ChronoJam: A Rhythmic Odyssey

“ChronoJam: A Rhythmic Odyssey ” is a thrilling, trackless dark ride that blasts you through time, blending animated media with physical sets, allowing guests to travel through the music of the past, present, & tomorrow!”

What starts as a concert product demo turns wild when Reese, a wannabe rocker-turned-janitor, accidentally triggers the M.O.S.H. Rover’s hidden time-travel function, sending unsuspecting guests on a turbulent trip into the heart of history’s greatest musical moments. Now, it is up to guests to jam, scream, and shake up the past to power more sound portals and stop Dr. Allegra Sonata, the desperate genius behind the rover, from stealing legendary musical artifacts and rewriting history forever.

Developed in conceptual schematic form for my senior capstone thesis project, ChronoJam is an original IP-based attraction inspired by my love for time-travel films, art and music history, and the dark rides of yesterday and today. While working on this project over the course of a year, I was able to apply a myriad of software and design skills learned in my time at Ringling while exploring many DOWs that I feel passionate about and plan to continue in my professional career.

Story and Concept Development

When first tasked with ideating this attraction, I began by breaking my core concept down into an elevator pitch that secured my approval to proceed ahead in the development process: ” an unexpected and chaotic time travel joyride through the history of musical development.” From here, I dove headfirst into the research aspect of this story and started asking key questions: what movements were crucial to the evolution of music? When did these movements occur? Which of these movements could lend themselves to a bit of danger and excitement for the sake of guest entertainment?!”

Throughout the story development process and after consulting with both Ringling faculty and one of my amazing thesis mentors, Steven Walker of Wacky World Studios, the framing structure of the time travel journey shifted from a straight line path through the development of music as a whole to traveling through the peaks of different musical genres. Not only did this shift allow for a chance to demonstrate more subcultures and to recreate more geographic areas, it also allowed for broader guest recognition and appeal–a vast and essential factor in attraction development.

In tandem with developing the story for this attraction, I also asked myself how I would propose an innovation to the beloved craft of dark ride attraction development. The answer hit me in the middle of the summer before senior year began: what if there was a way to take the formulaic algorithm layout of attractions like Star Tours and combine it with the split track paths seen in modern trackless dark ride attractions like Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Could there be a way to have different combinations of physical show scenes amongst different ride vehicles running in tandem, creating more unique experiences to be explored? For experimentation, the faculty and I agreed to explore the ride that could be made if the answer to this big question was yes.

The next step in this development process was nailing down these key experience beats, collecting tonal and architectural reference, and generating storyboards and moodboards for these many different stops on a guest’s journey through this attraction. During this time, the many genres I explored slowly narrowed down to the nine options presented in the presentation deck. This selection, covering a wide range from polka to electronic/EDM, felt natural and diverse enough to have unique feelings and scenes without feeling redundant. Most importantly, I felt there was a through line of influence from one genre to the next, allowing them to blend well during scene transitions and into the genre medley of the original song at the end of the time travel sequences before the guests return to the present CGDD.

I also took the initiative to create a script template to show the main framing structure and show scenes for the attraction that all guests would experience, to be expanded upon to be made for each of the three ride vehicles in a single ride cycle. In theoretical further development, there would be approximately 108 script variants for the ride vehicles to cover the 36 possible combinations that could occur. Below are some page samples from said frame document, which can be fully viewed here.

Under the tutelage of my other incredible thesis mentor, Kevin Primm, a Show Set Designer at Universal Creative, I created a show timing sheet for the ride cycle itself and calculated my hourly and daily rider capacity. Although it was on the slightly lower side, in further development, this could be remedied in many ways.

Technology Research and Applications

Another element of attraction development that I wanted to explore was ride systems technology and special effects. In between story and concept development, I researched different ride systems that would meet my desired needs.

I found my answer in the Oceaneering REVOLUTION™ Tru-Trackless™ Motion-Base Ride System. This trackless dark ride system has been featured in real-world attractions across the globe for over a decade. This fantastic ride system has an abundance of exciting features including a programmable 3 degrees of freedom 360° motion base, surround sound speakers, a monitorable locking lap-bar system, & integrated theming and on-board gaming elements. I even spoke to some representatives from Oceaneering online about my concept and learned so much more about the specs of this vehicle and its potential, making it clear that this would be the right fit for ChronoJam.

When developing the exterior cabin theming, I wanted to ensure that the vehicle’s design included hints of musical influences. Quickly, I looked at music technology, ranging from instruments to speakers. However, nothing called to me like the amazing shape language and materials of 1960s jukeboxes, which slowly worked their way into my sketches. Narratively, the M.O.S.H. Rover was created by Dr. Allegra Sonata and her tech start-up team, the Concert Globalization Development Directive, as the world’s first fully mobile seating device. This influence, mixed with a bright and fun 1960s color palette, really brought the rover to life!

To truly perfect this design, I modeled the vehicle in Rhino 3D. Bringing this concept from sketch to a fully dimensioned model and design intent package was very rewarding. Another special thank you must be extended to my professor, Seongwoo Nam, and my mentor, Kevin Primm, for helping me find the information that allowed me to make this model as lifelike as possible and for tweaking my design with me over the course of several months. Here is a full animated turn-around of the rover and excerpts from the design intent document, found in full here.

The M.O.S.H. Rover also utilizes the revolution system’s onboard gaming system to create a sound-based interactive experience for guests while riding Chronojam: a Rhythmic Odyssey. Each of the rows of the rover is fitted with a button panel labeled with a series of colors. As they travel through time, this preprogrammed menu morphs into instruments and songs of all genres, providing the rovers with the sound required to move and open each time portal. During their journey across time, guests must listen to Reese and collaborate with their rover mates to press the properly lit buttons to generate enough sound to escape peril and move their rover to safety.

Show Building Floor Plan

Floor planning this show building required a lot of research, exploration, and refinement. Eventually, it was clear that this attraction required a two-story 100,000 sq ft show building. One floor covered the queue, load/unload stations, CGDD-related show scenes, and post-show experience, while the other held all of the time travel and transitional scenes. In theory, to transition between these separate floors, the elevator floors lift and lower the ride vehicles between floors, as effects and lighting misdirected the guests.

From my initial sketches, I brought my floor plans into AutoCAD, Revit, and SketchUp to determine the placements of show scene elements, including the safety envelopes of the ride vehicles, ceiling heights, and more. 

Show Set Exploration and Renders

Using the schematics from the floor plans I created, I brought that information into SketchUp and created dimensioned models of the test bay transitional scenes, the time travel options, and the 80s finale sequence. In further development, these key renders of the show scenes would provide informational tools and references for CAD modelers, show set designers, lighting and FX designers, and facility modelers as they began their work processes.

Reflection

ChronoJam: A Rhythmic Odyssey was a true joy to work on and deliver to the world! While my time at Ringling College has ended, I will never forget the thrill of the first pitch, the many late nights in the labs, and how proud I was to share the final product with the themed entertainment community. 

The main goal with this attraction was that no matter what path their Rover takes on this humorous and action-packed journey, guests will leave with a newfound appreciation for the excitement of music history and fond memories of their time rocking around the clock. Hopefully, after reading this lengthy diatribe, you too will do just that. Thank you for rocking around the clock and spending some time with ChronoJam! ROCK ON!