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Managing Niagara’s Fury
Posted By RAY SPITERI
From the cold, steel hands of futuristic cyborgs to alien attacks on the streets of New York, the project manager and technical director for Niagara’s Fury is well versed in the world of special effects.
John Erickson has worked on two of Universal Studios’ main adventure rides at its theme park in Florida – Terminator 2: 3-D, and Men in Black Alien Attack. He was also recruited overseas to lend his expertise on other theme park attractions.
Now, the 47-year-old is on board with the Niagara Parks Commission as one of the lead hands on a creative team building its $7 million, six-minute thrill ride at Table Rock, part of a $38-million expansion of the more than 80-year-old facility.
“I think we’re going to make this a very intense, very realistic ride where people will truly experience moments in time,” said Erickson.
It’s tough for him to squeak out a few minutes of time to talk. His morning break at Tim Hortons came long after his day started and well before it would likely end.
With days to go until the test runs on Niagara’s Fury are scheduled to begin, it’s 12-hour days for Erickson.
“We’re basically trying to recreate a geological timeline which is very slow, so you just have to jump into the timeline at that intense moment and try and recreate it. I think it’s going to be pretty effective.”
So how does a guy go from playing in a local band in Fargo, N.D. to living in Los Angeles, Calif. where he oversees the creation of thrill rides for a living?
“I started out doing audio-visual, I learned that from my dad in Fargo – he used to work for NBC,” said Erickson. “It was mostly setting up for conventions and doing permanent installs for some cameras and stuff.”
Erickson moved to L.A. where he began working with an audio-visual company that had a hand in shows like the Oscars.
That’s when things started getting interesting.
About 20 years ago, he was asked to go to Japan to design an audio system for a large theme park – which put him on the career path he now travels.
“When I got out (to Japan), this company said, ‘Hey, do you know anything about special effects?’ I said no, they said: ‘OK, we’ll show you.’”
Erickson soon learned how to create water effects, lighting, animatronics and all sorts of funky technology.
“I cut my teeth on that and the thing about my profession is you never know what you’re going to run into next. It’s always something different.”
In the years that followed, Erickson was a mile deep in creative ideas and flooded with job opportunities.
Along with his time at Universal Studios, he has served as technical director for the Star Trek ride in Las Vegas and laid the groundwork for an outdoor lagoon show at Tokyo DisneySea in Japan.
Erickson said he heard about Niagara Parks’ plans for a 4-D attraction from Technifex, Inc., a Valencia, Calif.-based company that has had its hands in the 3-D Spider-Man ride at Universal Studios, as well as shows at Disney’s Epcot Centre, Las Vegas resorts and projects for the Discovery Channel.
Having worked with the company on projects such as Star Trek and Terminator 2: 3-D, Erickson said he and the company’s owners were looking for another project to collaborate on.
He liked Niagara Parks’ concept for its ride and dropped a project he was on in Indonesia, which was slated to be completed in December but fell behind schedule because of construction concerns.
“(Technifex) gave me the concept of (Niagara’s Fury) and it sounded really cool. What I like about it is I get a lot of control. When you do a great big project, a lot of times you don’t get a lot of control because there are so many people involved and everyone’s got their own say.”
He doesn’t get much time to enjoy the amenities Niagara Falls has to offer, but he’s impressed by the natural beauty that surrounds him. “My office, my little desk upstairs, overlooks the falls,” he said. “I’ve had some cool offices and this is definitely one of them. And you can’t ask for a much more exciting life. It’s always something different, it’s never boring.”
Article ID# 1037280
© 2008 , Osprey Media. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Niagara Falls Review articles reprinted with permission by the authority of Joe Wallace, City Editor of the Niagara Falls Review.
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