Follow That Passion (Part 7 of 7)
This is the last of seven retrospective blogs exploring how recognizing and honoring one’s passion often creates a rich, satisfying life. Continuing from Part 6...
At the age of 25, a highlight of the eight-year laser effects phase of my career was collaborating with San Diego’s KGB-FM radio - performing live laser animations for SkyShow Seven, together with a massive outdoor firework display above a stadium - all choreographed to a city-wide broadcast soundtrack. The live SkyShow presentation format was the largest of its kind at the time, setting the stage for today’s multi-day music festivals.
The popularity of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind motion picture several years earlier influenced the SkyShow as a laser projection of a spaceship was preceded by spacey sounds, then viewed on a giant screen ‘landing’ in front of more than 50,000 spectators inside San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium. Production was complicated, having to interact with the pyrotechnic company for aerial accent cueing and the radio station for soundtrack synchronization. Our numerous pre-production meetings ensured all went smoothly. On the evening of May 8, 1982 the sky ignited with fireworks as an alien craft hovered above the venue field, just like in the movie!
(Counterclockwise from top left): KGB-FM radio personality Norman Flint holds a foam model of a spaceship demonstrating how the ship would '“fly” as a laser projection, a Laser Media artist hand-digitizing (tracing) one frame of the spaceship animation (each frame was hand-traced, one at a time), a spaceship frame projected in-studio with a helium-neon laser, and a newspaper ad for the outdoor event where the spaceship would appear as a projected laser animation on a large outdoor screen.
Don’t underestimate your value in the workforce as an assistant, advisor, employee, consultant or contractor. Talent of all kinds is sought after for endeavors around the world, so be positive, shake off nervousness, and be honest with your background and beginning, or mid-level experience if you’re venturing toward a new career. Honest interest with dedication, perseverance, follow-through, and reasonable fees will secure projects to broaden your horizons. With a humble, sincere effort, show you are worth everything in your pitch or proposal, and soon you will exceed even your own expectations. I had been creating theatrical laser shows for less than four years when I ‘landed’ the 1982 Skyshow!
In 1986, after a great run with laser shows and related production design, I shifted gears with my life and career, deciding to attend the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Majoring in Environmental Design, I added sophisticated methods of drawing, illustration, painting, and model-making to my creative toolset - gaining additional hands-on abilities which built upon self-taught skills from prior years. It was a renaissance couple of years as I honed in on my target of becoming a Disney Imagineer. I had heard ArtCenter graduates had a solid chance of being hired at Imagineering, so sensed it was just a matter of time.
Inspired from the designs of architect Charles Moore, a three-dimensional chess board and game pieces designed and illustrated in Prismacolor pencil for an ArtCenter class. As character pieces moved into battle toward the opposing family, each descended into a stylized ‘valley’ of progressively lower-tiered light and dark squares.
As a unique creative individual, you hold your own vision to be not only part of something grand, but to potentially design the game board and components, too. You are free to find the organization and culture you belong with. I thought I was going to earn an Industrial Design degree across four years at ArtCenter when an unseen opportunity presented itself, causing me to pause and consider what to do. Disney Imagineering was staffing up for a large project and a fellow student suggested I apply.
Two years into my ArtCenter studies, I submitted a paper résumé to the Imagineering staffing office in Glendale, CA - just over the ridge from the college. To my surprise, I was called in to an interview. A couple of months later, I was an Imagineer. Words cannot describe my excitement for that opportunity, a moment so well rehearsed and played through from ten years old. It was hard to separate dream from reality.
Following six months of orientation, while learning Disney protocols, methodology, terminology, departments and systems, I found myself at Walt Disney World as the brand new Disney-MGM Studios became a reality on May 1, 1989. Once that park welcomed its first guests, the next stop was across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris, France where EuroDisneyland (today’s Disneyland Paris®) was breaking ground. The only things there on the construction site were tractors, backhoes, open trenches and temporary corrugated metal office buildings. Lots of them.
As the first European Disney theme park rose from centuries-old farmland, I became Supervisor of Special Effects throughout the entirety of Fantasyland. The two decades of childhood envisioning, making, and what seemed like frivolous self-generated projects and playtime to others, culminated 20 kilometers to the east of Paris. For many of my early years, especially during junior high and high school, some believed I was a recluse, an outcast, and perhaps by their standards I was. However, I never saw things that way. I only foresaw being a Disney Imagineer - somehow, some way.
Never cheat on your dreams for they are the foundations of your future
Throughout this blog series I’ve selected specific pre-career and early career moments to highlight my journey. Your journey will be different, while sharing some the key moments of success, failure, reset and advancement I experienced. There will be times you’ll get fed up with the sacrifice and just want to quit - and perhaps you might for awhile. I did several times. The creative journey is not easy, even when it looks so to others. Only with passion and perseverance can you achieve your goals - large and small - while opening doors to opportunities you never saw coming. Passion-fueled work becomes play, so don’t listen to others when you know what’s going on deep inside yourself. Let your vision play through!
Passion is what sells a person when it comes to most things in life. Show your passion with a confident smile and you’ll be amazed at the opening doors and exciting opportunities which unexpectedly present themselves. In retrospect, I’m amazed how well I realized my childhood visions by simply following a deep inner passion, working effectively as much as I knew how at the time, and being sincere about all aspects of the creations I brought to life.
Geoff standing on a flank of EuroDisneyland’s Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty’s Castle) in 1990, and on the right, a Fun Map of the original theme park - the first Disney park in Europe.
I invite you to listen to your inner desire which is the True You. Twist open the faucet of opportunity to start filling a glass of potential, then with it, mix colorful hues to paint your future. Trek the mountain others have little desire to climb. Begin a path of passion. It will manifest a life hailing straight from your dreams. Then illuminate those around you to follow their passion, too.
If you’re energized with excitement most every morning and find it annoying to sleep after missing lunch and perhaps dinner, while occasionally overlooking loved ones, friends, and birthdays, along with forgetting to pay the phone bill... you’ve discovered your passion!
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