Reality Askew

Was doing some grocery shopping with wife this morning and made the comment, wouldn’t it be nice to grab a pair of shopping glasses at the entrance that would tie into a custom shopping application. Then as you walked around the store, any item on your list would be highlighted on the shelf. You could even add in navigation via virtual arrows on the ground.

These days, most of our movies come to us via internet streaming through a service like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc.  What if movie producers and advertisers collaborated and embedded hooks in the movies for live advertising?  Take for instance a movie like Blade Runner 2049 where there are literally tons of floating neon billboards going by scene after scene.  For this movie it would be extremely easy to put in a modern advertisement.  How long does an ad need to imprint on our minds, say one second?

I would think there would have to be a digital advertising format agreed upon in advance where the movie could alter the ads brightness, contrast, hue, etc. to make it fit to the movie space and not ruin the immersion.

As a note, the new advertisement for the movie should only overlap the original movie advertisement, so if the new advertisement failed to load or meet some checkpoint criteria, then the original movie ad would still be there.

Doing this would create a revenue stream (punn intended) for as long as a movie is ever viewed.

So had brain fart the other day as I drove past one of those self storage places and thought, they store boxes and a common phrase is boxed in.  Why not have a play on words and call a company Boxed Inn.  So in essence an Inn for boxes.  <queue drums>

Continuing on with the theme of business ideas, another of my favorites is the paintball town/park.  If you’ve never played paintball it’s extremely fun and a little addicting.  There are some really fun scenarios you can act out on a paintball field from recreating an old civil war battle to protecting the president.

However most of the fields I’ve played on were nothing more than patches of dirt with shanties built on them.  My idea would be to create several themed paintball areas all interconnected.  For instance one of those would be a mock city built out of real cinder block complete with sewer systems.  I went through some army training in one of these mock cities and I can tell you it would be a paintball dream.  The initial cost of construction is also a lot less than a real building because there are no glass in the windows or pictures on the walls.  Instead they are just concrete shells with only floors, walls and stairs.

Another zone or area might include vehicles where you could act out an attempted VIP kidnapping with one side trying to protect and the other trying to take him/her out.

And yet another zone could have an old decommissioned airplane that you would have to take back from hijackers.

The civil war zone might have authentic type cannons that would bellow from time to time to add to the atmosphere.

The list is endless and the best part is that you could simply start off with the town and then build the other zones as needed.  Interestingly enough, you would likely find the local law enforcement agencies renting your facility from time to time to do their own training. :)

Add in some concessions (food, drink, equipment rentals, etc.) and you could have a real fun money maker.  Who wouldn’t want to go to work at a place like this?

So for the longest time I’ve had a couple of business ideas floating around in my head and finally decide to share the vision as it were. One of my favorites is to buy a large expanse of desert acreage and build an old west town out in the middle of nowhere.  I know there are already old west type towns (ie, Old Tucson, Tombstone, etc.)  but this would be something completely different.

By different I mean the visitors to this attraction would be completely immersed in the old west theme from start to finish.  At the start visitors would park their cars, surrender their electronics (phones, iPads, etc.) and don period appropriate clothing.  Yes guns included. :) They would then have a choice to ride a stage coach or pick out a horse, that they would keep for the entire time of their stay, and then ride the several miles into town.  Speaking of stay, I would imagine that the length of time for this “adventure” would be about 4-5 days.  This would allow time for the town to be turned around for a different set of visitors every week.

The town itself would be completely authenticate in appearance and construction.  No electronic equipment what so ever would be allowed.  However unbeknownst to the guests the town would in fact be built on top of an elaborate system of underground support facilities (similar to Disneyland I would imagine) where the staff (actors) could work.

I thought it might even be nice to have specific jobs that the visitors would apply for prior to arrival.  For instance one might be the sheriff for a week, doctor, bartender, banker, shop owner, etc.  The really interesting twist would be to plant actors in with the arrivals and have them pretend to be guests.   These actors could then create stories about the town, start gunfights (blanks only folks), and generally create drama that the visitors might have fun dealing with in a very controlled and choreographed way.  Of course we would have a working jail for those that create mischief, real or faked.

A town playhouse would present period type plays as well that the visitors could be lured/encouraged into participating in.  Herding cattle on horseback would be a big deal with a desert bonfire type finish.  Poker playing and general gambling could be integrated into the salon as well.