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The abandoned Joyland Amusement park in Wichita, Kansas. Great, sad images. This film has been really well received on Vimeo with over 250,00 views.

It has also been covered on the Guardian's website in the UK and was recently featured on Wired.com.

Credits

Likes

  • Lonny Quattlebaum pro 10 months ago
    Great video Mike. Makes me miss that place.
  • Max_Carsel 9 months ago
    I like that.. !
    vimeo.com/8366628
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  • Mike Petty pro 10 months ago
    Thanks...I did not grow up in Wichita but one of my brothers used to work there when he was in high school. He has some great stories.
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  • Andrea Allen staff 10 months ago
    Crazy to see that place like this. Thanks for sharing! The Scrambler was my favorite. ::tear::
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  • Gabriel Franco plus 10 months ago
    Nice, Mike! I liked the colors and the sound, specially.
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  • The Film Artist plus 10 months ago
    And this is America today, the American dream... Good work Mark :) [TFA30]
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  • Rascataplau 10 months ago
    Lovely video. The voices create a shocking effect
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  • Susan Pott Mikulecky 9 months ago
    Stunning images- I too grew up there. Your addition of sound was haunting. Thank you.
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  • Max Mikulecky 9 months ago
    Incredible images. My mom grew up going to Joyland and I got to experience the park right before it closed down. Very well done!
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  • Wade Hampton plus 9 months ago
    Very nice and very moving.
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  • Barrett Voisin 9 months ago
    Hey Mike, I been wanting to shoot some footage at Joyland for some time now. Can you give me any help on whom I should get in contact with? Also this video is brilliant. Excellent job.
  • Paragone Pictures plus 9 months ago
    Film school
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  • Mike Petty pro 9 months ago
    I come from the better to ask forgiveness than permission school of production (at least on this project) I just slipped in with my gear and shot pretty quickly. I didn't contact anybody, I just went and shot.
  • Barrett Voisin 9 months ago
    lol ty... The video was awesome and the audio was really clever.
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  • Terry Vaughn 9 months ago
    Great video Mike. My wife and I worked with your brother at Joyland summer of '74. Although we haven't kept in touch, he was a very close friend that we had a lot of great times with. Please send greetings from Terry and Linda!
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  • RJ Evans plus 9 months ago
    Lovely to look at, made me almost melancholic!

    kuriositas.com/2011/05/no-joy.html

    Thanks!
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  • Ryan plus 9 months ago
    I found this thanks to io9.com. Very cool video!
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  • Chris Duke plus 9 months ago
    Beautifully done. I really enjoyed watching this, even though I have never been there nor am I really that fond of amusement parks. It was just really well done. Great camera movements with the PD and perfect music with ride sounds. I'm going to share... thanks.
  • Mike Petty pro 9 months ago
    Thanks...it was fun. The park is a mess but it looks great on film.
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  • alan halfhill 9 months ago
    Well done. Sad, emotional, beautiful video.
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  • marshallbaker 9 months ago
    Great use of sound effects and music. You mention how you graded it but what picture profile setting did you use? Neutral?
  • Mike Petty pro 9 months ago
    I think when I shot this I was using the Marvel's Cinestyle/Picture Style. You can Google it. I am using the Technicolor Picture Style now...really like it a base for post.
  • marshallbaker 9 months ago
    Cool deal, thanks. I recently downloaded the technicolor style but haven't played with it yet. Hoping to this week
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  • Seth Kinkaid 9 months ago
    i grew up going to joyland! wow... brings back tons of memories. thanks for this, seriously!
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  • Toby Cummings 9 months ago
    Haunting but amazing. ;-) It somewhat reminds me of an apocalyptic world. I think this location would make for some great photography backgrounds.
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  • Jeff Sites 9 months ago
    Poignant movie, Mike. Did you have a any trouble getting in? I've often thought of going there to shoot stills, but wasn't sure I could get (or stay) in without causing trouble.
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  • Josh Dutcher 9 months ago
    Sad. I also went there a lot as a kid. Really good video, well done.

    I shot some stills there a few years back:

    flickr.com/photos/busychild424/sets/862427/show/
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  • Leif Jonker 9 months ago
    Very, very nice Mike. Thanks for sharing this.
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  • Darian Rawson 9 months ago
    I'm from Wichita and spent many company picnics at Joy Land, so thanks. This was pretty interesting.
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  • laura l 9 months ago
    Love what you did with it!
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  • Grano plus 8 months ago
    Nice, very nice.
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  • Tulio Campregher 8 months ago
    great soundtrack!
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  • West Ramsey 7 months ago
    Really nice work! Really enjoyed it!
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  • Chrissie DiAngelus 7 months ago
    It's a real time capsule...completely frozen in time. It's fantastic that he was able to get in there and shoot this and capture it. It feels like it was all of a sudden, one day it just decided to close its doors? Sad but perfect being able to capture a time gone by. I love photographing amusement parks, especially old ones like this. Remarkable that it's stayed untouched. Someday some of those park rides will wind up on American Pickers!
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  • Michelle Klein-Hass 7 months ago
    I'm getting Carnival of Souls flashbacks...and that's really not a bad thing. Very awesome. Nice work.
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  • Larry Hall 7 months ago
    Love the music and surprised by the lack of graffiti, tho did see one spot where it had been painted over. Have you thought of submitting this to themeparkreview.com? The readers like this kind of thing or aceonline.org/ ? (American Coasters Enthusiasts - ACE)
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  • Max Myers 7 months ago
    Great video and love the edit. Ultimately, though, it’s very sad to see Americana being abandoned like this. The same thing has happened to most of the Drive-Ins.
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  • FlyingO 7 months ago
    Nicely done. I really appreciate videos and photo "essays" on old abandoned or dilapidated places like this. Movie theaters, amusement parks, drive-ins, strip malls, etc., wherever people would gather. The half visual/half memory juxtaposition of what the past may have been with what the present surely is never ceases to fascinate me. Thanks for making this!
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  • Patrick O'Byrne 7 months ago
    I like the colors in this video.
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  • Joey Buhrer 7 months ago
    Great work. Any plans to film the sequel at Wild West World? ;)
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  • Urbanartcore.eu 6 months ago
    nice capture and great atmosphere! i just wrote a post about it: urbanartcore.eu/joyland-abandoned-amusement-park/
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Statistics

Date Plays Comments
Totals 261K 767 41
Feb 23rd 9 0 0
Feb 22nd 42 0 0
Feb 21st 53 0 0
Feb 20th 66 0 0
Feb 19th 60 0 0
Feb 18th 56 1 0
Feb 17th 54 0 0

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