Dreamers Empire

You can't inspire people anymore?

2010-01-19T11:36:00.001-08:00

Thats what I was told! On Apr 1, 2009 I rented out The Heights theater in Minneapolis to run a special showing of Ben-Hur. My plan, announce my intention to get Hollywood to do a modern day version of "The Ten Commandments". At intermission I was approached by a rather large Harley looking gentleman who promptly told me that in my speech, I was wrong to assume you could inspire people as they did in such epic films as Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments.

Wow, that was one of those out of the blue remarks that took me off guard. You can't? Turns out he and I would become good friends and later do a special showing of Gettysburg, which he was in, and was imho the most inspiring (and epic) film of the last decade.

And it doesn't stop there. I've been told by others that you can't make a film that is inspirational, epic and Biblical anymore, over and over again. I've been told Hollywood won't touch it with a ten foot pole. Were they right?

Look at some of the films I'm referring to. Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, The Robe, The Greatest Story Ever Told, and The Sound of Music. Sure, The Sound of Music wasn't a Bible based movie as the others were, but it was a true story based on good morals and was epic and inspirational. The final song and scene to "Climb every mountain" resonates with movie goers for ages. And while not Bible based, The Lord of the Rings was certainly epic, inspirational and followed the story-line of the books with great respect and integrity.

And Avatar! Well, I didn't like it, what a shallow story. But it no doubt will rake in 3 billion dollars. I saw it once and have already forgotten most of it, where all the ones previously mentioned, I can quote almost line for line.

******

Through the encouragement of my friend Kathy I am finally committed to writing the screenplay for "Dreamers Empire". I'm very excited, I'm getting good coaching through a book by Cynthia Whitcomb and I hope to have it all done this year. Right or wrong I really feel motivated to prove that you can indeed to a Biblical, Epic and Inspirational film that will not only be successful but will inspire people. Walt said, in effect, he never did things for the money, money empowered him to do things, and he always had vision for new and marvelous things.

Dream #100

2009-10-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

I'm going to cover myself and assume I've had 99 of my own dreams and start numbering them at #100.

My brother Bob put out this web site holder yesterday..

www.horizonsfuture.com

You been on Horizons at Epcot? It shut down in 1999, many have felt like the vision of the future that Horizons embodied went with it. Horizons was bar-none the best picture of the future I have ever seen. The picture you see there is but a small part of a city scape you see during the ride.

Now, if I may paraphrase for Bob, he has put out a little reminder to get us excited. Where is this vision of the future we once elaborated on? We need to be excited about the future.

What Bob plans with this site is not entirely clear to me yet but I promise you, he's got the right thing in mind, lets get a little excited about the future again.

Comment on this and let me share your dream next :)

Starry Starry Night - Vincent Van Gogh

2009-07-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

This really touched me and wanted to share it with you. At the bottom of this post you'll find the link to the video but read first..

Starry, Starry Night - Vincent Van Gogh!

Be sure your speakers are turned up.

I've heard the song many times before and always loved it, but until I saw this I was clueless that the song was written for Vincent Van Gogh, as a tribute by Don McLean.

It is rumored that Van Gogh's painting of the 'starry nights' was painted during the time he was in an asylum and that he sold only one painting during his lifetime as he was not recognized.

That's perhaps what caused him to fall into an abyss of depression which eventually led to his suicide ... how tragic to have felt so hopeless and misunderstood in spite of being so gifted! It is truly a pity that medical science could not have been more advanced at that time, so that this wonderful artist could have been saved ...

Sit back and be enthralled by the works [paintings] of Vincent Van Gogh. This alone justifies our exchange of emails of subjects we might never have seen otherwise.

"There are as many nights as days and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness and the
word "happy" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness ... " ~~ Carl Jung

Click here

Dream #2 - begins Feb 6th

2009-01-29T11:21:00.000-08:00

On Friday, Feb 6th there will be a "Dreamers Empire" poster at the Historic Heights Theater in Columbia Heights, MN. This is part of my "idea" documented in this blog. This idea will help me launch dream #2. A little history...

A while back I blogged that I would try something that has never been done in hopes it would launch a dream. That will all be explained Apr 1 at the Heights Theater. The press release comes out on Feb 6th to invite folks to come out and see a special showing of "Ben-Hur" and hear a message from Dreamers Empire, which is being prepared by me along with my brother and nephew. So you'll have to wait and hear about dream #2 on Apr 1.

Dream #1 - In the meantime I was able to launch a really fun dream, which is documented below. My brothers family and my family put on an Epcot themed celebration at his house on July 4, 2008. You can read about it below with links to the videos and what not.

So you can see that Dreamers Empire intends to document, support, market one dream at a time. I have other ones planned but really intend to reach out and help other dreamers achieve their dreams.

Stay tuned...

New Friends Alert!

2008-09-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, on July 4th my brother "EpcotBob" and I put on an Epcot themed celebration at his home. We built our own versions of Soarin, Illuminations and Mexico, all favorites at Epcot.

We posted our youtube videos at a few Disney forums and were quite surprised the way the view counts went up and the comments came back. Reading posts like this one at disboards has been one of the most rewarding experiences we have had. We figured we'd connect well with the Disney crowd but we had no idea we'd get this warm response, it was worth every dollar and hour invested (a lot)!

I was a little disappointed in the number of folks who took the opportunity to sign up at my site dreamersempire.com and participate in the forums. Theres definately not enough to sustain any conversations. Still, I made a great connection and one new friend is helping me out with some artwork for the site.

Okay, here is the point of this post. There was one thing I had hoped would happen and it didn't (I'll take the blame, its gotta be me). No one asked about what my avatar or my site prominent graphic (a reflection of a mountain in a building) meant. I expected at least a "what the heck..?" but no one asked. Okay, I guess in truth I don't spend too much time looking behind the scenes when I stumble into a great video or some blog or site. So my bad!?!

However (this is a huge however for me) the intent behind dreamersempire, the plan if you will, took a great surge forward on Tuesday, Sept 9th. The plan required one thing for me to move forward, permission to rent a movie theater and borrow a movie poster slot. I dreaded asking this for months, I knew I had to do it, and I braced myself for a "No" or better yet a "What in the world are you talking about?" kind of response. The response was "Sure". Huh? Did he understand what I was asking for?

You too might be wondering "Huh?" and thats okay, it was deliberate, it was deliberate. Where is that line from? Anyway, chasing my dream, Dreamers Empire, just got a little more 'possible' this week and I'm estatic. In the meantime I hope I can connect with some of you new friends through Twitter and youtube and see if there would be anyone interested in joining me at the dreamersempire.com forum for some lively discussion about "Recapturing the Future".

Minicot videos available & Myspace Page

2008-08-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to Soarin. That is our version of it!

Here is our re-creation of Soarin

Here is our re-creation of Illuminations and Mexico

And finally, find us at Myspace and become a friend, share your comments.

We've had great feedback from a few Disney forums that we posted the videos at. We figured Disney enthusiasts would get a kick out of this, but we were pleasantly surprised just how great the response was. I'm trying to fix a small registration issue at Dreamers Empire before I post to other Disney forums.

If you want the technical explanation behind this, my brother "EpcotBob" will be posting a "How we did it" video soon.

BTW - This is not the "idea" I've mentioned in other blog entries.

Dream #1 - Minicot

2008-07-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

The July 4th recreation of Epcot in a Minnesota backyard, known as Minicot, was successful and we will have the video posted by the end of July. This is the first of five events designed to help recapture the future.

Check out the Press Release!

Idea taking form!

2008-02-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to announce that the artistic rendering of Dreamers Empire has been completely done by Pearse Street Consulting. They have created the look at the forum site, the flash intro, the Myspace Page, as well as the rest of the work that I will use in the "5 messages" we will start announcing by the end of July, 2008.

Fuchsia and her crew at Pearse Street are top notch, its been a privelege to work with them on Dreamers Empire and The Million Mile Challenge.

The Million Mile Challenge

2008-02-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

The reason I "landed" at dreamersempire.com was directly related to my first dream pursuit, known as the Million Mile Challenge. Check out www.fitnessrace.com if you want to see the site that has drained every moment and every penny I've been able to spare for the last 8 years.
I was looking for a site to help me with aspects of being an entrepeneur/idea guy and I began to form some thoughts on what I would like. In short, a web site that would both help me and inspire me to chase my dreams. It seems like there should be one out there, I haven't found it yet. So I purchased dreamersempire.com. A place to help me make my dreams come true, and help others with theirs.

The Million Mile Challenge (or MMC) has been both a source of great joy and agony for me and my family.

Joys - In 2006 I entered a 2 minute video highlighting my sites goals and how the MMC can help folks get active and healthy into CNN's "Fit Nation" contest. We took second place, a very nice honor.

In 2007, on a second attempt, I was able to be part of a grant that was approved to help develop a tool kit for middle schools, get them exercising and eating better. That should commence in 2008.

Many other moments of joy personally when I'd see some feature, even small ones, developed at my site. This provides a bigger natural high than you could imagine!

Agonies - well for starters, the money. Even at this point its hard to say its been worth it all. Hopefully time will change that feeling.

CNN didn't come through with their prize, to be on CNN. It was always about getting on CNN, and leveraging that. But CNN lost interest and that meant I couldn't leverage that locally. Ouch! I knew it was in the fine print but just couldn't imagine a reputable station like CNN yanking away the prize.

Communications - or the lack there of. You know, I can't blame people for getting sick of me and my emails or calls, but thats one that is very hard. You put your life into something and people make gestures of helping you out, then don't respond to your messages. This one I experience almost constantly.

Do not count on your friends to help you. I have next to no friends who really appreciate what I'm trying to do. Yeah, I guess familiarity breeds contempt. Lesson - go to your niche crowd, especially those who you don't know.

*Lastly, I'm banking on a myspace challenge to boost my sites hit count. If this one fails, then I wait on the work I'm doing with the Univ of NC. Check out www.myspace.com/millionmilechallenge if interested.

Chao!

Progress of "The Idea"

2008-02-05T09:42:00.000-08:00

Just a quick blurb to say that I have put some effort into the idea and I do believe I'm on schedule to release it by May 1, 2008.

Why should you care? Well, for those who see potential then there is an opportunity to throw your idea into the mix.

Sorry I can't reveal more yet! BTW - I've been to WDW twice since the last posting and they were both very inspirational experiences. In particular two attractions, one is at Epcot and is a simple and very un-busy room where they show pictures and give some history of Epcot.

The second is incredible to folks who like to dream, its at Hollywood Studios (just renamed from MGM) and is also very un-busy. Its a couple of rooms dedicated to Walt and the history of WDW, and ends with a short movie about Walt. Very inspirational, a must see!

Talk to you soon, and visit at www.dreamersempire.com

Wonderment

2007-08-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

It was a Sunday evening, I was about 10 years old and the year was around 1970. 6:00 P.M. meant two things, I had enjoyed a big Sunday meal of roast beef and homemade mashed potates and gravy, but better yet, it was time to watch the wonderful world of Walt Disney. The RCA "Console" TV complete with an additional 125 pounds of who knows what was the portal to magic.

On this particular Sunday we were treated to something other than the standard hour long drama (with a dog in it somehow or another) and instead given a tour of Disneyland (yup, all prior to Disneyworld and Florida).

In one particular segment my imagination would be ignited forever, and a dream of something "larger than life" entered my brain and remains nearly 40 years later. It lasted about 30 seconds at best, was animated of all things, and taught me two things, one of which is the power of dreams and imagination. Goofy, the fun loving dog with a voice, was driving one of those cars in what I believe was then called "Autopia" and now is "Tomorrowland Speedway". It appeared to me he was driving it wherever he wished, over tunnles, through the entire park with dazzeling colors and Cinderellas castle in the background. It was a perfect picture to me, animation captured something my mind wanted, to drive a car anywhere I wanted in a pristine and perfect world that I wouldn't visit (and learn the harsh reality of) for another 5 years. Whats this rail between my tires? Agghhhhh!!!

Dont get me wrong, I love Disney, been to both a total of at least 12 times and going again in 4 months. It is the premier place in the world that captures wonderment. Its not in the dictionary but I'm guessing you dont need it, "A sense of wonder" is how I would put it. You could get this sense at the Grand Canyon, or the birth of your first child, or even in a grand hotel lobby. Certainly of all of Disney the place that captures wonderment the most is Epcot. The pinnacle of wonderment is experienced at Illuminations, a 15 minutes light show at 9:00 every evening around the lake in the center of the nation showcase. The first time is ofcourse the pinnacle of pinnacle moments, watching the lights dance into the direction of the highlighted nation with appropriated and familiar music like Faliculi Falicula.

Oh but if you only knew (perhaps you do) the plans for Epcot. If you're not familiar with these plans check out www.waltopia.com and be ready for disappointment. Even more disappointing is the direction that Disney is going, somehow they bought into the concept that what folks want is thrill rides and not wonderment. Oh sure, they've kept that aspect in their rides as well as they could (just compare to Universal, ugh..) but most folks I've talked to agree, the different between the 80's and 90's Epcot to now is definate proof that wonderment is a dying art.
Horizons was a ride (replaced by Mission Space) that probably captured wonderment better than any other ride. I so wish my children had the opportunity to turn in that 4 seated travel pod around the corner, hovering over New York city. Was their a breeze in there? Sure seemed like it. Yeah, okay, I'll give you that, Soarin is somewhat that and I love it. Yes, the one ride I'd have to admit restored some faith in wonderment at WDW, but I dont get the sense its the rule but rather the exception for Disney plans.

As far as wonderment and movies go, what can compare to Star Wars and LOTR? Okay, I know theres a few more, but wow, did folks line up for 2 days to see "The Departed"? Ugh.. Hollywood has lost its way and the Academy, well, more on all this later in another post. But I'll go back to, what was it, 1976ish?, was any movie premier ever as spectacular at Star Wars Episode IV? Wonderment was ignited in millions.

Wonderment, its fading from Disney and its almost gone in Hollywood, and I want it back. I being a dreamer had wrongly assumed there must be a ton of Walt Disneys and George Lucas's out there, but the older I get the more I think there are next to none. I started a poll at my web site, who is the next Walt? I suggested guys like Phil Vischer (creator of Veggie Tales) and someone else suggested Steve Jobs. But I suspect its someone else, maybe you? ;-)

Okay, I'd also like to believe its me, at least in some capacity. I can't do the stereotypical CEO thing and great leaders are truly essential to great successes. But I am an idea guy, I've been one since at least the 3rd grade. And I think ideas themselves are powerful things. We all have them, perhaps every day, but entrepeneurs do something about them. I have a few little sayings I made up, one is "You're either living your dreams or someone elses". Isn't that true? In the real world, you either work for a visionary or you are one. We actually need more of the latter, but how frustrating when you have truly great ideas and cant find the time to make them reality!

How do you know a good idea from a bad one? Time for my second saying "Good ideas are ideas that refuse to go away". In other words, they will happen, but will you make it happen or will you someday say "I had that idea! I did!". I can tell you I've had a number of good ideas. The one that was the hardest to digest was watching a board game I worked on for a year come out six months after I gave up on it. My version was called "Verbage" and the one that I found on that shelf at Target was called "Wordsters". The game was the same, I just had a few added dimensions to it that made it more fun. I quit when I amatuerishly discovered the price to make it. Some swear my idea was stolen, but it was simply a good idea waiting to happen.

So now I make my case to you that I indeed am a candidate for Walt Disney the II. I have a dream!

So you see, I love wonderment and I think the world really likes it and perhaps needs a little bit of it, from time to time? So I've had these 3 dreams that I've kept mostly to myself, and they are, well, I think what Walt envisioned for Epcot. They are unique, not really detailed in Walts plans at all, for they are involve new innovations or ideas that are not yet happening. One is based on a principle that I've seen all of my years in I.T. One is purely fun and the other is a springboard that will reach out to everyone.

Okay, so this idea (which is similar to milliondollarhomepage.com) works like this.

Idea >> Outcome >> Bigger Outcome >> Lots of other outcomes

Idea - To be launched by May 1, 2008 at www.dreamersempire.com

The outcomes I will hint to with time

This is my best foot forward to restore wonderment to the world :-)

Dean

Dreamers Empire

2007-08-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

Dreamers empire is based on an idea designed to create an explosion of dreams. This idea, to be launched in 2008, will create an outcome, which will create a larger outcome, which will serve as the foundation for many dreams, maybe yours.

Go to http://www.dreamersempire.com/ and join our community, I'll be posting here again very soon.