"Lights... Camera... Action!"
or "Third Time's the Charm"
After having had two floats in the Rose Parade it seemed unlikely there would be a third, but that's exactly what happened in 2014. The theme that year was "Dreams Come True," and the City of Burbank's entry was "Lights... Camera... Action!"
Like our first float for 2005, this year's entry had an interesting path from concept to fruition. We had originally submitted the design for the 2011 parade, which had the theme of "Building Dreams, Friendships and Memories." My idea was that movies create all of those, and so many movies are created in Burbank that a fanciful look at a film production would be a natural match. The idea went nowhere that year, but I kept in our folder of ideas just in case another theme popped up where it could work.
That's just what happened for the 2014 parade. We submitted several ideas that year, and our concept titled "Movie Magic" was picked for Burbank's entry in the annual Rose Parade. As you'll see below, the design went through multiple changes and got a new name.
This was Stacia's original art that had been submitted for the 2011 float. That year was Burbank's 100th birthday so the engine carried the number "100" and the name "Centennial Celebration." I went for an old-fashioned movie mellerdrammer theme, with the heroine tied to the tracks as the dastardly villain twirled his mustache and a train raced towards her. No worries, though, it was all just a movie set!
The next step was to work with other members of the association to more fully flesh out the concept and transform it into a workable float design. This was the plan as of March 9, 2013. A major change was moving the villain into a more prominent setting by putting him in the locomotive. The heroine was moved closer to the front of the float so it would be easier to see that she was in peril, and to provide more track to the design.
Stacia was traveling so our friend Richard Burrow helped immensely by doing this and other pieces of interim art.
Here's where things stood on April 16. Stacia was back in town and worked her magic again. We had juggled a few things around, like switching the positions of our cowboy hero and the mine car, but overall we were just about there!
Finally, on June 23, the final concept art was released. We had worked to select all of the flowers needed for this color scheme, making sure they would fit in our budget. The float had a new name by then - "Lights... Camera... Action!"
The main design was done, but there were many, many details still to work out.