The Hallway Scene Source Video (and speculation about the Tower development process)

A ride show scene present in all three versions of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was the hallway scene.  Even then, it had its variations: Florida's was the first show scene in the elevator and had a shattering window on its back wall, while DCA's and Paris' had an elevator as the rear projection and had the scene transition into the drop sequence.

Naturally, such a projection-based setup required source footage.  This is the source video for the Paris version...and possibly the DCA version, for the latter part of DCA's run:

When Mrbellcaptain first sent me this video, we thought it was a very well done fan tribute.  That turquoise/light green wall at the beginning did not match up with our knowledge of the hallway scene, which was primarily tan-colored.  However, the YouTube post, by user Mickey Mousse, simply described the video as being from the hallway scene at the Paris Tower of Terror--no mention of being a fan tribute.  Furthermore, the timing of the video was precisely spot-on to the timing of the actual hallway scene as viewed in other footage.

But if it was source, why would the wall be green?  The answer to that came when I finally found a decent-quality video showing Paris' ride sequence in action.

The Paris version of the hallway scene (starting at about 1:00 into the video), was lit differently than DCA's.  Rather than California's tan/beige hallway, the front part of the scene was tinted magenta, while rear section, including the elevator screen, was done in ghostly blue-green.  Given this information, I am confident in declaring that Mickey Mousse's video is indeed the source footage for the hallway projection in the Paris Tower.

Interestingly, Paris' altered lighting scheme corrected a continuity error between the interior and exterior of the Tower.  In the DCA and Paris exterior designs, you could see the remains of the broken-off parts of the building around where the drop shaft doors opened.  These sections revealed that the broken areas once had turquoise walls with dark borders.

Detail of a photo by Pyrokenesis

This turquoise was more consistent with Paris' blue-green hallway than DCA's tan one.  The tan interior scheme of DCA may have been a holdover from Florida's version, wherein the hallway was brown/tan and there was no exterior comparison for what it would look like.

Now, what else does this reveal about DCA?  Well, besides that the hallway scenes had different lighting?

I suspect that one of the notable show flaws from DCA's later years was due to this Paris source footage.  Specifically, I think it was to blame for the overly-bright green screen that plagued DCA's hallway scene in the latter half of it's run:

As seen in this Dusty Sage photo.

A number of changes appeared unannounced at the California Tower roughly around the time World of Color premiered in 2010.  The lobby suddenly got dustier, the Twilight Zone spiral projection at the start of the ride became crisper and more show-accurate...and the hallway screen suddenly was bright green.

DCA's Tower opened in 2004, while Paris' started welcoming guests in 2007.  Video technology made huge leaps during that time period, and Tokyo's Tower (with its unique theme giving the development team more freedom to explore new tech) opened in 2006.  I consider it very likely that Paris used upgraded equipment and had its projections updated in some way, to be higher quality and/or match the new color scheme.  Evidence for this includes the fact that, in that video, Paris used a mirror effect more like Tokyo's updated one (note the lingering green glow after the guests disappear) rather than DCA's 2004 version.

The changes that appeared c. 2010 at the DCA Tower generally seemed to represent an attempt to upgrade it, possibly in anticipation of DCA 2.0.  The oddball of the changes, though, was that bizarre bright screen.

In my walkthrough, I suspected that the screen was due to a new projector that was never calibrated properly.  However, in light of Paris' very green-colored source footage, I suspect c. 2010 Disney tried to "upgrade" the DCA hallway by using Paris' newer source video, possibly in addition to a new projector.  The different-colored source footage and/or an improperly set up projector could easily account for that unfortunate show error.

Of course a large portion of this is speculative.  At any rate, this source footage is a real treasure for the fandom, and provides some fun potential insight into the development and differences of the DCA and Paris Towers.