960s with the butterfly roof. Other businesses on
the street should be similarly desolate, lumber stores, fabric stores, gas
station.
Decor from outside: Boarded up. Sign with the name of restaurant falling
into disrepair. Floodlights into the parking lot for safety, but the place
otherwise looks like a secret. Open sign on the front door has no
credibility, but people will open it anyway.
Type of food: Family fare. This means you can take your Dad here for his
birthday (think Daniel's Broiler) without requiring your unemployed little
brother to work extra hours (think Tacos Guaymas). The food is not themed in
any way. The consistent quality of each dish combined with the variety of
prices is what makes the food unique.
The Experience:
Roger has family coming in from out of town and is tired of the trouble
and expense of showing people the Space Needle. His friend gave him a
recommendation to this place in Sedro Woolley (?) that nobody knows about,
saying it looks closed from the outside, but those who are in the know will
have a tremendous time. When the day comes, Roger packs his family in the
car and heads over.
Upon Roger's approach to the restaurant's address, his family is
skeptical that this is even the place. They are pretty sure they will all be
eating at the Outback Steakhouse they saw at the mall on the way up. The
street looks like it has been economically depressed for years. There is a
restaurant at the address, which might have served blue collar workers back
in the 1960s when the plant was still running. Now, the neon sign is dark,
occasionally sparking part of the scrolled f in the "As If" name's retro
font. But there are cars in the lot, some of them new, some of them with out
of state plates. They park and walk to the front door.
The restaurant entrance has the standard glass doors coated with
metallic sunscreen decals. One of the doors says "Open" using one of the
classic restaurant signs... the "for business" is in smaller font below.
Newspaper stands crowd both sides of the walkway, but they are empty. The
names of the newspapers do not ring a bell... Gamma Quadrant Quarterly etc.
Roger opens the door for his family and they stand in the foyer, the room
customarily placed in 60s-era restaurants which is in between the first and
second set of doors. A person resembling a bellhop blocks their entry
through the second glass doors.
"Dining on Epsilon 7 tonight sir?" he asks.
"Uh, yeah," says Roger, looking at his family with contained glee. He knew
something was going to happen but he did not quite know what. His family
still looks suspicious.
The bellhop opens a panel on the wall and presses a button which causes
a lurching noise. The ground beneath them quavers a bit. As the lights in
the foyer begin to dim, the appearance on the walls change to simulate the
elevator rising into the air. The feeling is something like the Haunted
House in disneyland, except done with actual video. Acceleration off the
ground is slow, so that the family can get their bearings. They can see
their car shrinking smaller and smaller beneath them. They quickly rise
through the clouds and then as soon as the outline of planet Earth is
evident, the windows transform to a view similar to "hyperspace" which
should communicate to the family that they are truly off the grid. Then,
with a second lurch, the windows lock on a few planets, an unfamiliar solar
system, and spaceships zooming about. The bellhop opens the second set of
doors and lets the family enter the restaurant.
Despite the fact that the restaurant is planted firmly on earth, all
appearances are to the contrary. It is as if the space needle was truly an
appendage of a viable space station, complete with revolving restaurant at
the top. Windows circle the perimeter each showing one segment of the
picture of the space scene outside the windows. Next to the windows are a
series of high-backed leather booths, perfect for quiet conversation, yet
each large enough to sit 6. Linen napkins await, and the air of elegance
puts even Roger's most skeptical family at complete ease. They choose a
booth near one of the rings of a nearby planet. As they sit, their planet
moves slowly out of view because the restaurant is revolving. Placemats for
the kids indicate the location of various attractions outside the window. An
occasional alien does a doughnut around the whole place. Roger's dad orders
a drink and a steak. All is well.
Variations:
One of the biggest benefits to "As If" is that is is more of a platform than
anything else. Because the video screens surround the restaurant itself, the
theme can change as the owners see fit. The restaurant's content can be
altered to show anything. Some ideas:
* InnerSpace. Instead of taking an elevator, the family is shrunk to the
size of a gluon and is placed in an exotic post-newtonian world
* Safari. A wild and sometimes gory african animal scene keeps restaurant
goers on their toes the entire evening
* Travel. Existing places in the world which would never have a revolving
restaurant, such as the top of the eiffel tower, now can.
* Underwater.
* Volcano.
* Springfield, USA (for an enormous gratuity, of course)
Thoughts?
- EG
----- Original Message ----
From: Jack Huang <jack at digio.com>
To: Elizabeth Grigg <egrigg9000@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 8, 2007 7:24:33 PM
Subject: RE: your 5 minute mindcamp pitch
Your idea is like a portal to new and changing experiences, you are taking
the customer to "it". Mine is more like a traveling event, I would bring
"it" to the customer.
Your idea is more focus on satisfying the mystery of unknown expectations.
Mine is focused on fulfilling our expectations of mysterious life forms.
Other than that, our ideas have similar target audience, which are more for
town folks, and to bring unique dining experiences to them.
For mine, it really doesn't even have to be a restaurant. Just bunch of
carnival snack food and rides/experiences.
Good stuff,
Jack Huang
http://www.jackhuang.com (Resume)
http://www.takeitpocket.com (Invention)
http://www.knowcancer.org (Passion)
http://www.jackhuang.com/ai (TV Show)