How I mastered the art of having a great time
DION Summergreene’s creative genius is on show just about everywhere you look at Village Roadshow theme parks.
And it all stems from a stint flipping burgers in the Movie World kitchen.
Mr Summergreene, 37, the head of Village Roadshow’s art department for consumer products, got his first break in 1997.
“I got a job flipping burgers and cooking chips at Movie World during the holidays in my final few years of school,” the former All Saints Anglican College student said.
“I did a graphic arts course the next year then ended up going back to Movie World to work in retail.
“About two years later my manager discovered that I had studied graphic art and asked me to join the product design team for a trial. I was hired a few weeks later.”
Mr Summergreene, who lives at Robina with wife Melissa and two-year-old daughter Siena, said it normally took about six months from the initial sketch to get a product into the park.
“I couldn’t do this job anywhere else in Australia. There are really only a handful of places in the world that you could.
“Most people don’t realise that all of our products are created on site in a small office out the back of Movie World. There are about 10 of us.
“We work closely with the (licensing) teams at Warner Brothers, DC Comics, Looney Tunes and Nickelodeon. There are a lot of avenues to navigate and certain people overseas that need to sign off on the products, but there’s a great element of trust. They know we do things right.
“And there’s nothing better than seeing a child holding the finished product of something you’ve created.”
Mr Summergreene said there was pressure creating merchandise and attractions featuring characters such as Batman or Superman.
“I’m a self-proclaimed fan boy at heart which makes this job even better,” he said.
“I worked on theming for the Doomsday Destroyer and DC Comics ... it involves everything from the storytelling and how the ride will look to staff uniforms.
“And there is pressure knowing there are superfans and hardcore comic fans who follow these known brands we work with.
“The challenge is creating something that those big fans are going to love but also something that the average person will enjoy.
“Now that I’m a father to a two-year-old toddler, my thinking is starting to change.
“The parks in China are exploding and we’re also DION SUMMERGREENE
working on the upcoming Lionsgate Entertainment World in Hengqin (in China) across brands like and The Hunger which is great.”
In some cases though, Mr Summergreene gets free reign to create original characters.
“With the new Splash Zone at Sea World we had much more freedom with our designs,” he said.
“We could essentially create any characters we wanted. My designs got picked up by Sea World management and they decided to go with it for the whole attraction.
“With a big project like this we get a set budget, which can be tricky, especially when you have these crazy ideas that everyone just rolls their eyes and shakes their head at,” he Twilight Games, said. “So you have to pull it right back, but working within constraints helps you approach things in a different way to find new solutions.
“After the Global Financial Crises we had to re-strategise our offerings and skew our range toward the locals because we weren’t getting as many international visitors. And when you’re competing with local retailers you have to offer cheaper prices.”
But that’s not to say merchandise isn’t a huge money maker for Village Roadshow.
Although the company’s breakdown of financial figures are not made public, retail items have low fixed costs and can be sold for a huge premium, which is how they bring in the big bucks.
Mr Summergreene’s team has picked up 12 international retail awards in the past few years, beating out international giants like Disney and Universal Studios.
And between the busy tasks of work and raising a toddler, he is writing a children’s novel about a detector dog from the Brisbane Airport who uncovers a shipment of smuggled animals and heads off on an international adventure.
“I come to work and get to be a big kid every day, well most of the time. Sometimes I have to be an adult,” he laughed.
I WORKED ON THEMING FOR THE DOOMSDAY DESTROYER AND DC COMICS ... IT INVOLVES EVERYTHING FROM THE STORYTELLING AND HOW THE RIDE WILL LOOK TO STAFF UNIFORMS