Levithian

Unless it has drastically changed in the last few years, none of them use awards. They literally don't mean anything when you draw up an enterprise bargaining agreement. Because it's approved by fairwork it allows you to overwrite any state and federal awards, including things like minimum wages. The reason they don't pay penalty rates for weekend work is the loading is supposed to be built into the base rate. Because the park is open year round, the ordinary hours include weekend work. It's not considered unusual or outside of the scope for the position, so it's not expected you earn penalty rates. Work overtime? that's different. Work events outside of park hours? again, different. In a just world these sorts of things are supposed to be accounted for in the base rate that everyone gets. Everyone is supposed to be paid a little more per hour for sacrificing their time because it's understood that the business operates 7 days a week. It's supposed to all even out in the end with employees working day shifts earning more than they would normally, so when you rotate through to weekend work and earn less its supposed to be balanced. Im reality, none of that happens. Fairwork aren't even supposed to approve any agreement that means an employee is worse off. Just what they define as worse off? worse off than their current agreement? or worse off than the federal minimum? because service staff at theme parks certainly get short changed all round. Stupid thing is they have a lot of power in numbers if they were to band together and issue demands and threaten affirmative action, but history has showed companies have basically bought them off with trivial things (how about lollies and a free bbq day to say thanks?) to get them to agree to new agreements when it comes time to vote. I don't know if they have managed to force changes, but different departments at both companies were trying to break away from the all encompassing eba's because this was happening. New and seasonal service staff were voting on agreements while the long term rostered departments were basically being lumped in with young kids that have never heard of an agreement before, let alone know what their employee rights should be. The only reason why affirmative action hasn't happened in recent memory is because there is very little union membership within employees at either companies anymore.

Because the work culture is toxic, it's a lot about groups within groups, and if you don't fit in or aren't considered "a team player" you get ostracised regardless of your work ethic or how you do your job. Throw in a shoddy EBA that allows them to pay staff drastically less than the actual minimum wage, what do you end up with? Trouble retaining employees. Especially ones that matter. IE, the ones that actually keep the place running.

Elements to a film that is within the public domain are not automatically released when the film copyright expires though. If there have been changes, if character likeness has been reproduced and utilised elsewhere since, copyrights can still exist protecting use of characters and other IP. This goes double for if the original story or character development was from literature or a stage play. Even though the film might lapse, the characters and story may still be copyrighted. Once the film lapses they could revert to their original sources copyright. You could change the likeness of a character and use it in an adaptation, the copyright would cover the likeness used in you adaptation if it was something specific enough. I think something like this happens with the wicked witch of the west. Shes presented differently to Baum's books and her known likeness is copyrighted externally to the source. I dont think it matters if something has entered the public domain in Australia if it still holds existing copyrights in another country. Theres an international accord a lot of countries signed up to, so im pretty sure those are still valid here. The original works may have lapsed and someone could use their likeness and character in a new adapation within Australia, but if the movie still holds copyright with turner, given it departs from the source by quite a lot, you can probably assume that everything specific to their movie adaptation is still copyrighted. Character likeness, names for characters, cities/locations, even visuals of the sets. The US copyright is essentially still valid here too because of the accord. Use any of their character names, location names, image likeness for set designs and characters, you are going to be using it under an IP rights agreement.

To be fare to www, the changes to the pace of the ride and the water levels were in response to the depths and the worry someone could drown if a boat was to be sunk. Wasn't from them, but internally. The station change is an absolute disaster. I wonder if they ever got it to run smoothly. Heres a good recent video. Can really see how much faster the boats travel through the troughs. It points out how little themeing elements are working. Even simple things like lighting (ambient light bleeding in is bad) levels messing up the few effects that work. Its such a shame because I know there have been a number of staff who have really wanted to make a go at fixing these things and bringing them back to a high standard and it always ends the same. Either wont spend enough money, wont dedicate enough time/labour, or won't dedicate enough support to keep the effects repaired/running when they are fixed. Its death by a thousand cuts everywhere you look and the only concerns are if the ride is physically running. The video above doesnt have one single basic effect working in the ghost town. Not even the population sign or the shot up water tank. What a waste of a ride. Especially since the site/sound system got a major upgrade too. Has the potential to do a lot with it given the control system that went in. Just have to try and convince the people that matter to approve budgets to actually get things returned to full/proper operation. You would have been working there when the attitude was still if it's part of the ride, we have to return it to service and repair/maintain it. We cant just let it sit out of service. You can say that about a lot of the park now. Must be frustrating for staff that actually care about the place looking its best.

Not a lot of chance of that now after modifications. Such a large volume of water running through the reverse element and past the geysers, it draws boats into the trough pretty quickly. Have you seen how deep the water is there now? Right up to the end of the overflow pool each side of the runout. Can only just see the top of the rail of the runout itself.

I can remember when they were mandatory daily, as in a requirement to ensure things sounded and felt ok. Vastly different management culture now. Its not permitted to allow joy rides. Biggest opportunity staff often have to ride is when they put the call out for needing weighted trains during testing. If operations could free up the staff, it was easier than loading seats with dummies and water. Good luck with the west checks. How much of the themed elements were repaired even when they were reported daily? Some things were out of service for years. 😂

And to think back at who was promoted ahead of Greg Yong, spurring his departure.....

It's company practice that joy rides are not allowed to happen. Not even for maintenance staff. Risk termination even if you do this without a valid reason for performing a ride check. The execs riding should have been handled during testing, but village are famous for bringing forward deadlines instead of following through with proper testing processes. Rather open earlier than intended or before everything has been really put through its paces, then have it break down with guests aboard, followed by an often lengthy "unscheduled maintenance" period for a brand new ride. You know, it really puts the shine on your new investment. The general public love turning up after reading opening announcements and seeing commercials only to find the new ride is broken. Really makes it seem like they known what they are doing and doesn't question the safety of their rides at all.

The longer shutdown time that crops up for superman sometimes is usually due to a rope change for the winch/catch car and/or hydraulic hoses for the power/drive unit. They aren't done yearly and it's usually staggered as it's preventative maintenance vs required annual maintenance. Same with Batwing. Periodic rope changes add additional time to the yearly maintenance schedule.

The last 12-18 months represent the first time weve really seen ticket prices and passes increase sunstancially in over a decade, which is honestly about time. A race to the bottom benefits nobody and the sales tracking data supports that regardless of how cheap you make the entrance price, it wasnt resulting in significant increases in retail sales. Locals scream about things like cost, plus things like wait times, but then they include big overseas parks in the same statements. Really? Tell me about the time you went to one of the parks and had to pay more for entry because it was busy or during a peak period.

It was always scheduled for a major control system upgrade. Previously relied on a barcode system to keep track of car counts, with no specific car positioning available during the ride. Everything is left up to establishing car order at the start, then relying on proxy sensors to do all the hard work as part of the block system. I hope while they are in there replacing the track they link the high zone catwalks. Will make it easier for all.

Time to employ a falconer.

A thread about arena shows at movieworld and not a single mention of the western action show? Old man Johnson will be turning in his grave!

They look like GIS data/survey marks for underground services. Water, power, etc. Could you see anymore away from the ride? Might not have anything to do with the ride at all, but the location of something underground they have to work on.

Yeah. A stripped out shed forms such an integral part of the new themed land that it really should have been bulldozed and built a new just so that it could be grammatically accurate to all the anoraks of the world.

You're like a broken clock, only you're not right twice a day but completely useless instead. You have absolutely no regard for reality. They could remove superman and reinstate the studio tour and movie magic stage show. What has been changed can be changed again right? The reality is your idea is fundamentally flawed. Come up with a new one grounded in reality of not being able to utilise any of studio grounds. I know. They could fill in the swamp and build on top. They do it for housing estates all the time....

This is not part of the park area anymore. It is fenced off and part of WB studios. No direct access at all from the theme park. You can actually see the dividing fence from the overhead image you posted. And despite what lots of people think, the theme parks and the studios are two separate entities now. They don't share space and access is restricted, plus and they don't give up space from the studios. Simply because studios generates more actual income than the parks do. Want evidence of this? have a look where they created site access for the new area. Storage across the road and road access down a gravel driveway along the boundary fence and around past facilities instead of straight through any choice of 3 nice, paved entrances from studios.

The reason the carts are stored in back of house here is because food and bev have their warehouse and offices for retail sales in the park. You would have to build infill walls that partition off access to the various departments now in this area which would narrow this space further. Im not sure if you could reclaim the space against the superman building. There are false walls on the left side of the alley with a pretty large cavity behind. Hides things like the old HVAC units from the movie magic sound stage show that used to be in the building. There isn't as much space to that alley way wall as you might think. It also has emergency exits from the ride. There are a lot of services on the left side of the alley way too. It's not just so clear cut. The new area is honestly in a poor position where it is. Ideally you would like to be walking right through the middle of the scooby building straight up to the new land, but obviously that doesnt work. You can't really go around the back of scooby too as it further reduces back of house access during the day, not only to the rear of scooby but retail/merchandising have offices in the old petrol station building too. Plus, when scooby doo shuts for annual maintenance, access is needed to the lift and the high areas through the back of the building, so the whole access would be closed off any time scooby doo is down for work. I think we are just going to have to settle with a number of average entry/exit points as nobody is going to start tearing down walls or buildings to provide increased public access. Afaik, it hasn't been recommissioned and has experienced substancial upgrades while it was closed which haven't been fully implemented. So the long shut times could likely be a combination of having to implement changes, test and report with the aide of intamin, then submit to the government for approval and registration. It would have come under the new laws regarding 10 yearly maintenance too, so there could be a number of things that need to be done or changed to meet their requirements. And that's all before they might consider things to make it look pretty like theming, or even the notion of training staff. Plus, we know what village are like, if they can't make a show of it during a holiday period they are likely to wait until the next one for an opening even if the attraction is ready. So christmas holiday period might be too close, which makes easter holidays in april the next one in line.

A big part of the issue is the launch distance. With current technology you need a longer launch area than compared a hydraulic launch. Something compact like superman would likely require a track redesign.

There actually appears to be a little more space reclaimed than just the footprint of Arkham. Looks like they cleared everything right up to the old commissary building and across to the road. There was a bit of a grassy hill there before and some parking/storage.

Where will you place it? Doesn't matter what it was in the past, it's what it is now. There's like 4 departments utilising the space. The maintenance building isn't big enough/tall enough for parade storage and everything that goes with it. It's a tiny building and isn't anywhere near as tall as the toons building.

There is more than just storage in that half of the building. Its not easy to split these facilities up and move them away from maintenance departments.

You have to understand that Movie World only has a connection to Warner Bros. because they licence the name for use. Warner Bros. don't have any control or share in the park at all, they don't own anything. So every single IP usage you see is under licencing agreement. Now there are all kinds of agreements that licence their use for all kinds of things. Just because you have the image rights to use a particular character for live action characters or statues, doesn't automatically mean you can build an attraction or sell their likeness of merchandising. It's all negotiated upon. The more you want to use, the bigger the $$$$$$ You are forgetting about the yogi bear 3d movie and recent Tom and Jerry usage too. Plus the use of characters in the park and in merchandising. It's not like they haven't used any at all. It's pretty simple really. You want to pay for things that are current and relevant in the public domain in order to get your best return for the investment. There is a lot of HB stock that really isn't known to the current generation (even the previous generation) of kids. So you have to be careful about where you put your money.

Maybe you should understand there is a national practice in place regardless of state rules? Do me a favour and post some of the requirements on inspections and log book requires from worksafe. I'll wait. Amusement Devices - Information Sheet for Annual Inspections and Records - Updated September 2022.pdf (safeworkaustralia.gov.au)

The same requirements apply to all operators whether you meet the requirements for an amusement park licence or not. The new regulations apply to all rides and amusement devices above a certain class, that is what they were developed for. Doesn't matter how many rides you operate or large your company is, you could operate one single class 2 ride and still have to abide by the same regulations. It covers all instances of operating these devices, so fairs, fetes, shows, etc. For reference, an example of a class 2 ride is a red baron style kids ride or something like a mini drop tower. It's basically the minimum class you'll find for pretty much any actual moving ride. Worth noting that the intention is actually to develop a national code of practice, even though, as pointed out, other states have similar requirements from worksafe.