#lauren paley

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals: Hide And Seek (Ding Dong!)

"Hang on, you're skipping In The Hall Of The Mountain King?" Truth be told, I've never even watched that one. I've seen the thumbnail of course, and well, my weirdness-tolerance in my brain only goes so far. Be glad you're getting a post about this video, because it took me a while to decide to watch it, and I've only seen it like 3 times max.

This was Voiceplay's Halloween video of 2022, released on the 8th of October, and features Lauren Paley, who I don't really know anything about, but apparently she's popular on Tiktok and is known as "the stairwell siren" due her typical choice of singing location. The song is originally a Vocaloid song, but Voiceplay gave it a little bit (understatement of the century) of Disney flair, or more specifically, Disneyland flair, as the video is filmed as if you were watching a performance inside the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland, literally. This might not be one of my most-favourite videos to watch or VP songs to listen to, but I gotta admit that the visual stuff is freaking insane in this video, and I do have a fair few things to talk about with this one, so let's get into it!

(Warning: this post includes a fair bit of infodumping)

I'll get to each person individually in a minute, but first check out the set design! Like a lot of Voiceplay's videos nowadays. this was filmed at Pattycake Productions studios, and Tony Wakim was heavily involved with this one - credited with costuming, props, puppeteering, and direction, so shoutout to him! And shoutout also to Layne, the other half of Pattycake Productions, who arranged the cover and was in charge of the video concept.

I've never been to DisneyLand/World (I've never even been overseas, and there are no Disney parks in Australia), but when I was a little younger (like during mid high school?) I went through a bit of a phase of interest in Disney parks, wanting to learn stuff about them and watching shows from the parks on YouTube and stuff (if only I had been watching shows from Universal Studios in Orlando...), so I'm not entirely unfamiliar with the Haunted Mansion ride/attraction, and I currently have Disney Wiki on hand to help provide further elaboration and comparison pictures.

Alright, character time!

Let's start with Cesar in the middle, who is absolutely serving as Madame Leota, a disembodied head in a crystal ball who conducts "an otherworldly séance in an attempt to summon spirits and assist them in materializing." (And I'm not meant to be talking about the arrangement, but I would feel bad if I didn't mention that the "serpents and spiders" incantation that Cesar does before the beat kicks in is actually part of Madame Leota's incantation, not from the Hide And Seek song!) (Also fun fact: Madame Leota was originally voiced by Eleanor Audley, who also voiced both Lady Tremaine in Cinderella and Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty!)

Could you immediately tell based on just the thumbnail which one was Layne and which one was Geoff? I did actually get it right (could I really call myself a devoted Geoff stan if I didn't?), but honestly I did start to second-guess myself a little.

So in the left-hand column here, we have Layne, and my god Tony and Rick Underwood both really went off for this one. Layne is playing the Hatbox Ghost, who looks like this!

And if it weren't enough to be wondering how long Layne spent in the makeup chair for his extremely ghostly appearance (note that he's also completely clean-shaven, which is quite rare for him, but obviously necessary for the character look), then next we have Geoff, in the right-hand column, and do you see why I don't watch this video a lot? 😅 (I'm mostly joking, I'm not that shallow, but he's still practically unrecognisable!)

Geoff is playing The Caretaker (who apparently has the semi-official name of Silas Crump), who is the groundskeeper for the mansion and its adjacent cemetery, and he is terrified of the undead residents within the manor. He looks like this!

(Geoff, I know you love to call yourself "old [and boring]", but this is ridiculous 🤣)

(Not even 30 seconds into the video yet! Shoutout to anyone who actually reads this whole post!)

Next, we have Lauren, who is playing "The Bride". Apparently there were two iterations of this character in The Haunted Mansion, and I'm not sure which one Lauren is playing, or whether she's going for a mix of both, but here are pictures of the two versions:

The second iteration of The Bride (on the right) is known as Constance Hatchaway (not a typo!), and is one of the figures depicted in the Stretching Room's portraits. Apparently she had a habit of decapitating her husbands with a hatchet (hence the surname), and then stuffing their heads inside of hatboxes as trophies (lovely). According to lore, one of her husbands came into the possession of the manor now known as the Haunted Mansion, which she then inherited after her husband met the same grisly fate as all the previous ones did.

And finally we have Eli, perhaps the most recognisable member in this one, as Alexander Nitrokoff, another figure from the Stretching Portrait Gallery. He looks like this: (and yes, this portrait basically depicts his untimely end. Rip.)

(10/10 casting choice, I must say, and outfit on point as well 👌)

OKAY, we've finally got character lore and introductions out the way, now we can actually get on with the video!

This picture is very similar to the first picture in this post, but I have more things to say about this set up!

One, I love the ghostly visual effects on Lauren, with the glowy ethereal outline of her silhouette, and the slight translucence on her dress! No clue who was responsible for visual effects/editing on this one (it doesn't say in the description, but maybe Layne?)

And 2, correct me if I'm wrong but are Geoff, Layne, and Eli all lit in different ways? Eli has a warm-coloured spotlight on him, Geoff has more of a cool-coloured spotlight on him (I think?), possibly angled different to the light on Eli as well, and as for Layne I'm honestly not sure, but he stands out in a really interesting way. I have a feeling that the lighting on him is such that it makes him look like an actual Haunted Mansion/Disney Parks ride animatronic (especially when combined with deliberate movement/acting choices in the video). Nobody is credited with lighting for this one, but I'll still place a bet on who helped with a lot of it (at the least) anyway!

"Ding dong, you can't keep me WAITING!!!"

(Acting was on point across the board for this video, I must say)

"I can sense your horror!"

(JESUS-)

Absolutely loving Cesar's makeup in this one ngl (I wonder whether he coloured his face and/or hair blue for filming this or if that was just all done via editing?)

(Also great face Eli)

Honestly if not for his unmistakable vocal timbre, you could easily not realize this was Geoff at all. Rick did a ridiculously good job of making him (and Layne) look completely unrecognisable! Like is Geoff wearing facial prosthetics or something? His eyebrows look fake, the eyebags look like they were done with more than just regular makeup, and even his cheeks look thinner? Man I really wanna join VP's Patreon at the behind-the-scenes tier! But alas! Money!

Geoff: "Just wait, you can't hide from me"

Me while listening to the song on Spotify: 👉👈 👀

Me while watching the YouTube video: 😧😬

You can't have one of your members dress up as the Hatbox Ghost for a Haunted Mansion style video and not feature the character's main "gimmick" of his head moving from his neck to the box that he holds! And well, all things considered, Voiceplay did a pretty decent job of it! (And hey, even Disney themselves struggled with it - the character was removed from the attraction within only a few weeks of the ride's opening, and didn't actually return to the ride until 46 years later, in 2015, for the park's Diamond Anniversary Celebrations!)

"Knock, knock, I'm inside your room now" "Hello!"

Voiceplay are just showing off at this point honestly 😝 (I wonder how long this video was in production for? Seems like it would have been a big project taking at least a full month, if not longer)

Also haven't yet mentioned it but it's cool how the full group shots are shot in a way that makes it look like you're watching this from one of the ridecars (people-movers?) of the Haunted Mansion!

Oh dang I completely forgot about Cesar's/Madame Leota's crystal ball floating up in the air!

And there you have it folks! Maybe not one of my most picture-heavy posts, but quite possibly one of the most text-heavy! Now time for me to not watch this video again until October at the earliest!

(Also, since I'm skipping over the Christmas videos (for now at least), we're finally into the 2023 bunch of videos! (Though I'll be skipping over Nothing Else Matters and In My Room, sorry!))

[playvoices]

I can sense your horror .ᐟ

[spooky-apostate]

Voiceplay and Lauren Paley did a cover of Hide and Seek as Haunted Mansion characters, and I was not immune to the vibes... you can open the full size image for more detail, but I’ve included a couple of my favorite closeups :) [check out the video!]

[mythigal1966]

Hide and Seek (Ding Dong!) feat Lauren Paley (acapella)

[lipstickchainsaw]

VoicePlay made a Spooky Month video and it is once again excellent.

[yoursinharmony]

Watch "Hide and Seek (Ding Dong!) feat Lauren Paley (acapella)" on YouTube

A spooky masterpiece featuring familiar faces from the Haunted Mansion and in collaboration with the famous Stairwell Siren!

[disneyprincessconcertfans]

Love the interview from April 2022 of Susan and Anneliese by (IG) lauren_paley, aka "The Stairwell Siren". 💗 They all chat about Disney, Princesses, Pandora jewelry and, in this clip, Susan and Anneliese explain a bit about what you can expect when you go to see "Disney Princess - The Concert". View the full reel on Lauren's IG page. Link below.

Tickets for the Fall tour begin in October.

[fayegonnaslay]

Remembering the original 'California Girl', Swan, It-Girl, and overall Fashion Icon Slim Keith <3

July 15, 1917 Salinas, California - April 16th, 1990 New York, New York

[timidxtempted]

The sea calls 🌊

[kaleuh]

glad i work from home because i just started crying about the fact that people have written love songs to the ocean thousands of times to describe this part of our world that is so vast and unknown but present and familiar all the same, listen to acapella covers of Hymn to the Sea once and you really begin to understand how far across the sea those songs reach

[playvoices]

Our game of hide and seek, has just begun .ᐟ

this feels like a birthday gift, thank you for posting this VoicePlay! halloween is indeed one of my favorite holidays and my birthday is literally tomorrow SO! new birthday song just dropped!!

[silverskye13]

Song 58

When God is gone and the devil takes hold Who will have mercy on your soul?

O Death (Haunted Version -- Bobby Bass, Lauren Paley, Colm R McGuinness

[smytherines]

Y'know those Paley Center panels where they have actors and writers and directors talking about the creative process behind a TV show or movie? God I would pay all the money in my bank account (which admittedly isn't much) to have something like that for Spies Are Forever, because I'm absolutely fascinated by the creative process behind this show.

I want someone to tell me, from their perspective at least, what it means that Agent Mega is drinking whiskey at 9am after he spends the whole show trying not to drink. I want to know everybody's take on the staircase scene and Curt and Owen's relationship. I want Lauren Lopez to talk about coming up with choreography that breaks me apart at the molecular level. I want someone to talk about how fucking good the lighting for this show is. I want to know how TCB initially conceptualized these characters, and if they feel differently about them now. I want Curt Mega and Joey Richter to talk about the incredible acting choices they made and why.

The livestreams are great for fun behind the scenes stories and whatnot, but I genuinely wish I could just pull up a curated panel discussion for SAF the same way I do with Fringe or Lost or any other show I get invested in, and deep dive into that creative process. This is a weird show and I need to understand it.

That probably won't ever happen, but if they do a 10th anniversary re-release or something I hope they do commentary track because I would spend money on that.

[yagami-raito-kun]

I originally made my Light Yagami fanmix ten years ago on 8tracks, but I've tweaked and changed it multiple times over the years. In honor of Light's birthday, here's the current iteration, now on Spotify:

1. New World Man – Rush 2. Posture, Etc. – Say Hi 3. My Evil Plan to Save the World - Five Iron Frenzy 4. Murder by Numbers – The Police 5. God’s Gonna Cut You Down – Johnny Cash 6.

1. New World Man – Rush 2. Posture, Etc. – Say Hi 3. My Evil Plan to Save the World - Five Iron Frenzy 4. Murder by Numbers – The Police 5. God’s Gonna Cut You Down – Johnny Cash 6. Two Against One - Danger Mouse, Daniele Luppi, Jack White 7. Survival – Muse 8. Killer – Plain White Ts 9. Who Will Save You Now – Les Friction 10. You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid – The Offspring 11. Fame < Infamy – Fall Out Boy 12. Terrible Things - April Smith and the Great Picture Show 13. I Feel Evil Creeping In – Islands 14. Glory and Gore – Lorde 15. Everybody Wants to Rule the World – Tears for Fears 16. Condemnation - Depeche Mode 17. This Night – Black Lab 18. O' Death – Bobby Bass, Lauren Paley, Colm R. McGuiness

and a bonus song which I love for Light but tragically is no longer on Spotify:

Flawed Design - Stabilo

[cosmica-galaxy]

Who out of (the ones who can talk) your oc’s, mimics and the human would win a singing competition (Dj would probably be the judge cause like)

Camron wouldn't be able to compete, so he'll sit on the sidelines as an additional judge. DJ can only use clips to communicate, so he's also out and is positioned as a judge. Vee would probably make a good singer, but he's not the best. He also refuses to sing so...he gets disqualified and doesn't really care. XD Peon Buddy wouldn't be able to sing due to having an underdeveloped tongue and voicebox. But Alpha Buddy would probably sing like CORPSE HUSBAND (since that's how I imagine he would sound like). Which is pretty good or mid, depending on your tastes. Fiend's singing voice would probably be akin to Phantom of the Opera. He likes powerful vocals and would do his best to mimic that. It's a pretty decent performance! However. The moment Pal steps into the singing competition, it's over. This man has RANGE and PITCH and TONE all in one voice. He can even do feminine and masculine voices. He can be as high or as bass deep as he desires. He will become Lauren Paley, Geoff Castellucci, Bobby Bass, Ashley Serena, and anything else that comes to his mind. He can be both your Phantom of the opera AND your angel of music! He will easily steamroll his competition and blow away the crowd with his melodic songs pulled directly from his powerful vocal chords. The other two mimics aren't even mad that they lost. They would give him their own votes if they were judges too! So much musical talent in such a towering big guy like Pal. Amazing!