Hot Summer Lights

I might have said this here or in my TR, but I didnt like the show. The Firewater and Fireworks are cool, but the animations and 3D stuff was weird and made me feel like i was going to do drugs. cool this was prob. the college stuff, they actually had highlights and what not..

also overall the cool thing was the God bless america and the usa by lee greenwood or whatever the songs are, this is probably becasue I was by two members of the US military (my bro and his new wife) who sang along with it which like in pervious years has ALWAYS given me goose bumps

yea, i think it was pretty good, but they reused some songs..i dunno. It wouldve been better with all new music. I saw it its first or second night, which was alright..but the projector i was sitting under on the left side didnt work and they tried so hard to fix it, but it was too late when the show started they gave up. And the fireworks arent synched well enough to give an amazing effect.

Next time I'm there and watching it, I'd better hear a deafening roar for OSU. ;) I was disappointed when I was there in June. How dare we let those Michigan fans beat us...in anything.

And yes, I am very much a Buckeye fan, and Michigan will not win in football this year, nor will they go on to the Rose Bowl. :) Gotta love rivalries. *** Edited 7/16/2006 4:17:42 AM UTC by BlueStreak64***

There have been some major modifications to the show; here's what's new in HSL "version 1.5"

1. Pre-Show: Announcements re-recorded, trivia still the same
2. Rob Thomas "This is How a Heart Breaks": Aerial MF made more lively, other minor graphical adjustments
3. Tina Turner "Proud Mary": Animations made more lively
4. "I don't know where I'm gonna go": Low-key rumbling added, more fireworks, much louder BANG at the end
5. Hoku "Perfect Day": Animations made more lively, new CP scenes of the midways replace Sandcastle Aerial and Soak City scenes
6. Presidents of the USA "Cleveland Rocks": Animations made more lively
7. Chuck Miller "House of Blue Lights": New real-life Detroit nightlife scenes replaced the clip-art, "DETROIT" written in circus-esque font
8. Brian Setzer Orchestra "Little Deuce Coupe": Almost entirely Dragster-themed, with an entrance fly-by and a complete POV of the ride with an extended view looking down from the top
9. Jennifer Lopez "Let's Get Loud": Same as before, but it seems the woman is dancing more
10. Oingo Boingo "Dead Man's Party": Video totally re-organized, new HalloWeekends images added
11. Steve Miller Band "Abracadabra": Deleted!! Replaced with Bon Jovi "Who Says You Can't Go Home", featuring images of rural life, family, photographs, and "country home"
12. Notre Dame theme: Same as before
13. Michigan theme: Same as before
14. Ohio State theme: Same as before
15. Ohio State "Hang On Sloopy": Same as before
16. Lee Greenwood "God Bless the USA": All real-life scenes replaced with new ones, other graphics spiced up, more fireworks
17. "God Bless America": Female voice says "Please join us in singing God Bless America", graphics spiced up, more fireworks added at the end
18. Ending: "Thank You" message re-recorded with above female voice, volume lowered on "Hang On Sloopy"

Has anyone seen these changes? What do you think?

What a relief! I actually sent a short letter to the park about how bad the show was (as I know several others did), and then about 1.5 weeks ago, I watched it again with some friends (who hadn't seen it), and noticed that there were a lot of higher ups who were watching. Seems like they finally took a hint. Hopefully it's an improvement.

*** Edited 8/1/2006 2:49:40 AM UTC by DBCP***

Well its about time!

I was there a week ago, and after getting off MF about an hour after the park closed, I noticed they were definately going through and making adjustments to the show. They were reconfiguring the lights to match new images that were up on the screen. It was kinda cool watching the image move frame by frame-ish and the lights getting set one by one.

PS. What were the new Halloweekends images they added?

*** Edited 8/1/2006 5:12:08 AM UTC by Ralph Wiggum***

DBCP said:
What a relief! I actually sent a short letter to the park about how bad the show was (as I know several others did), and then about 1.5 weeks ago, I watched it again with some friends (who hadn't seen it), and noticed that there were a lot of higher ups who were watching. Seems like they finally took a hint. Hopefully it's an improvement.

*** Edited 8/1/2006 2:49:40 AM UTC by DBCP***

I was one of them. I dont know if you did, but I wrote to interlaced productions also.

There are several good designers/producers of exactly this kind of thing out there. I don't know why Cedar Point feels obligated to stick with some of the same people (Unless it is totally a $$$ Issue). There isn't a good reason why a park like Cedar Point can't have an absolutely amazing show. If Interlaced Productions can do it - great, but there are others that can probably do even better. I just hope CP shops around a little more.

Well stone mountain productions was great before it became interlaced productions. And thats just what i told them when I wrote to them.

And you are right. They should be able to have an absolutely amazing show with lasers and all the fancy 3d effects.

Stone Mountain didn't become Interlaced Productions. The President and Vice-President of Stone Mountain left the company and started their own company: Interlaced Productions.

Oh ok. Well it was just as easy to say that it became then that. But thank you for the corection.

Well, I was just pointing it out because Stone Mountain still exists. There was no reason Cedar Point had to switch to a brand new company.

You make it sound like the old show was good or something! ;)

Well I grew to like it. I truely miss the lasers but yes it was getting old. And you may or may not agree but I think that the lasers were what made the show. But the first time I saw the show was about 12 years ago. Lets see I would have been 4 years old. Im now 16 and a half. The show grew on me. What can I say. :) I really dont like this show at all and the other one was better. Maybe not as good as something like disney would do but better then Hot summer lights.

Now thats just my opinion, It doenst bother me if you liked it or not but I did and just hope that they can do better next year. It seems like they have already tried to make it better this year due to emails that I and others have sent.

By chance did the change start effective 7/24. We were there 7/23 and 7/24. We caught the last half of the show on 7/23 and I noticed what to me was a glaring error - during "God Bless the USA", where there is a reference to Los Angeles, they showed a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge which is in San Francisco and 350 miles away from Los Angeles (Chicago is closer to Cleveland than San Francisco is to Los Angeles). When we saw the full show on 7/24, it had turned into a picture of Hollywood.

And here I though they had telepathically heard my complaint and immediately acted on it. :-)