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Come Fly with Me

While the Shanghai World Expo 2010 site presents visitors with a vast themescape of amazing pavilions, the China Aviation pavilion seems to soar—or maybe we should say billow—above the rest. Shaped like a puffy white cloud, the pavilion offers visitors a breathtaking journey into the future of commercial aviation via a 4-D darkride called “The Inspiration of Flight.” Berger Creative Associates worked from a story premise developed by the creative team at Falcon’s Treehouse, LLC, collaborating closely with It Ain’t Shakespeare to compose a ride script that combines romance, science fiction, and an epic scope with motion-base ride vehicles, 4-D special effects, and state-of-the-art projection systems. The China Aviation pavilion debuted on May 1, 2010, and will continue to thrill visitors through the Expo’s 6-month run, which concludes on October 31.

We're Honored

Working on Client projects can be a lot of fun. That's one of the big reasons why we got into this business in the first place, after all. But it's always nice when one of the projects on which we collaborated receives an award. And it's even nicer when several of them are honored. Here are a few of the award-winning projects to which we contributed in recent years. (And just to be clear: it was the attractions that won the awards, not any particular vendor. Still, we can't help feeling honored.)

Dragon’s Treasure show, City of Dreams, Macau – 2009 Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Themed Entertainment Association (co-wrote show script with It Ain’t Shakespeare, Inc. and Falcon’s Treehouse, LLC)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ride, Alton Towers, United Kingdom – 2006 Thea award for Outstanding Achievement from the Themed Entertainment Association (co-wrote show script with It Ain’t Shakespeare, Inc. and Falcon’s Treehouse, LLC)

Mystery Mine roller coaster, Dollywood, Tennessee – Voted "Best New Thrill Ride" of 2007 by the members of ThemeParkInsider.com (co-wrote guest experience narrative with It Ain’t Shakespeare, Inc. on behalf of Herschend Family Entertainment, Inc.)

We’re All Ears!

Who ever knew that getting lost could be so much fun? In fact, in recent years corn mazes have become more popular than ever. And they’ve become especially popular as a school field trip destination. You might even say it’s a “growth” industry (ha-ha). Recognizing the value of blending fun and education, Utah-based The Maize—billed as “the world’s largest maze company”—commissioned Berger Creative Associates to develop a teacher field trip resource. Published online in autumn 2009, the “Classroom in the Corn” resource is crammed with entertaining, thought-provoking pre- and post-trip activities for students at every level, from pre-K though 12^th grade. Curious? You can take a peek here: http://www.cornfieldmaze.com/planting_fieldtrips.html

What’s My Line?

Amid the many thrills of Dollywood Park, one literally soars above the rest: the new SkyZip adventure, which debuted during the park’s 2009 season (http://www.dollywood.com/land/skyzip/home.html). This multiple-station zipline attraction—the first in any U.S. theme park—sends excitement-craving Dollywood visitors swooping and gliding high above the park and offers breathtaking airborne views of the Great Smoky Mountains. During the scenic hikes from zipline to zipline, highly trained “Adventure Guides” provide fascinating background stories about the wildlife and scenery of the Smokies. Berger Creative Associates wrote the fact-filled live “spiel” script used by those guides. We then went on to compose an in-depth “Adventure Guide’s Manual” as part of the Guide training program to assure that every guest experience will be a high-flying one.

I Left My Duck in San Francisco

In the summer of 2008, Ride The Ducks International launched its latest amphibious tour with the inauguration of Ride The Ducks San Francisco. And we were along for the ride, researching and writing the music- and joke-filled script for the 90-minute Duck Captain spiel, which takes passengers through some of the city’s most historical areas before splashing into San Francisco Bay . At the same time, we also wrote the driver script for a two-hour motorized cable car tour of the city on behalf of Ride The Ducks’ latest venture, Classic Cable Cars. And, if all that wasn’t enough, we then wrote an SF Ducks Teacher Field Trip Resource Guide filled with pre- and post-trip activities for grades K-12. Whew!

Start Your Engines!

China is rapidly becoming a world center for automobile production. And by the end of this decade, it will also be the home of AutoWorld—the world’s first interactive automobile theme park, to be located 30 miles outside of Shanghai. Working closely with the creative team at Orlando-based ITEC Entertainment, we helped conceptualize and then composed the guest experience treatments for over a dozen key rides, shows, and live entertainment experiences in six automotive themed zones. Among those attractions, visitors will experience the excitement of an off-road rally…witness the explosive action of a live emergency vehicle stunt show…ride a state-of-the-art concept car through a powerful wind tunnel…embark on a musical journey into a giant V-8 engine…and take a surprise detour through a gauntlet of whirring, lunging industrial robots along an automated assembly line.

Before we formed Berger Creative Associates, Inc. in spring 2007, we already had our hands full with plenty of freelance projects. Here are a few recent examples.

What’s Up, Duck?

Ride The Ducks International operates tours of historical cities on land and on water aboard World War II-style amphibious vehicles. And we put the words in the Duck captains’ mouths…or duck bills…or whatever. Starting in 2006, we’ve updated the tour spiels for RTD’s operations in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Branson (Missouri), loading the new scripts with the blend of goofy humor and fascinating facts for which Ride The Ducks is renowned. We then went on to write customized Teacher Field Trip Resource Guides that tie in with all of these tours, each one featuring dozens of engaging in-class activities for grades Pre-K through 12. (You can view a sample from one of our Teacher Guides here: http://www.phillyducks.com/pdfs/Teacher_Resource_Guide.pdf)

Kid Stuff

It turns out that Spongebob Squarepants is a wonderful client (all our gigs with him are completely…um…absorbing). Yes—there’s always something fun going on at the offices of Nickelodeon Recreation, home of Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues, and (of course) good ol’ Spongebob. Since early 2006, we’ve been contracted to write numerous treatments for exciting new theme park attractions for Nick Rec, as well as conceptual documents for other projects encompassing everything from hotels to special events.

One Man’s Journey

The May 31, 2007 dedication of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina, was an event marked with great fanfare and attended by three former U.S. presidents (read the USA Today article here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-05-31-billy-graham-library_N.htm).
The facility spotlights the life and spiritual influences of one of the most visible personalities of the 20th century through a unique multi-media walk-through exhibit. Throughout the project’s four year development process, we worked in close collaboration with the project’s designer and producer, Orlando-based ITEC Entertainment Corporation, together conceptualizing and composing the show treatment for the entire guest experience.

An Historical Achievement

The sheer span of Jewish history can intimidate even an experienced teacher. But now there’s a powerful new tool to help teachers make the subject relevant and accessible to today’s students, thanks to the publication of Teaching Jewish History by Julia Phillips Berger and Sue Parker Gerson (Behrman House, Inc., 2006). The 243-page book reflects Julia’s years of experience as a teacher and education director, along with her excellent research and writing skills. Already, the book has sold well over 1000 copies. Want to know more? Check out the publisher’s listing here: http://behrman.powerwebbook.com/productdetails.cfm?sku=A183

Mine! All Mine!

Something sinister has gotten into Dollywood, the normally cheery theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. And it’s partly our fault. That’s because we wrote (with It Ain’t Shakespeare, Inc.) the ride treatment for Dollywood’s newest, most ambitious (and most expensive) thrill ride: Mystery Mine, which debuted in spring 2007. It’s a hair-raising, white-knuckle coaster ride through “an abandoned coal mine” filled with state-of-the-art special effects. We began by researching old coal mining superstitions…and then we wove them into the storyline in the creepiest, most unnerving ways possible. In fact, Mystery Mine was even voted "Best New Thrill Ride" of 2007 by the members of ThemeParkInsider.com. For a preview of the attraction, take a look at the official Mystery Mine Web site here: http://www.mysterymine.com/