MCM & HHN: A History

I've gone to Halloween Horror Nights annually since 2000. Since 2003, I've had the benefit of going as many times as I wanted each year thanks to being a third party Universal Team Member. There's quite a few times before 2007 that I can't recall what house I went through or what my favorite scarezone was. We can probably thank Cigarz for that. But when I got my first recording device in late 2006, I started documenting the event each year.

As many of you know, I had a YouTube channel before Magic City Mayhem. It was a bunch of videos of me doing stupid stuff with my friends. You know, same old same old. Jumping into bushes and filming arguments with parking garage attendants. Usual stuff. I also sprinkled in the occasional theme park video. One of the first theme park videos, and the first Halloween Horror Nights video I ever uploaded was from HHN 17. It was the year of Carnival of Carnage. Jack the clown summoned some of Hollywood's most feared killers and brought them to Universal Orlando for the event. Among them was Leatherface and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There was a scarezone dedicated to this, and a good friend of mine happened to be in the cast. For a long time this video was my most viewed video ever, and was one of the reasons why I started a channel entirely dedicated to theme park videos. Check this video out from 2007:
In 2008, HHN brought us Reflections of Fear. This was the year of Bloody Mary. Magic City Mayhem was just getting started and I didn't film much at the event that year. Only two videos made it on to the channel. They were of the zombies that were in front of the Men In Black ride, and a scarezone called Asylum in Wonderland. One of the scareactors "mistook" my video camera for a cell phone and some other cool visuals happen in this video. The video got hundreds of views in just a short time and made me realize Horror Nights is a gold mine! I was going to remember this for next year. Here is a video from HHN 18:

2009 was our "breakout" year in HHN coverage. I uploaded numerous videos leading up to the event. It was HHN19: "Ripped from the Silver Screen". The year of The Usher. Combining these HHN videos with the videos we shot at Disneyland, and the beginning of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter construction, we started to gain a really big following. I was told scareactors were burning DVDs of my videos and playing them in the break room before their sets. Here's two of my favorites from that year. One shows a virtual side by side comparison of the props during the day in normal parks hours and at night and in use by the scareactors of HHN. The second video shows our good friend Monky! Back with his trusty chainsaw:
In 2010 for HHN 20, I tried my best to replicate the coverage I did for 19. I made a couple preview videos showing what might be coming to the streets, and I also did videos of the actual event showcasing scarezones and the icon itself. Views were strong and along with the opening of the WWoHP, 2010 was a great year! Here's two videos from that year. A look at "Fear", the icon. And Saws and Steam. And guess who is in that one? Monky!
It started to feel very routine in 2011. I did the preview videos showing what the props to the scarezones looked like during the day. Also uploaded videos of scarezones during the event and at night as well. My video of the icon for HHN 21, Lady Luck, remains to be the most viewed video from that year:

But then something happened.

We only attended employee preview night of HHN 22. The very next day we had an appointment with the doctor and found out we were having a baby! Thus brought almost all of Magic City Mayhem's productions to a screeching halt.

Harry was born in May, and by the time HHN 23 rolled around, we were kind of able to get back out to the event again. Kind of. Lauren and I went together once and it was our first official date night since Harry was born. So no cameras. No MCM business. I was able to go into the event several times after either while on break from work or immediately after work. I took a lot of pictures and it's because of these, helped get our followship on Instagram off the ground. It would be our second year in a row without video coverage, but with a few photos being shared by Universal and Horror Nights themselves on Instagram, we represented very well. Here are some of my favorite photos I took from 2013:


And this brings us to today. Halloween Horror Nights 24. Videos of props on the streets have been shot and uploaded, and our Twitter coverage of HHN prep was unmatched this year. Magic City Mayhem is slowly getting back to where we were before when it came to theme park coverage including HHN, and new attraction builds. More videos will be uploaded to YouTube. More photos will be posted to Instagram . And more blogs will be uploaded here. There are several videos from past HHNs that I didn't share with you today. Maybe another time. But these are a couple of my favorites so far from this year! I can't wait to bring you so much more!
     

Enjoy it! See ya next time!

mikey

Fire breath.

Diagon Alley.

What can I say?

Because of you, we lost a great friend. You replaced something that held a very special place in many people's hearts.

But honestly, I was never a huge fan of the Jaws ride. I rode it. More than once. I was ready to move on.

So, Diagon Alley.

You're the best. 

It is everything I wanted the original Wizarding World to be. Bigger stores. More interactivity. Expanded food options. It's an area that doesn't feel like you have to follow a constant flow until you find yourself out of it. There's a fork at the end of the main "street". Dark alleys. It may only have one true attraction and another that makes you exit the park, but it really is a fully immersive and fanciful place where I can get lost for hours.

When I decided that I wanted to write a blog entry that was Diagon Alley centric, I quickly realized it would take me forever to write it. There's too many things to talk about! Just the London facade area alone would be a whole entry to itself. Eventually, I'd like to discuss these points of DA in detail:

• Architecture
• Stores within the architecture
• Interactive wand experience
• New food and beverage offerings
• Live performances that take place in Carkitt Market (The Tales of Beedle the Bard & Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees)
• Knockturn Alley
• The Hogwarts Express
• Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts

...and then there's Jake. The dragon.

A Ukranian Ironbelly that sits atop Gringotts is almost an attraction itself. It's the first thing your eyes are drawn to when you step through the bricks from London. Your nose is drawn to that fish and chip smell, but that's another story. Even though there's an "auditory warning", people still wait there while holding their camera held high for that perfect photo. We will talk a little more about Jake's fire breathing later, now, lets talk about how she got here. And yes, you read that right. I said "she".
Some people believe that Jake is a girl. And yes. They still call her Jake. I'm ok with her being a girl and calling her Jake. I can't seem to remember that story from anywhere. But for arguments and this blog's sake, from here on out, I'll refer to the dragon as Jake and a female.

Like I said earlier. I wasn't a huge fan of the Jaws ride. The TM video "How to tune a fish" was better than the attraction itself in my opinion. I'd rather watch it than go on the actual attraction. But, I am a fan of a good homage and nostalgia. The thought of naming the dragon Jake after Captain Jake's Amity Boat Tours was ok in my book. Some people call it Neville. Some people call it Bruce. Apparently there's an official name for the dragon but it's kept under tight wrap and nothing but speculation is known. I like Jake. Not Captain Jake. Just Jake.

She was one of the last pieces added before Diagon Alley was complete and started being shown to celebrities and the general public. Twitter friends @AmusementBuzz and @HateToFly were one of the first people with photos of them lowering the dragon down on to the roof of Gringotts. The body was first installed without the wings attached. According to a HP fansite, the actual size of a Ukrainian Ironbelly is about 60 feet long!  If you went in the queue for the Simpsons Ride, you were able to catch a glimpse of Jake all the way in DA. Her body was clearly visible for about a day before they surrounded her with scrim and scaffolding. Eventually, one wing at a time was installed about a day apart from one another and finally she was complete.


 Next was fire.

We all knew once the dragon started blowing fire, that it would only be a matter of time before soft opens happened. False reports were coming out daily that people heard the dragon roar, and yet no video or audio surfaced to back it up. The making of Diagon Alley on NBC aired before any of the soft openings to the general public happened. No fire. Hardly a mention of Jake at all. They used CGI fire for the brief time she was on TV for the Fallon Show opening sequence. Weird, right? People were starting to doubt that the dragon would even breathe fire at all. But she does.

Every ten minutes or so, if the weather is right and barring any technical difficulties, she will let out a huge fireball and dazzle the crowd below waiting to capture the perfect moment. I don't have a photograph of it myself, but she has a constant pilot light burning on her tongue all day. Any time of day gets you a great shot of her breathing fire. Doesn't matter if the sun is shining, or it's dark as night. It's always impressive, and it almost always gets a round of applause from the spectators. At first, you hear her grumble just slightly. Just to grab your attention. Then she stops and it gets quiet. You almost put your camera down because you think it's not going to happen, and then suddenly... BOOM! She lets out a powerful four second blast of flame that pleases the crowd and startles the unsuspecting.

Why is she there?

Well, I'm not going to tell you. Read a book. See a movie. Or maybe, ride a ride. Any of those should help you Muggles who don't "get it". I've included below some of my favorite photos of Jake that I have taken. Enjoy!

Until next time....

mikey