| I used to work for a company called Amaze Entertainment, and they had a very interesting business model. Every day they would scan through the Hollywood "rags" looking for upcoming movie projects, then they would put together elaborate pitches for the movie studios and publishers, hoping to become the official developers of any games that might come out. And by elaborate I mean bat shit crazy. Back in 2002, Amaze learned that Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media were starting work on a film based on the beloved children's book series: "The Chronicles of Narnia". Amaze put together a completely over-the-top pitch and invited four Disney executives to the meeting. I swear I am not embellishing this story at all, but here is what those execs experienced: |  |
- They were greeted at the front desk by several actors in costume, and lead back to the main conference room.
- Affixed to the wall, in front of the conference room door, was an antique wardrobe full of large fur coats.
- Moving past the coats our guests had to then push through a half dozen live pine trees, covered in fake snow.
- Beyond the pines they were greeted by a 3D rendered lion, hovering in mid air directly in front of them. (We projected a video onto a curtain of dry ice that was falling from a trough installed in the ceiling.) The lion boomed, "Welcome sons of Adam and daughters of Eve! I am Aslan the lion. Welcome to this exciting presentation, blah blah blah."
- Every wall in the conference room was covered with a faux stone texture, and painted to look like actual rock.
- There was a large ornate table in the middle of the room and it was covered with silver chalices, pewter bowls, and plates of meat, fruit, and cheese.
- Inside one of the many flower arrangements on the table was a hidden camera and a microphone. Live audio and video were beamed to a "control center" in an adjacent office, so the pitch coordinator (wearing headphones and holding a clipboard), would know exactly when to send in the next group of presenters.
- As if that wasn't enough, Amaze put a raised platform in the back of the room and set up 4 beautiful wooden thrones for the executives to sit in during the presentations.
Now here's the kicker: just before coming to the meeting the executives signed an agreement with a DIFFERENT developer. So Amaze did all that work and the decision was finalized before anyone actually got to see any of our presentations.
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