MWGblog

I forgot to pass this along. Here is an interview from my friends at Relevantly Speaking.

People always ask, so here you go. We will be on location recording an upcoming Official Disneyland Resort Podcast this Friday, June 29th. You can find us at 6:30PM in front of the entrance to the Pirates of The Caribbean attraction. Just look for me, the guy with the microphone. No guarantees, but this is a great chance if you are interested. This is a last minute idea, and I have no idea how much reach my personal site has for Disneyland fans, but hopefully the folks from Laughing Place, Mouse Planet etc. will spread the word.
I look forward to seeing you if you’d like to be on the podcast. Regardless, we are covering some great stuff this month!

I decided to experiment with some video. If it works, the post should display a movie poster you can click to play as well as a download option for an iPod version of the video. The movie segment above was created by Noah Bonnett from 88SLIDE for a series of episodes he produced at Disneyland. (BTW Noah is an Instructor at the upcoming Podcast Academy.)

Noah, Rachel, Louis and myself at Disneyland

I had a great time on Friday spending the day with the crew from 88SLIDE. We were there to shot a week’s worth of 88SLIDE episodes that will run the week of July 17th. Watching the process, you can tell Noah comes from a professional production background and having watched all day long, I am amazed how Rachel keeps track of all the lines. If you are curious you can check them out starting July 17th here. Also, I posted a bunch of pictures from the day.

In working on the podcast for the Disneyland Resort I am often lucky enough to experience some “once in a lifetime” events. Today was one of those days. I had the good fortune to spend the afternoon with Richard Sherman. If you are a Disney fan you’ll instantly recognize the name. If not, let me fill you in. Richard and his brother Robert (known collectively as the Sherman Brothers) are responsible for the most performed and translated song on earth: It’s A Small World (After All). They are also responsible for other songs like The Tiki,Tiki,Tiki Room as well as soundtracks for films such as: Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Jungle Book, Charlottte’s Web and Winnie The Pooh just to name a few. (There are too many to name – it goes on and on.)

Today we did some interviews for the podcast and then all went out to a terrific dinner at Napa Rose. Richard and his wife Elizabeth are two of the nicest people you will ever meet; an absolutely charming couple. As a film geek, I am still buzzing from the fact that at dinner I sat next to an Oscar Award winner (for Mary Poppins).

The highlight of the day was riding the “It’s a Small World” attraction with Richard as they filmed us for a news release. Riding an attraction as iconic as that with the person responsible for the song that makes it all work and having him tell you what it was like to work personally with Walt Disney on the project is something I will always remember.

Why did I title this post supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Richard and his brother Robert invented the word.

I was back at Disneyland today working on the new March edition of the Official Disneyland Podcast. I am usually tight lipped about upcoming episodes, but let’s just say I spent the day with some “explosive” Disneyland Cast Members. It was another once in a lifetime experience. My audio assistant was my friend Randy, pictured with me above. This picture is from a roof-top on Main Street. (Listen to the forthcoming podcast and you’ll hear why we were up there.) Today was one of those days with stories we will be telling for years to come. Wow!

Disneyland has posted the newest podcast my company, Willnick Productions, Inc. has produced for them. I must admit, I am particularly proud of this podcast. I think we captured a bit of the exciting and new as well as the interesting and old. We cover a new attraction based on Monsters, Inc. including an interview with the director of the film, Pete Docter and the Imagineers who created the attraction. However, for me, the home run was a trip up inside and to the very top of the Matterhorn. I owe this adventure to podcasting.

Back in November, at the Portable Media Expo, I was invited to go to a dinner with a good number of podcasters at Benihana. I was seated with my friend August Trometer (iPodderX) as well as Ken Ray and Laura Burstein, both formerly of Inside Mac Radio. During dinner, my work for Disneyland came up. Laura started telling us all kinds of “outlandish” theories about Disneyland, including one that there was basketball court in the Matterhorn. This sounded a little too out there to me. I, after a cocktail or two , was also quite confident that no one was going to suit up and traipse across the park to go play basketball. So I challenged her on the validity of her statement and said I would get to the bottom of it. Well, as you can see from the picture above, there most certainly is a basketball hoop on the 5th floor of the Matterhorn. I was wrong and Laura was right. (There I said it - painful as it is.) As a result of my investigation, I had a great time touring the inside of the Matterhorn as well as going all the way to the top. Fellow podcaster, Dan Klass, came along and has a funny take on the whole episode at the Bitterest Pill. I must admit, this was a once in a lifetime event, if you have any interest in Disneyland or what it is like inside the Matterhorn - give it a listen. Best of all, the folks at Disneyland and I to have even more exciting things planned for the months to come. I can’t wait for some of the things we have on deck for the Official Disneyland Resort Podcast.