VCC Urban Bound Productions

About

Based in Union & Hunterdon Counties of New Jersey, VCC's Urban Bound Productions is a northwestern New Jersey lift filmer & the most dedicated lift filmer in New Jersey as of 2023 January. He has currently filmed lifts since Boxing Day 2015 in over six states, those including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, Florida & Washington D.C. He prefers to film lifts that have character instead of just a plain old high speed lift which could be found in any major city. He is currently 21 years old. His real name will remain strictly undisclosed for anonymity purposes. He films lifts mainly using his 2022 Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Android smartphone. VCC stands for vertically challenged chariot. He currently drives a 2022 Subaru Outback.

Username	Year of Lift filming implemented to/from	Slug
Uphoisting Experiences	2015/12 thru 2016	Technicalboy3000
Specialty Elevators & UEE's	2016
Specialty Elev8rs & UEE's
Technicalboy3000	2016 thru 2017	--
Hunterdon County EleFilms	2017	Technicalboy3000
HC EleFilms	2017 thru 2018/06
Clinton Township Lifts	2018/06 thru 2018/09	MagicalLift256
Acting Prodigy Lifts of Clinton Township	2018/09 thru 2019/01
Clinton Township Lifts	2019/01 thru 2021/07
Northern & Western New Jersey Lifts Parent Brand: The Blue Aura Habitat	2021/07 thru 2022/06	Toyotis4Runner4437Gen2
	2022/06 thru 2023-03	LAHTO the Retriever
Vertical Challenger Chariot (VCC)	2023-03-Present	Urban Bound Productions (UBPD)

Preface & History Outside of Lift Filming

Preface

He filmed his first lift in-person in Washington DC at 11:00 PM on 2015 December 2016. This lift was a 1980’s Westinghouse Selectomatic Mark 6 located at the city center Marriott Hotel. He filmed these lifts with his Nokia Lumia 1020 Windows Phone 8.1. He burned the footage & all footage up until 2016 November because his voice sounds bad on video. During the trip up, he captured numerous still pictures of the buttons. The video is nowhere to be found. He still remembers this lift. However, his first lift of all time was filmed virtually on Skyscrapersim. It was a 2.5 m/s KONE MonoSpace MRL traction lift in one of his fictional buildings, at the time at 2997 Technicalboy Road in Queens, NY. Technicalboy Road was a fictional avenue that he made up with the fictional location being Queens to Bronx NYC as he lived in NYC at the time.

Childhood

VCC was born on Staten Island in New York City on 2001 February 8. He shares the same birthday as TJElevatorfan but was born the year after. This is his original hometown. He then moved to a suburb of Atlanta, GA on 2001 March 17. He moved back to Staten Island in New York City, where he lived from 2004 February to 2017 July 2. This encompassed much of his childhood & his teenhood. Since moving to New Jersey, he lived within the town of Clinton from 2017 July 2 to 2018 March 17, where he moved to the central section of Annandale from 2018 March 17 to 2021 August 20. Since 2021 August 20, he’s lived between Scotch Plains & Fanwood Townships, NJ during the semesters & between Raritan & Ewing Townships, NJ during the breaks between semesters of university.

Education History

He attended the JCC for preschool, then Outer Place School, then a specialized school program, then Public School 60, Intermediate School 63, McKee High School, Tottenville High School, North Hunterdon High School & now Kean University studying computer science as a senior. He began his lift filming career when he was in his freshman year of his first high school, back in 2015 October.

History Inside of His Lift Filming Career

Before Filming

He has been interested in lifts since 2014 October, when he overcame his fear of lifts at the Newark Liberty International Airport in uptown Elizabeth on the evening of 2014 October 26 upon picking up his grandmother with his father. Since he overcame his fear of them in 2014, he rode numerous different lifts between that day & the day he has started filming. During that stretch of time, he rode 1 Kone, 5 Westinghouses (Rfb Schindler), 1 Thyssen & 7 Otises.

The first lift he could recall riding was when he was two years old (2003), living in Atlanta, Georgia, with his parents. One day, his parents decided to take him to his father's five-floor office building in Lawrenceville, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, which had two very slow Westinghouse hydraulic lifts. He asked, "What's that weird looking thing?". His father told him it's his lift. He then turned to it to see two walls open, opposite of each other, to a small, dimly-lit room. The room was very small, but up on one side of the doors. He could see buttons on the wall. He went ahead & reached for the button that had the number "5" on it. A few seconds later, the "imaginary walls" started closing towards each other. He heard a whoosh (similar to a swimming pool motor), felt a gentle jolt & the slow journey to the 5. floor was en route.

When VCC & his parents got off the lift on the 5. floor of the building, he looked out the window, only to become amazed at how tiny everything looked from where he was. "It's magic!", he shouted. It was the first lift he could recall riding.

Lift incidents before filming

However, he had his first lift incident when he was five years old, at a very old, late 30's apartment flat in Brooklyn NYC, which had 7 floors. It was one of his family friends' apartment complexes in New York City, which had a very old, pink-cabbed, partially window-doored, black-buttoned, slow 2-speed Otis gearless traction lift. One day, they were going to a very fancy dinner at his family friends' apartment house on the 4. floor. When he & his parents were in the lift, it stopped hard, dead cold between the 2-3. floors of the building. The screech was loud enough for nearby tenants to hear it. VCC didn't panic. In fact, he wasn't even the slightest bit scared when the lift broke down. The alarm button did not work & there was no emergency phone. The lift sat there for seven whole minutes before it decided to move again towards the 4. floor. As he was stuck, he played with the buttons & tried all 49 different button combinations to try to get the lift to work again. When it did work, the doors opened on the 4. floor & they were only a few minutes late to the fiesta. This was the only time he has gotten stuck before he started filming. However, the last lift he rode before he started becoming afraid of them was a 12-floor Montgomery A-Series lift at the Grand Hyatt Atrium hotel in Washington D.C, when he was 10 years old (2011 December 30). He has ridden 0 lifts in 2012 as a result.

Fear of lifts

VCC's fear of lifts started in 2013 January, when he watched a video on YouTube of multiple people getting stuck about 50' underground on an NYC MTA lift for one hour. Because of this, he could not step into a single lift that 'wasn't scenic’ from then until 2014 October. His most fearful day during this fear was 2014 February 22, when he went to Howe Caverns but became intimidated by how deep the cave was, alongside having NO emergency exits. The only way down was by lift only one car was in service that day, making him very afraid. He refused to ride that lift to avoid a possible risk of being trapped underground. The lift 'incident that happened when he was a toddler had nothing to do with it.

Vital Test

Fun fact: VCC will check for an up-to-date (ADA Compliant) emergency dispatching intercom in EVERY LIFT he encounters before he rides it on his own. If there is no sign of an up-to-date emergency intercom in the lift, he will only ride the lift with someone else. If there is no one else around in this scenario, he will take the stairs all the way down to the lowest floor before the express zone & then ride a lift through the express zone to the lobby, to reduce the amount of distance he has to travel in the lift on his own. If the lift has no express zone, he will take the stairs the entire way down to the lobby, unless a lift opens up on his floor with people inside the lift. This is part of his vital test where he checks each lift for an up-to-date emergency intercom & rings the alarm bell for a ‘bell test’ when he has the lift all to himself, if he hasn’t previously tested the alarm bell before. If the lift passes the vital test, he rides the lift on his own & films it.

After the fear

On 2014 October 26 VCC willingly rode the glass lift at Newark Liberty International Airport's green car park in uptown Elizabeth. It was a four-floor Kone glass roped hydraulic. That was the day he conquered his fear. After that day, he hadn't seen a single lift until the second day of 2015, when he went to the CocoKey Indoor Water Park in Mount Laurel Township NJ, which had two 1980's Westinghouse traction lifts (refurbished 2000's by Schindler), along with a 2000's Schindler 330A hydraulic lift at the waterpark building itself. Being that his room was on the top floor of the hotel, he had no choice but to use the lift & he willingly rode it when other people occupied it. This was the first of quite a few times between that day & Kwanzaa Day 2015 where he had no choice but to use the lift.

During Filming

Since 2015 December, he has filmed quite a lot of lifts to this day. The first he filmed was a 15+ floor Westinghouse 1.8 m/s high-speed 1980's traction lift at the Marriott Metro Center in Washington D.C. They were some of his favorites he had ever filmed due to their character.

Since then, he has filmed numerous different types of lifts including numerous MRL traction lifts (his first MRLs since he was a toddler). In 2017 February, he filmed his very first Otis Gen2 lift in the ROW NYC hotel & in 2017 March, he filmed his very first ThyssenKrupp Synergy lift at One World Trade Center.

After that, he has filmed a number of different lifts the following year (2016). He has filmed one of the lifts at his aunt's apartment flat in Queens NYC (70's Otis replaced with generic & Monitor TR), both lifts at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott in Scranton PA, one of the lifts at the Rochester Airport Marriott, both of the working lifts at the Courtyard by Marriott Fort Lauderdale Beach, one Kone lift at Newark Airport, both Schindler 330A lifts at the Springhill Suites by Marriott in Scranton PA, a Schindler MT lift at Kennedy Airport, two Fujitec lifts (one stuck) at Kennedy Airport, a generic Schindler hydro at Kennedy Airport, two modernised Westinghouse glass lifts at the Embassy Suites Secaucus Meadowlands, 4 Schindler lifts at the Marriott Marquis in New York City & both Kone EcoDisc MRL lifts at his dad's friend's NJ apartment. 2016 was the year he started riding traction lifts by himself, while 2017 was the year he started riding hydraulic lifts by himself.

Important Milestones

On the night of 2016 July 30, he rode the lift by himself for the first time. Although the trip was for only a couple of floors, he managed to be the only person in the lift during the entire trip. He felt so satisfied by that experience.

2017 Milestones

2017 was the absolute best year in terms of in-person lift filming (worst outside of photography). Throughout 2017, he has filmed a bunch of different popular lift models filmed frequently by the U.S. lift filming community. He has also broken some of his own records, two of them broken in Florida alone.

1. On 2017 February 25 he rode & filmed his first Dover Impulses in at least five years, during his second trip to Fort Lauderdale. This one was in Key West; the second one was in a suburban city outside of Fort Lauderdale called Weston. He filmed his first Elevonic 411 during his February Florida trip. This was the first Otis Elevonic 411 lift he had ridden since he was a toddler. It was the fastest lift he has ridden or filmed in Florida & also the tallest.
2. On 2017 February 11 he filmed his first Otis Gen2 in New York City. This was also the first Otis Gen2 he ever rode.
3. On 2017 March 4 he filmed his first ThyssenKrupp Synergy lift in New York City at 1 World Trade Center. This was also the first ThyssenKrupp Synergy he ever rode.
4. On 2017 August 3 he filmed his first Schindler 330A by himself. This was the second Schindler 330A he filmed.
5. On 2017 July 20 he filmed his first Dover traction lift, though has been modernised 25 years later by ThyssenKrupp. That lift is still on the original motor, but the logic had been slightly upgraded. It had 16 floors. The same evening he filmed the Dover traction lift, he went ahead & filmed a 30 floor Otis Elevonic 411 lift at the Borgata, by himself. To this day, it was the tallest & fastest lift he had ridden or filmed by himself.
6. On 2017 October 8 he managed to film the oldest lift he had ever ridden on his own at that time. It was a 1985 Otis, but as of December, it is modernised. This was the oldest lift he had ever ridden by himself & one of the oldest he had filmed so far.
7. On 2017 December 25 Hartford & New Haven became two more of his favorite cities to film lifts, after being impressed by the attitudes exhibited by the 2000's Otis Elevonic 411s at his (Hartford's) downtown Marriott hotel, his convention CTR's 330A & his brother's (New Haven's) Omni hotel's thrilling 1990’s Otis Elevonic 411s which had replaced 1960’s Otis Autotronics.
8. On 2017 December 31 he filmed four of the oldest lifts he had filmed so far at the time, which were 1970’s scenic generics. They were completely unmodernised. However, they were extremely temperamental & had very outdated emergency telephone systems so he decided to ride the lift with other people when he filmed it. At least the alarm bells worked.

2018 Milestones

2018 was another prosperous year for him.

1. On 2018 February 24 he filmed his oldest lift so far at the time which was a 1960’s cheap legacy Otis black button hydraulic built in 1972 at Newark Liberty International Airport in uptown Elizabeth. However, that footage got burnt a week later & he hasn't been on those lifts since. Rumor has it that they are either on a plan to be modernised, are in the process of being modernised or have completed being modernised & the company modernising it is unknown as of yet.
2. On 2018 February 3 he filmed his first Schindler 3300 lift in Mays Landing, NJ, a suburb of Atlantic City known as Lower Hamilton Township. At the time, he was super excited & pumped to film a European style lift, but now it's his least favorite MRL lift, even surpassing the Generic offerings in terms of blandness & lack of run character.
3. On 2018 June 16 he filmed his first ever 7-floor hydraulic lift in Elizabeth. He then went to film another 7-floor hydraulic lift in Secaucus, four weeks later. That lift was the first official lift he ever filmed that had Monitor TR fixtures. Both lifts traveled 0.88 m/s going up & 0.8 m/s going down.
4. On 2018 December 27 he filmed his tallest MRL so far along with first generic MRL. It was a 20-floor G-Tech Associates MRL lift at his (at the time) father’s coworker’s brand new apartment flats complex in Cliffside Park Township. To this day it is the only Generic MRL he's ridden. This lift traveled 1.8 m/s.

2019 Milestones

1. On 2019 February 8 for his 18. birthday he filmed the fastest MRL he has been on so far: a 1.8 m/s Kone MonoSpace with 8 landings.
2. On 2019 April 24 he filmed & ridden his first ever Schindler 700A & first ever hydraulic with concave buttons. He has also filmed his very first Circle Otis Series 1 & first ever traction lift in a shopping centre. Both lifts traveled a speed of 1.6 m/s.
3. On 2019 August 10 he rode his first ever Otis Elevonic 401. It has been partially modernised by Schindler with new buttons & new floor indicators. This was at the Hard Rock Hotel in Atlantic City & as of 2022 December, Schindler is modernising the lifts with new Generic machinery, which takes away all of the run character.
4. On 2019 August 16 he filmed his first ever Schindler 5500.
5. On 2019 July 21 he rode his oldest passenger lift in almost a decade (1940's Staley's partially modernised). The fixtures were replaced but the cabs, motor & logic remain fully original & the lifts both travel a speed of 0.5 m/s for 7 stops.
6. On 2019 August 2 he rode & filmed his first ever Kone with KSS D20 buttons, along with his first ever 3-speed traction lift model (Otis Custom Series 1 from 1991). The lift was relay-controlled & traveled a speed of 1.3 m/s.
7. On 2019 December 13 he filmed his biggest lift ever at 9,000 pounds capacity. Unfortunately, when he revisited this lift in 2022, it was still badly low on oil. The low on oil problem has not been fixed.
8. On 2019 December 19 he filmed his first ever Schindler 400AE with HT premium buttons (not VR). This was also the first ever Schindler 400A in MRL form that he has filmed. This was his first ever 400AE as well.
9. On 2019 December 21 he filmed his first ever lift in California & in the LA area (Glendale). This was his tallest & fastest ever Schindler 700A, with a height of 21 floors & a speed of 2 m/s.
10. On 2019 December 23 he broke a record for filming two of his first evers in the same day. In the morning, he filmed & rode his first ever Mitsubishi lift, but this one was also his first ever glass Mitsubishi, along with his first ever lift to use artificial intelligence software in the mechanical room. That evening, he filmed his first ever purebred Fujitec lifts in Hollywood, CA inside the Hollywood Highland Shopping Centre. These ones, unlike the Mitsubishis back in Glendale, weren't MRL. These were installed in 2002 when the mall opened along with the Loews Tower Hotel situated above the shopping centre itself. This was the single best day of his lift filming career thus far.
11. On 2019 August 26 he filmed his first ever glass Kone EcoDisc lifts at 747 NJ 17 North in Paramus, NJ. This lift traveled 1 m/s over a distance of about 11 meters.
12. On 2019 December 22 he filmed his first ever outdoor Otis hydraulic lift. It traveled between two floors & had Series 4 buttons. This lift was located at one of the attractions inside the Disneyland amusement park in Anaheim, CA, within the Los Angeles area of the Blue Aura America map of best cities & states to film lifts.

2020 Milestones

1. On 2020 February 14 he broke the record for the oldest lift he has ever filmed. It was a 64-year-old Generic & this was the slowest lift he has been on to date, travelling a speed of only 0.18 M/s. It had the most epic hydraulic motor he has ever heard in-person, along with the motor being on the top of the building. Just a week earlier, he filmed a 1961 Armor traction, the first Armor lift he had ever been on, which was a 6-minute walk from the older lift.
2. On 2020 March 4 he rode his first ever Otis HydroFit in the Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington, NJ. He did not film it, but it had the loudest motor of any hydraulic lift he's ridden. That following year, upon his revisit to the Hunterdon Medical Center, he filmed it & it went on his TikTok channel instead of his YouTube channel.
3. On 2020 March 7 he filmed the last lift he filmed before the lockdowns took place in New Jersey until 2020 December. He rode an 80’s Montgomery with generic buttons at a wedding building in New York City. It was a hydraulic lift, serving 3 landings. This was the last lift that he filmed before the Coronavirus pandemic started. However, since March 7, he has managed to film a few more lifts for TikTok videos at Short Hills Mall & create his New Year's premiere at his father's warehouse in Jersey City, NJ. As of now he has resumed a hybrid lift filming schedule with a huge bias towards virtual lift videos.

2021 Milestones

1. 2021 May 11 marked his partial return to lift filming. On May 6 he received his first dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine. He went back for his second dose on June 3. He resumed mid-time lift filming as of 2021 July. He received his first coronavirus booster on 2021 December 17.
2. On 2021 June 11 he filmed the highest number of lifts he filmed in a single morning: 11. He rode 13 but couldn’t film the last two because of high traffic. This took place at the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, NJ. This milestone was accomplished in under two hours. However, in November of that year, he went to King of Prussia in PA & filmed 12 lifts in a single morning, beating that record by one lift.
3. On 2021 July 16 he filmed his first high rise corporate office lift on his own, officially overcoming his fear of filming lifts in taller office buildings. This building had no security desk. It was the Gateway Plaza on Harmon Meadow Boulevard in Secaucus, NJ. These were his first Dover traction lifts he's ever filmed, which were relay controlled, despite the former custom Impulse fixtures being replaced with GAL fixtures.
4. On 2021 August 9 at around 9:30 PM he captured his funniest lift fail to date at the Hard Rock Resort north tower in Atlantic City. He noticed the LCD screen from the left side of the car he was riding was yanked off leaving only the remaining connector wires exposed behind the glass screen. The LCD screen on the right side of the car was dead. The lift was an OTIS Elevonic 411 which got installed in 2008. On camera he laughed for the entire ride.
5. On August 9 at around 9:15 PM he captured his first "homestyle lift" (LULA) & first ever glass LULA lift & slowest lift he ever filmed in terms of top speed. It goes only 0.15 m/s.
6. On August 9 at around 2:15 AM he captured his first set of OTIS Elevonic 401 lifts ever. These are the only Elevonic 401 lifts he's been on to date, though the cars & buttons got replaced by Schindler with Epco SurvivorPlus back in 2017. The motor & controllers are still fully original & so are the original generators from 1991. These were the first lifts he rode that went more than 2.5 m/s since his last trip to Atlantic City in August 2019 before. However, as of 2022 December, these lifts are currently being completely modernised again by Schindler, this time the Elevonic equipment being completely gutted out & replaced with MCE generic equipment.

2022 Milestones

1. On January 1 he made an official return to virtual lift filming after a hiatus lasting almost two years as a result of a substantial increase of coronavirus transmission thanks to the Omicron variant, which made it unsafe for him to continue to take the risk filming lifts in person. He will continue filming lifts virtually until the coronavirus transmission numbers decrease significantly. The coronavirus slightly altered the trajectory of his lift filming career. Furthermore, in between waves of the coronavirus pandemic when transmission & hospitalizations are low, he began operating on a hybrid system alternating between in-person lift filming trips & virtual lift filming days. He was able to make this milestone after finding the working versions of the online Skyscrapersim building creators by putting an ‘a’ before the ‘skyscrapersim’ word in the URL itself. Additionally, he now uses a wayback machine variant to keep his virtual lift filming gig going strong.
2. On August 3 he created his first ever hybrid production featuring both in-person & Skyscrapersim virtual content in the same production.
3. On August 4 he created & launched his third YouTube Channel: The Blue Aura Hornet, in anticipation of the release of the third generation of Beno's online Skyscrapersim building creators & the second generation of Beno's Skyscraper simulator software. As a virtual-only channel, since launching the new channel, it's gained more views in its first few months open compared to the previous two years of performance for his two predominantly in-person & hybrid channels.
4. On December 19 he launched his fourth YouTube channel: Skyscraper Simulator Cobra Showdown Dynasty.
5. On December 24 he filmed his last in-person production before his 12.5-month hiatus from in-person productions to focus on school. However, he returned to lift filming on 2024 January 11 at 11:00 AM by filming the glass Montgomery Twinkie-M at the Rockaway Town Square mall in Rockaway Township, NJ.

2023 Milestones

No notable milestones in 2023.

2024 Milestones

1. On January 7 he returned from a 5.5-month hiatus from lift filming altogether by filming 16 lifts on Skyscrapersim in one evening. These lifts included 15 OTIS & 1 generic lift. All were traction with machine rooms. He returned to virtual lift filming on a part-time basis.
2. On January 11 he returned from a 12.5-month hiatus from in-person productions to focus on school by filming the glass Montgomery Twinkie-M at the Rockaway Town Square mall in Rockaway Township, NJ.

Current lift incidents

Since he started filming, he got stuck in many more lifts (at least 2 of them he filmed). These encounters lasted each between 15 seconds to 3 minutes but never in excess of 4 minutes. His most memorable lift incident happened at around 3:10 PM on 2017 December 23 for roughly 3 minutes, at the Courtyard by Marriott Hartford Cromwell in Cromwell Town, Connecticut. This was the first of the many incidents that he did not film. When the doors closed on the 3. floor, he was standing in the lift, no floor buttons lit. When he went to the door open button, the interlock refused to release. The doors were not opening, so he tried multiple times, with no luck. His only escape was going to a different floor. Luckily the lift eventually went down to the 2. floor & opened its doors there, otherwise, he would have been stuck for a few hours before the emergency services could arrive to pry him out.

The morning after that incident, another lift incident had him trapped in a 22 floor high rise Otis Elevonic 411 lift at the Hartford Marriott Downtown hotel in Hartford City, Connecticut, for an additional two minutes. This happened at 8:00 AM on 2017 December 24 for roughly two minutes. This was the final time he got stuck in a lift in 2017 & the second of the many incidents that he did not film. When the doors closed on the lobby floor, he was getting his camera ready to record the lift, with no floor buttons lit, when the lift, out of nowhere, decided to shoot up to floor 5. The lift stopped & the doors refused to open when he hit the door open button. VCC began to panic by hitting & holding down on the alarm button. When nobody heard him, he panicked & hit the 22. floor button. The lift responded by flying through the shaft up to floor 22. VCC started recording a part of the incident once the lift passed floors 10 & 11. He got off the lift after two minutes on floor 22, panic-stricken, sending that lift to a load of random floors on its merry way back down the tower. He rode a different lift down the tower, picking up a disgruntled Marriott guest at floor 16, which made him split the footage when editing his lift video. This was the final time he has been stuck in a lift until May of 2019. 2015, 2018 & 2020 were the only years of his lift filming career that he did not get stuck in a lift.

Here is a table of incidents where he either almost got stuck in a lift or did get stuck in a lift. Rows where the time trapped is 20 seconds or fewer counts as almost getting trapped. Rows where the time trapped is more than 20 seconds counts as getting trapped. The trapped rows are bolded.

Table of Entrapment Incidents (TOEI)

Link to the database is here: Entrapment Incident Database

2019 was the year VCC got trapped/almost trapped in the most lifts. Of the past however many incidents were recorded in the database, only six were actual entrapments while the others were near entrapments.

Filming Equipment History

For his first few lift videos, he used his Windows Phone 8.1 to film them. Then, during his first plane trip to Fort Lauderdale, he used his 2010 Sony Handycam to film the brand new ThyssenKrupp Momentum lift at the Courtyard Fort Lauderdale Beach. During his trip to Albany in 2017 June, he used his brand new Samsung Galaxy S8 to film the high-speed 8-floor Otis Elevonic 411M lift at the Albany Marriott. He is a huge Android fan as he has been using Android devices without fail since 2016.

Make	Model	Type	Years Used
Microsoft	2013 Windows Phone 8.1	Smartphone	2015-2019 June
Sony	2010 Handycam	Camera/Camcorder	2016-2017 July
Samsung	2016 Galaxy S7	Smartphone	2016 July-2017 June
Samsung	2017 Galaxy S8	Smartphone	2017 June-2022 April
Samsung	2022 Galaxy S22 Ultra	Smartphone	2022 April-Present

He primarily used Google Photos to save space on his phone & to safely back up all of his lift videos into the cloud for unlimited storage. This has been convenient for him because he could now download the videos as a ZIP file from Google Photos on his computer to be able to edit the videos in Windows Movie Maker. Another important fact is that as of 2017 October, he has started referring to an "elevator" as a "lift". However, he still refers them to "elevator" on comments posted on videos posted by lift filmers who prefer commenters use the term "elevator" instead of "lift".

However, as of 2021 June 1, Google Photos has data caps, which required him to make use of his personal & business OneDrive accounts for storage in the future.

Favorite Lifts

1. Hydraulic lifts
2. MRL lifts
3. Two & 3-speed traction units

VCC likes any kind of lift regardless of the type of lift it is, although he prefers hydros & MRL's. He likes the Otis Gen2 & Gen3 the most, due to the way it runs & the way the motor sounds when moving up & down. He also likes it because of its very fast, intelligent Otis-style predoor leveling. His favorite high-rise lift is the Otis SkyRise due to it running almost exactly like the Otis Gen2 but at higher speeds. Otis is his favorite lift company, followed by Kone.

Favorite Kinds of Lifts

Make	Hydraulic Models	Traction Models
Otis	HydroFit 211 LR-V 211 LVM	Gen3 Gen2 2000T Skyrise Elevonic R Elevonic 411 Elevonic 401 Autotronic
Kone	None	MiniSpace MonoSpace EcoSpace
Schindler	300A 321A 330A	700A 5500
Westinghouse	None	Selectomatic Mark 1 Selectomatic Mark 2 Selectomatic Mark 3 Selectomatic Mark 4 Selectomatic Mark 5 Selectomatic Mark 6
Dover	None	Traflomatic Computamatic
ThyssenKrupp	Endura	Evolution

Gen2 Occurrences

Location	City	State or Country	Number of lifts in set	Fixtures	Config	Number of landings	Estimated Speed to Height Ratio
Row NYC	Manhattan (New York City)	New York	2	Newer Series 4 (Blue)	MRL	2	14.3:1
Borgata	Atlantic City	New Jersey	6	Older Series 4 (Blue)	Non-MRL	6	6.4:1
Tropicana	Atlantic City	New Jersey	4	Older Series 4 (Red/Turquoise)	Non-MRL	11	4.2:1
Residence Inn by Marriott Secaucus Meadowlands	Secaucus Town	New Jersey	2	Newer Series 2 (Blue)	MRL	6	3.6:1
North Avenue Academic Building (Kean University)	East Union Township	New Jersey	2	Newer Series 2 (Blue)	MRL	6	4.4:1

Kone EcoDisc Occurrences

Location	Number of lifts in set	Fixtures	Config	Number of landings	Estimated Speed to Height Ratio
747 NJ 17 N (Fashion Ctr)	2	Innovation Universal	MRL	3	5.9:1
Westfield Garden State Plaza	2 + (2 Individual)	KSS 140 & D20	MRL	2-5	2.3:1 - 10:1
Modera44	2	KSS 500	MRL	7	3.1:1
Embassy Suites Berkeley heights	3	KSS 570	MRL	8	4.7:1
Quaker Bridge Mall	2	KSS 500	MRL	2	10:1

He has ridden other Kone EcoDisc lifts that he forgot to film.

Favorite lift companies in order

1. Otis, Mitsubishi & Fujitec
2. Kone
3. Schindler (Except for their 400A, 500A, 400AE, 3100 & 3300/3300 XL lifts)
4. ThyssenKrupp (Only their hydraulic lifts & their Evolution 100/200 lift [most installations])
5. Vintage lifts
6. 3rd-party local generic companies

His all-time favorite lift is the Otis Gen2 & now Gen3 that Gen2 has been discontinued.

Other staple favorites include Dover tractions regardless of make/model due to how uniquely they run from other lift brands of the time period.

Most Known places he has filmed lifts at

• Embassy Suites Secaucus Meadowlands (Secaucus)
  • 80’s Westinghouse partially modded by Kone - original motors remain, logic replaced with new Motion Control Engineering controllers in mid 2000's
• New York Marriott Marquis (New York City)
  • 80’s Westinghouse Selectomatic Mark 5, fully modded by Schindler with new Miconic logic & later modded with PORT logic
• One World Trade Center (New York City)
  • 2014 ThyssenKrupp TAC 50
• Courtyard Fort Lauderdale Beach Marriott (Fort Lauderdale Area)
  • Early '70 Dover Traflomatic with Traditional buttons, fully replaced with new ThyssenKrupp Momentum models
• Albany Marriott (Albany)
  • Mid 80’s Otis Elevonic 401s modded in the mid 2010's with Elevonic 411M
• Borgata (Atlantic City Area)
  • 2003 Otis Elevonic 411s almost completely overhauled with new Otis Elevonic 411 units 10 years later (SOUTH TOWER)
  • 2008 Otis Elevonic 411s (NORTH TOWER)
  • Otis hydros from 2003 & 2008
  • 2003 Otis Gen2 MR (CARPARK)
• Tropicana (Atlantic City Area)
  • 2004 Otis Gen2 MR (QUARTER/TOWN CARPARK)
  • 2004 Otis Elevonic 411s (HAVANA TOWER)
  • 1996 Otis Elevonic 411s partially refurbished by Schindler during the 2004 modernisation project (WEST TOWER) - These are not Kone/Montgomery as I originally thought
  • 1989 Montgomery partially refurbished by Schindler during the 2004 modernisation project - new logic, motors still original (SOUTH TOWER)
  • 1919 Haughton lifts fully replaced with new SchindlerHaughton lifts during the 1981 Reconstruction Project - buttons & controller replaced with new Schindler Northern package during the 2004 modernisation project, motor still original (NORTH TOWER)
• Beaver Brook Office Building (Clinton Township Area)
  • Mid 80’s Otis 211 LR-V glass hydraulic lifts
• Mall at Short Hills (Millburn Township)
  • Nordstrom: 1997 Schindler 700A RT Lifts
  • Neiman Marcus: 1995 Montgomery hydraulic lift partially modernised with new buttons & floor indicator by Excel (a generic brand in NJ) in 2018 (hydraulic)
  • Macy's: 1965 Otis, modernised by a generic company in the 90’s, then in 2011 again, then fully replaced with a new Schindler HXPress lift in 2018 (hydraulic)
  • Bloomingdale's: 1965 Burlington-Dover, partially modernised by ThyssenKrupp (original motor remains, hydraulic)
  • Glass Lift: 80’s Westinghouse with GAL buttons (hydraulic)
  • Car Park Lifts (Except Green/Yellow): 90’s Schindler RT lifts (ALL hydraulic)
  • Green/Yellow Car Park Lifts: 80’s Westinghouse Pre-RT lifts (hydraulic)
  • Spare Lift: 90’s Schindler RT lift (hydraulic)
  • Mall Management: 80’s Westinghouse modded by Schindler in the 2000’s with new EPCO buttons, motor & logic remain (hydraulic)

Top travel highlights

1. 2015 December 26 Washington DC Area
2. 2016 July, 2017 February Fort Lauderdale & Miami Areas
3. 2016 December, 2017 June, 2017 November, 2017 December Secaucus
4. 2017 July, 2018 February Atlantic City Area
5. 2017 December Hartford Area
6. 2016 December, 2017 February, 2017 March New York City
7. 2019 December Los Angeles Area
8. 2021 August Atlantic City Area

Another important thing to note is that he has frequently visited the Embassy Suites Secaucus Meadowlands & is currently one of his most frequent places to film lifts apart from the Mall at Short Hills, which is his most frequent place to film lifts at 9 times. He has visited the Embassy Suites Secaucus Meadowlands twice in 2017 within a time period of roughly 5 months. Those three lifts became the most memorable of his teenhood & are some of his teenhood favorites. He has other teenhood lifts in Elizabeth. Since obtaining his driver's license, he has filmed at many more malls & hotels, with his most filmed building being the Mall at Short Hills, which he has been to five times in under three & a half months, 9+ times total.

Since the start of his lift filming career, he has successfully filmed lifts in the big apple four times, including the Marriott Marquis in Times Square where he filmed his first Schindler Miconic 10's on 2016 December 25, the ROW NYC hotel where he filmed his first Otis Gen2 on 2017 February 11, 100-floor ThyssenKrupp lifts in the World Trade Center on 2017 March 4 & a 20-floor private hospital with Otis Elevonic 411M lifts (former Montgomery A-Series) on 2017 May 24. This, again, is ironic as New York City is his least favorite city for lift filming.

Most notable/popular places where he has filmed during his career (Places he has filmed & uploaded to YouTube at least twice)

1. Embassy Suites by Hilton Secaucus Meadowlands in Secaucus (5x)
2. Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City (2x)
3. Courtyard by Marriott Hartford Cromwell in Cromwell (2x)
4. TownePlace Suites by Marriott Scranton Wilkes Barre in Scranton (2x)
5. Courtyard by Marriott Scranton Wilkes Barre in Scranton (2x)
6. Courtyard by Marriott Fort Lauderdale Beach in Fort Lauderdale (2x)
7. Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City (3x)
8. Newark Airport in Elizabeth/Newark Outskirt (2x)
9. Ikea in Elizabeth (2x)
10. Residence Inn by Marriott Secaucus Meadowlands in Secaucus (2x)
11. Beaver Brook office building in Clinton Township (3x)
12. Undisclosed residences in Morristown (2x)
13. Mall at Short Hills in Millburn Township (6x)

Virtual Lift Filming

Overview

From 2015 September (three months before joining the lift community as Uphoisting Experiences by Technicalboy3000), he had been uploading simulated lift videos regularly to his YouTube Channel with Skyscrapersim. He used open-source screen recording software called Bandicam to film the lift in buildings he built using the Beno Building Creator online building creation tool. To date, he had built almost 500 buildings on Beno Skyscrapersim & had the username techboy3000 on the Skyscraper Simulator Forum before it shut down in 2018 & was replaced with a new Skyscrapersim forum not long after. His skyscrapersim-oriented lift videos sometimes scored over 1,000 views per video & have played a major role in his subscriber count being where it is right now.

Even before he was on YouTube (officially 2015 September for first Skyscrapersim videos, 2015 December for first real lift videos), he had been simulating lifts on Skyscrapersim (without screen recording them) since 2014 April. That was the earliest he had been in any way involved with the lift community. Since 2017 September, he had been off Skyscrapersim for a while, for no real reason. However, as of 2018 March, he had been getting reacquainted to Skyscrapersim, but not without a couple of serious problems. Bandicam stopped working on his Windows PC at the beginning of 2018 March, resorting to him exploring multiple other third-party options. His best alternative was the DVDVideoSoft Screen Recorder. He resolved the problem in 2018 December.

Although videos weren’t as high quality as they are on Bandicam, he planned to keep uploading new Skyscrapersim oriented content to his YouTube channel, hopefully soon.

Skyscraper Simulator Forum

His username on the Skyscraper Simulator Forum before it shut down in 2018 was formerly techboy3000. He used the Skyscraper Simulator Forum to communicate with other lift filmers who played Skyscraper Simulator & to download building & data packages he could implement into his projects.

Admin Fight & Sockpuppet Scandal

When techboy3000's original account (not techboy3000) got banned in 2015 March, he argued through email with the administrators on why they shouldn't ban him. He got very upset so he created a sockpuppet account in revenge, only for it to get banned as well. He was permanently banned from the Skyscraper Simulator Forum in 2015 April at that specific location because of his actions. He has since learned not to be an internet troll.

His Return

After moving across New York City, he created a new account called techboy3000 in 2016 to access & download building & data packages for his buildings created in the Skyscraper Simulator.

Computer Problems & the ill-fated switch to ROBLOX

Due to his computer having some problems running Bandicam & Skyscrapersim, he wasn’t on Skyscrapersim for a very long time. He had probably quit using Skyscrapersim by that point & was more focused on building luxury hotels & luxurious two-speed lifts with old-fashioned leveling & relay controls on ROBLOX Studio, as he was (& still is) fascinated highly by coding & programming. He however never took off with this & hence abandoned this idea altogether. He does not plan to film lifts on ROBLOX at all.

Skyscrapersim use during the coronavirus pandemic

However, due to the current coronavirus pandemic, he had started using Skyscrapersim & the WIN+G screen recorder to create skyscrapersim-oriented lift videos for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic as an alternative to going out & filming lifts. He didn’t do this often though, only sometimes.

Skyscrapersim Takedowns & Source Code Copyright Scandal

As of 2020 July Skyscrapersim was taken down including the BENO edition so he uploaded a working copy from his computer as a downloadable repository to his Google Drive & set up a form for getting the copy emailed to potential downloaders on his website who want to play Skyscrapersim.

In 2020 November, Skyscrapersim was taken down again due to a Copyright scandal where an unknown person used the popularity of the project to incite a massive old lift hunt & shout out the locations of old lifts in a private group chat, prompting the original creator of those building creators to take the building creators down. Due to this, VCC had to exercise extreme caution when he goes lift filming in-person because he couldn’t conduct virtual lift videos until further notice. Additionally, he yanked the form link down from his website & changed the Drive repository to ‘private access’.

Due to the Skyscrapersim software being yanked down from the Beno site, as of 2020 November, he could no longer conduct virtual lift videos.

Comeback

However, as of 2021 December 15, upon scouring the Skyscraper Simulator Forum for answers as to why the Beno Building Creators were taken down, he came across a URL link on the page which directed him to the building creators, but this time the URL had the letter 'a' before 'skyscrapersim'. As of 2021 December 17, VCC has reinstated the future of his virtual lift videos for as long as the alternative link was working

Furthermore, due to the new COVID variants, VCC declared that he will be filming lifts virtually using Skyscrapersim & Bandicam until further notice. Since the Omicron wave in 2022 January subsided, he decided to go back to part-time in-person lift filming as of 2022 June when he recovered from his wisdom tooth operation in 2021 May.

Second Takedown

On 2022 May 23, VCC had trouble accessing the online building creators due to the links being disabled, forcing him to forgo virtual lift filming indefinitely & switch his lift filming schedule to a fully in-person format on a part time basis to reduce exposure to the coronavirus.

The Real Reason

On 2022 January 3, VCC found the real reason why after scouring videos on other people reporting that the original links to the building creators were taken down. An unknown user used the popularity of the Skyscraper simulator project to get people to join a private community where they publicly announce the locations of old lifts.

Generation 3

Rumors have been going around that a new generation of the Beno Building Creators are supposed to be released before 2024 July. For now, VCC uses working versions of the first generation of the Beno Building Creators to create his virtual residential & commercial real estate properties to film lifts virtually. However, the new building creator has yet to be released, meaning VCC must use the first building creator in the meantime.

Virtual-Only Channels

The Blue Aura Hornet

On 2022 August 4, VCC made a radical move to his brand by creating a new brand channel under his Blue Aura Habitat umbrella with its own website & own flowpage to showcase his virtual productions only which are filmed solely through Skyscrapersim & Bandicam on his computer. His new channel is called The Blue Aura Hornet. In-person or hybrid productions are not allowed on the Blue Aura Hornet channel. However, this channel in its first two months had proven so successful that VCC subsequently launched a second virtual-only channel which also serves the same purpose as The Rising Salamander Showdown Series.

Skyscrapersim Cobra Showdown Dynasty

On 2022 December 18 & December 19, VCC released a fourth channel under his umbrella brand (Blue Aura Habitat) called The Skyscrapersim Cobra Showdown Dynasty where the mascot is a cobra. He uses this channel to premiere only the best of his virtual lifts in Skyscrapersim at the end of the month or season. It shares the same purpose as The Rising Salamander Showdown Series (his main exclusive channel) & the Blue Aura Hornet (his virtual-only channel).

Lift Character Reports

VCC is one of the first lift filmers throughout the worldwide lift filming community to provide comprehensive, analytical, accurate & publicly-accessible automated lift character reporting forms for lift filmers to use to rate the style, class & character of the lifts they film & watch videos of, whether in-person or virtually. They are both available on his website.

Favorite/Dream Cities to film lifts

He currently has 76 favorite/dream cities to film lifts. However, it would be tedious to include all of the cities on this list, so we will start with his favorite cities to film lifts. A favorite city is a dream city that has RIDDEN (doesn't have to be filmed) at least ONE lift that met some of his expectations or scored a 25 out of 40 on the Blue Aura Lift Character Scale. A dream city is a city where the average lift with reasonable accessibility by lift filmers averages a score of mid 20's (24-26) on a scale of 0 to 40. His list of favorite & dream cities to film lifts are maintained in a database on the BlueAuraAmericaDB, a database owned by his umbrella brand The Blue Aura Habitat.

The view of the database can be accessed by clicking this link.

The cities go in order of every state. Currently he has marked multiple states as favorite or dream states to film lifts & 76 cities to film lifts. Staple dream cities include Charlotte*, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Nashville & Indianapolis. Despite what most lift filmers have been telling him about Charlotte & their experiences, MagicalLift256 thoroughly watched a majority of the Charlotte lift videos filmed by those filmers who have actually filmed in Charlotte from start to finish, noting what he sees & hears in the videos to get a picture of the average lift in Charlotte. In fact, when VCC first started becoming serious about his lift filming career around the summer of 2017 when he went to Atlantic City & Albany during his move out of New York City into Clinton (moved to Annandale in 2018 March), he watched Charlotte lift videos in his spare time & became fascinated by the way the lifts in that specific area ran & the way the buildings were laid out even though the lifts looked pretty much like the ones in other cities across the United States. He still watches videos of lifts in Charlotte at 100% volume through headphones to grasp all of the details to know what to expect when he plans to visit Charlotte in the near future. His dream city to film lifts changed in 2018 December from Charlotte to Chicago, however. He has not updated the map since 2019 & has no plans to unless a city he visits in-person in particular catches his eyes.

Trivia & interesting facts

Places

He filmed lifts in Secaucus FIVE times before the coronavirus pandemic. He has gone a SIXTH, but did not film. He was supposed to go again in 2020 July but because of the Coronavirus pandemic it got canceled. However, due to his receiving of the Moderna coronavirus Vaccine, he went again in 2021 July for a seventh time to film some office building lifts, so he filmed lifts 6 times in Secaucus since going for the first time on 2016 December 24.

He filmed lifts in Secaucus twice in 2017 alone & twice in 2018. He also went twice in 2019. He went to Secaucus again in 2021 July strictly to film office building lifts.

Childhood & Teenhood Lifts

His main teenhood lifts are found in the Embassy Suites Secaucus Meadowlands in downtown Secaucus, which are 9 floors modernised by Kone motor glass lifts which have been modernised with Innovation Prestige lookalike fixtures & MCE logic. He has filmed them each & every time he has been to Secaucus before the coronavirus pandemic. However, he has other teenhood lifts in Secaucus & Atlantic City, as well as Fort Lauderdale. His early adulthood lift is in Annandale, NJ at the beaver brook concourse building on Route 31 south. It is an Otis Series 1 hydraulic & it is glass.

He is the only lift filmer to have ever filmed a lift in Annandale, NJ. He is the second lift filmer to have filmed a lift in Clinton Town, NJ. He has filmed lifts in the tallest building in Clinton, NJ. The lift in Annandale, NJ, has become his first pre-adulthood lift.

His childhood lifts are in New York City & Jersey City. However, his teenhood lifts are in Secaucus & Elizabeth. He has ridden lifts in that city since he was 5 years old. The first lift in Elizabeth was a glass Kone hydro.

All of his teenhood lifts are in his favorite cities to film, with the strongest bonds being in Secaucus & Elizabeth. As of 2018 January, he made a teenhood bond with EVERY LIFT at the Ikea Home Furnishing shop in Elizabeth as well as filming some EcoSpace lifts in 2018 June.

His main childhood lift is a 3 floor 2-speed AC motor 1970’s Otis traction black button lift (MAYBE Series LX?) in New York City. His other two childhood lifts are a 1930’s Otis in Brooklyn & a 1940's generic in Queens.

Other Places

He filmed lifts in Fort Lauderdale twice so far.

He filmed lifts in Atlantic City six times so far.

He has filmed lifts in the greater vicinity of Hartford twice so far. He filmed more than one lift on each occasion. All were Otis.

Favorite Cities & States

Cities

He has currently filmed lifts in many of his favorite U.S. cities to film, including Key West, which counted for lifts videos from the greater area of Miami. Below is just a select portion of the cities he has filmed lifts in so far.

1. Atlantic City
2. Secaucus
3. Elizabeth
4. Union Township
5. Stamford
6. Millburn Township
7. Edison Township
8. Freehold Township
9. Morristown
10. Bridgewater Township
11. Clinton Township
12. Fort Lauderdale
13. Miami (Key West)
14. Hartford & Cromwell
15. Scranton
16. Boston
17. Albany
18. Rochester
19. Paramus
20. Los Angeles Area (Glendale, Hollywood, Anaheim). This is only a mere snapshot of the cities on his list of favorite/dream to film lifts.

States

He has currently filmed lifts multiple times in eight 'of his many favorite U.S. states to film lifts. These include New Jersey, Florida, Washington DC, Connecticut, Massachusetts, California & Pennsylvania. He has filmed at least one lifts in each of the following states:

1. Massachusetts
2. Connecticut
3. New York
4. New Jersey
5. Pennsylvania
6. Washington D.C.
7. Florida
8. California

Lift Filming Milestones

He has filmed & speed recorded lifts at 35 different buildings throughout 2017.

His first lift of 2018 was a standard ThyssenKrupp hydraulic from the 2000's. This was the first lift he has ridden & filmed in Bridgewater Township. However, he has ridden a set of two extremely epic & awesome 1980's Dover traditional hydraulic lifts in a municipal building in a different part of Bridgewater Township in 2018 June. He took a couple of pictures of the lift, but due to security reasons, he did not film the lift. In 2019 December, he filmed all but one lift at Bridgewater Commons Mall, including the one he tried to film in 2018 January.

Hotels

His four favorite hotels are (in order from most to least favorite):

Courtyard Fort Lauderdale Weston (Fort Lauderdale/Weston, Florida)

Hard Rock Atlantic City (Formerly Borgata Atlantic City)

Tropicana Atlantic City

Courtyard Hartford Cromwell (Hartford/Cromwell, Connecticut)

Each of the four hotels is located in either of his many favorite U.S. states & either of his many favorite U.S. cities, towns & townships & recommendations for hard-core lift filming.

Significant Lift Filming Milestones

The oldest lift he's filmed was a 60's version of a 1970's Otis lift. However, that file became corrupt a week after, causing him to abort uploading. However, since then, he filmed a 1961 Armor & a 1957 Generic at Kean University a couple years later right before the pandemic soared to new heights.

He has been stuck in more than ten lifts since 2005. He has been stuck in two modern Otis lifts during the same weekend in 2017 December, both in Hartford, Connecticut. He has been stuck in quite a few Schindler lifts, but NO ThyssenKrupp lifts. In 2019, he has gotten stuck in the most lifts, with the longest time being 45 seconds after the Kone glass lifts at the Embassy Suites in Secaucus did not open the doors on the lobby level, making him get stuck.

He has filmed many MRLs since 2016 & has been on THREE SETS of MRL traction lifts on his campus alone (Kean University). He has also ridden his first two ever MRL hydraulic lifts in 2019 & his third in 2020. The first one was at King of Prussia Mall in Upper Merion Township, Pennsylvania. The second one was at Liberty Hall Academic Center at Kean University. He has filmed the lift at the University, but not the one at King of Prussia Mall. The third one was a very loud Otis HydroFit MRL at his local hospital in Flemington NJ.

He has filmed lots of MRL traction lifts since 2016 & ridden even more. He has also ridden his first non MRL Kone EcoDisc in Jersey City in 2019 July, but he has not yet filmed it. He plans to go back to Jersey City once the coronavirus dies down substantially.

Schindler

He likes the Schindler 5500 due to it having the same or similar time efficiency as the Schindler M-Series & 700A models from the 1980's through mid-2000's. In 2019, he has broken many of his own Schindler discovery records, including the following:

First ever Schindler 700A in 2019 April (Both ridden & filmed)

First ever high-rise Schindler 700A in 2019 December & first time he's filmed a lift in the LA area/first time he's ever been any further west than Cleveland, Ohio. This was the first ever lift he has filmed on the West Coast). This record was broken on December 21.

First ever Schindler 5500/First ever glass Schindler MRL in King of Prussia, PA

Tallest Schindler 3300 serving more than two floors (Record was 4) in Wayne Township, NJ

First ever 400A in MRL form (Probably 400AE) at Kean University

First ever 400A, period in Elizabeth, NJ

First ever 400AE, period at Kean University

First time getting stuck in a Schindler in Millburn Township, NJ

First time getting stuck in more than two lifts in the same day more than one time (Mall at Short Hills), all of the lifts were either Schindler 300A, 700A, or both. Millburn Township, NJ

First ever underground lift going over 5 stories underground or a distance of over 15 meters underground in Glendale, CA

First ever high-rise 500A in Stamford, CT

First ever non-glass 500A filmed in Stamford, CT

First ever glass MRL's (glass 5500) King of Prussia, PA

Schindler lifts count for 3 in every 4 of his entrapment incidents on average, as of 2022 September 15.

Other Lift Filming Milestones

He has been a member of the lift community since 2015 December 26. In 2020, he was ranked as a senior lift filmer, as he was part of the lift filming community for at least five years.

The first time he filmed a Gen2 lift or RIDDEN ONE was in New York City, ironically, his least favorite city to film lifts. There is a set of Gen2 lifts at Kean University that he rides twice per week to get to class. These are the fastest MRL Gen2's he has been on.

2019 was his very best year for lift filming so far. However, the last full week of 2019 December was his best week ever for lift filming, as he filmed more unique lifts in his 5-day trip to LA than he could find in Jersey from hopping from town to town. Furthermore, he made an exception to the state-city rule, placing Los Angeles second on his list of favorite cities to film lifts, shifting California upwards to the second best state to film lifts.

Best Day of His Career

In 2019, he has broken a record for unique lifts, as he has filmed five rare lifts in a single day, including a brand of lift that only occurs in 4 to five states, no further east than Chicago (Florida as of 2020). On 23 December, he declared this as the single best day of his lift filming career (EVER), as he shattered multiple of his own records within a single 9-hour period of time all while the sun was up on one of the shortest sunrise periods of the year.

On 23 2019 December, he filmed his first ever high rise Schindler 700A lift. This is the fastest Schindler 700A he has been on & tallest, at 20 floors & 2 m/s.

The next lift he filmed that day was a pair of two VERY DEEP UNDERDRAULIC Schindler 300A lifts. These lifts traveled five floors underground, but served a distance comparable to a 7 to 8 floor building underground. Hence, these are the deepest underground lifts he has ever ridden & filmed. This is also his deepest underground hydraulic/SUBdraulic lifts he has ever been on/filmed. They are also the highest rising hydraulic lifts he rode ever.

The next lift he filmed that day was his first ever Mitsubishi lift. This lift was an absolutely awesome Mitsubishi Sigma AI 2200, with FULL intelligent leveling, a logic that solely uses deep artificial intelligence/machine learning, call-cancellation & advanced earthquake compensation technology. These were his first EVER glass Mitsubishi lifts as well as purebred Japanese lifts in the USA. These were also his first glass MRL lifts in a hotel as well as the first ever MRL with an AI-run controller.

The next lift he filmed was a one-of-its-kind semi-outdoor glass ceiling MontgomeryKone hydraulic lift at the top of a very tall 2,000 foot mountain called Griffith Observatory. Unfortunately, this lift was turned off when he tried to film it, but he captured just enough footage to create a funny meme template to send to all of his friends.

The final unique lift of the day was his first ever purebred Fujitec lift. These lifts did serve 6 floors underground but they didn't go as far underground as the Schindler 300A UNDERDRAULIC lifts at his hotel. These lifts were also the fastest lifts in a shopping center he has ever been on, traveling a mindblowing 2 m/s, despite serving only a maximum distance of 35 meters, making these the tallest shopping center lifts he has ever been on. That is three broken records in one day. He has also filmed his first-ever FULLY OUTDOOR FULL-BLOWN traction lift in the same day, which was also a Fujitec. This was the tallest & largest outdoor lift he has ever been on, which served FIVE FLOORS, a distance of over 25 meters & at a speed of 1.82 m/s, the same as the Otis Gen2 lifts at Kean University's North Avenue Academic Building in Union Township, NJ. This lift also ran pretty much like an Otis lift would, as it had FULL intelligent leveling with NO predoors. It had a more enhanced rocket acceleration than the Otis Gen2's at Kean University. This lift was NOT MRL, though. This was the most epic outdoor lift he has filmed to date.

After this epic day & possibly the best day he ever had in his lift filming career, he has moved California up to second place on his favorite states to film lifts & moved Los Angeles from 37. place all the way up to 2. With the scheduled revisions, Charlotte was bumped down the list.

General Trivia

His most dream city to film lifts (in the U.S.) is Chicago. However, other staple favorites include Secaucus, Atlantic City, Hartford & Elizabeth, each of which are cities he has filmed lifts in the past MORE THAN TWICE.

He hasn't ridden in his childhood lifts in New York since he was 10 years old. However, he did manage to ride on some childhood lifts the last time he rode lifts at Newark Liberty International Airport in uptown Elizabeth/Newark during the summer months of 2018.

He is one of few lift filmers in the community who blog on a regular (monthly basis). He is also the only lift filmer in New Jersey who has an active website & working blog across multiple shared platforms. As of 2020 he has migrated the vast majority of his operations to Google platforms for increased reliability. He switched to Microsoft services to store his lift videos & pictures after 2021 May since Google revoked the free option from its Photos service.

His favorite high rise set of lifts in the state of New Jersey is the West Tower at Tropicana. Others include the Water Club Tower at the Borgata, as that tower has some of the most fire high-speed lifts he has been on outside of the Tropicana in New Jersey alone.

Additionally, he has filmed lifts in FOUR Embassy Suites locations between NYC & Clinton Township. He has also filmed one Embassy Suites location on the West Coast. Therefore he has been to 5 different Embassy Suites locations to film lifts.

He has filmed lifts in two Holiday Inn locations, one in Secaucus, NJ, the other in Clinton Township, NJ. He plans to film at some more Holiday Inn locations since he turned 21.

In 2018 August, he completed the lift filmer's rite-of-passage into the state of NJ, by riding the 1996 Otis (mb. Schindler 2003) West Tower lifts at the Tropicana Resort & Casino in Atlantic City. He can practically comfortably ride any lift in New Jersey now.

He is the first lift filmer to have filmed the lifts in Clinton Township's tallest building (Holiday Inn). Nobody so far has filmed the second tallest building in Clinton Township which opened last year, which is suspected to have a Schindler 330A hydro.

He is the third lift filmer to have filmed a lift in Clinton Township, third to have filmed a lift right inside Clinton Town. He is the only lift filmer EVER to have ridden the lift in the Clinton Township Municipal Building & he is currently the only lift filmer EVER to film lifts ANYWHERE within the unincorporated community of Annandale, NJ, which is his home "city" as of 2018 March. NOBODY has filmed lifts ANYWHERE within the borough of Lebanon, NJ, or anywhere in Flemington, NJ, but he hopes to be the first to discover more awesome low rise lifts in Hunterdon County, NJ. As of 2020 March, he is the first lift filmer to have ridden a lift in Flemington, New Jersey & a lift inside a medical facility in Hunterdon County. He discovered New Jersey's second known Otis HydroFit at the Hunterdon Medical Center inside the 2-floor orthopaedic building down in Flemington NJ. He is the first ever lift filmer to ride a lift in Raritan Township or Flemington Borough. Since then, a third Otis Hydrofit was discovered inside the American Dream Mall in Rutherford, NJ.

The first lift he rode in the state of Florida was a brand new 2016 ThyssenKrupp Momentum. In fact, that was the first lift he had ridden by himself. Florida was the state where he first rode a lift by himself. The second was New Jersey, followed by New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut & Massachusetts. Fort Lauderdale was the FIRST CITY he rode a lift by himself. This lift was quite boring compared to other lifts he's ridden & watched on YouTube in Fort Lauderdale, though.

The highest labeled floor he had ever ridden a lift to by himself was "68" at the Tropicana Resort & Casino's Havana Tower in Atlantic City. Those were some epic 2000's Otis Elevonic 411 lifts.

The fastest lift he has ever ridden by himself in terms of absolute speed was a 420 meter per minute (~1400'/min) Otis Elevonic 411 at the South Tower of the Borgata Casino Resort & Spa in Atlantic City. However, the fastest lift he has ever ridden/filmed are the fastest in North America (One World Trade Center ThyssenKrupp TAC-50 at 10 m/s or ~2000'/min)

He has NEVER personally filmed or ridden a lift in or been to Charlotte OR Chicago, but he loved Charlotte or Chicago through close examination of hundreds upon hundreds of available lift videos. However, as of 2018 December, his new dream city is now Chicago, followed by Chattanooga, Nashville & several other cities in Tennessee BEFORE CHARLOTTE, although Charlotte is a staple dream city of his to discover & film lifts for himself. He admires Charlotte because of the strange layout of many of its buildings & the modern lifts there have unique characterstics which cannot be found in many other cities across the United States.

He has been to South Carolina once, but he has never been in a building more than one floor in South Carolina. The only two buildings he has ever been in during a night's sleep in South Carolina was a 1-floor motel & a 1-floor Pizza Hut. The only meal he has ever eaten in South Carolina was spicy Buffalo wings from Pizza Hut. The last time he has been to South Carolina was in 2012 August, but he plans to go to Charleston or Myrtle Beach after he goes to Chattanooga or Chicago after his college graduation ceremony, especially Myrtle Beach, SC.

The Mall at Short Hills is VCC's most visited shopping centre for lift filming. Of the 12 times he went to Short Hills, he filmed lifts 10 of those times.

Favorite Vehicles

His favorite type of vehicle is an SUV followed by station wagon followed by pickup truck. His current dream vehicles are a Lexus GX, Toyota 4Runner, Subaru Outback, Lexus LX, Toyota Sequoia, Subaru Ascent & a Toyota Tacoma.

Future of his lift filming career

As of 2024 January, VCC has returned to filming lifts on a part-time hybrid schedule with a heavy bias towards virtual lift filming on Skyscrapersim regardless whether the first or third generation of the software is used.

Website & Channel Operations Outside of YouTube

His website is available using the link above. He runs a separate blog called the Clinton Township Lift Journal (Running from 2017 November 23 onward, as of 2021 August renamed the Northern & Western New Jersey Lift Filming Journal & as of 2022 replaced with The Blue Aura Academy [current]). His website is one of the very few in the lift filming community to provide sufficient resources to access his entire channel operations & applications from one place. The website provides links to his journal, various sign-up applications, YouTube channel & the first of very few publicly available lift character report forms with public databases available in the lift filming community & arguably one of the most advanced in the HISTORY of the lift filming community created by any lift filmer, ever. He is one of the lift filming community's undercover innovators, discovering the hidden beauty inside ordinary lifts everyday. He uses Google Hangouts, his YouTube channel, his global wiki page (here) & his brand new Discord server to promote his website. Additionally, he uses Canva to create logos & specially-formatted Instagram posts to upload to his Instagram feed. In 2020, VCC changed his Instagram account to a business account as a pathway to potentially turning his hobby of lift filming into a lucrative side hustle or career. He is one of the few, if not, only lift filmers in the American lift filming community currently to incorporate the use of a flowpage. Since 2021 July, he has rebranded his entire channel from inside out as he moved out of Clinton Township in 2021 August.

AI & ChatGPT usage

Starting 2023 May, VCC began using ChatGPT to draft ideas for his blog posts using notes he took on lift filming excursions in his Evernote notebook. He uses Google Bard & Perplexity's LLM bots to plan out where to film new lifts based on what other people have been filming.

Personal Transport

He currently drives a Subaru Outback station wagon.

Pandemic Programs

Newsletter Program (DISCONTINUED)

He created a Weekly Newsletter program for his Instagram & YouTube & has created a website to host his newsletter along with a separate part of his journal. He recently gave his logo & newsletter a major redesign allowing it to be more flexible to support up to 9 lifts on the newsletter. However, as of 2022 May 15, VCC discontinued this program in favor of a less tedious approach to newsletters using the powerful, flexible & reliable Wix blogging tools which power The Rising Salamander Academy. The newsletter program was replaced with The Rising Salamander Academy in 2022 May, which was later merged with his master blog in 2022 October called The Blue Aura Academy.

Postcard Program (DISCONTINUED)

A new initiative where VCC creates E-Postcards in Canva of snapshots of lifts he includes in his premieres. He copies & pastes paragraphs from prep blog posts & uploads the postcards onto his Instagram feed a few hours or days ahead of the premiere. He includes a background picture of each lift in the premiere & uploads them in stack format up to 10 postcards per stack. He only does this on a few select lift galores, not all. As of 2022 January, he discontinued this program entirely in favor of The Rising Salamander Academy, now The Blue Aura Academy.

Interactive Lift Galore Program

One of the very first in the lift filming community, VCC initiated a new program where he uploads the raw files as private videos to his YouTube channel where he puts them on a Map in a Prezi arranged in slides similar to PowerPoint which give a description of the lift followed by a YouTube video embedded to supplement. This is one of the very first programs throughout the lift filming community of its kind to exist. Access to each interactive lift galore is available from his website & mainly composed of the top 3 best lifts from a week’s worth of lift filming. He rarely does this, except for special occasions, e.g. a Rising Salamander Showdown. His last interactive lift galore was posted in 2021. He hasn't posted any since.

Project Vision 21

In 2021 January & February, VCC’s websites, logos, newsletters & video styles underwent a major redesign as his Project Vision 21 favored modular designs, more color variants, more style & more class. He also shifted all of his work to the cloud using the tried & true Google software & API’s. He moved his websites from Weebly to Google Sites & Wix when Weebly continued giving him problems since Google Sites was much more flexible & much more reliable. He used the extra free time to improve his channel operations on the front end & back end by migrating his existing infrastructure to more reliable Google-supported platforms & is constantly testing new online software & strategies to make the shift to limitation-free channel operations. The brunt of his shift to online-only took place mostly during the post-2020-September part of the pandemic but may extend further even after the epidemic has subsided to or below 2020 levels. Since 2021 January, he completely shifted from the all-too-restrictive Windows Movie Maker software (now unavailable for downloads from the Microsoft website as of 2017 January) to its successor, Clipchamp, for his regular lift videos & Magisto (a Vimeo product) for his trailers. Project Vision 21 entailed the following 16 core elements:

1. Coronavirus-safe lift filming strategies
2. The Clipchamp Program
3. The Magisto Program
4. The Google Program
5. The Canva Program
6. The Rising Salamander Showdown Series
7. The Rising Salamander Academy
8. The Rising Salamander Showdown Portfolio
9. The Rising Salamander Express
10. Rebranding campaigns
11. The Instagram Guide Program
12. The Flowpage Program
13. The Wix Program
14. The Tiktok Program
15. The Reels & Stories Program
16. The Virtual Lift Filming Program

He runs his websites using Google Sites & Wix.

Program 1: Coronavirus-safe Lift Filming Strategies

In 2020 December, as VCC started filming lifts again during the heights of the coronavirus pandemic, he fully committed to wearing his mask at all times, social distancing at 150% the required distance & using hand sanitizer. As of 2021 June, he has been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, allowing him to have confidence he can film more lifts safely with added protection against the coronavirus. He however still continues to wear his mask, socially distance & use hand sanitizer when possible. He got his third dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine in 2021 December. However, due to the Omicron variant which emerged in 2021 November, he declared that until further notice, he will film lifts virtually using Skyscrapersim & Bandicam on days where he was previously scheduled to host in-person solo lift filming events except for the events listed on his website. However, since the online building creators were once again taken down, he is forced to film entirely in-person until further notice.

Program 2: The Clipchamp Program

In 2021 January, after a couple years of hard research, VCC discovered a revolutionary online video editing app similar to Movie Maker called Clipchamp. This was the only app he needed to complete his Project Vision 21 as it gave him the fewest problems. It comes with its own built-in text-to-speech program making video editing seamless. The 480P is of ample quality compared to his Sony Handycam. He uses this app as his main program for video editing.

Program 3: The Magisto Program

In 2021 January, VCC discovered a revolutionary online AI-powered trailer creation app called Magisto. This was the only other app he needed to complete his Project Vision 21 as it gave him the fewest problems & uses AI to create the trailers for him, given his music preference, video style preference & his uploaded clips with text captions. The standard 480P is of ample quality compared to his Sony Handycam. He uses this app as his go-to for trailer creation ahead of a lift galore.

Success with the Clipchamp & the Magisto Programs

The Clipchamp program turned out to be a massive success as it removed the hassle of having to download, set up & configure confusing & tedious video editing software on one computer at a time. Editing videos on any computer is seamless & even integrates with OneDrive cloud storage & Google Photos meaning almost no downloading & uploading have to happen to use it. Same applied for the Magisto program. He can import Magisto trailers into Clipchamp at original quality & the quality will not be reduced no matter how many times he reuses said content in future Clipchamp edits. His first big success was with the Atlantic City lift galore in 2021 August where he filmed several lifts & compiled an 18-minute-long compilation of all the publicly accessible lifts at the Hard Rock hotel in Atlantic City. Not only did the clips come out impeccably, but they came out even better than anything he's made with Windows Movie Maker before Clipchamp, causing him to make a permanent decision to discontinue use of Windows Movie Maker & Windows Live Essentials indefinitely.

Program 4: The Google Program

In 2020 December, VCC migrated his Weebly site to Google Sites as it is more reliable, more flexible & a more tone-down bare-bones website editor which has everything he needs in one place, including importing Google Drive files as embeds & an easier & more intuitive editing style overall. He can also share the site with other lift filmers & declare them as administrators to help him edit the site when he is busy. He kept his Blogger account active by changing his blog to match the theme of his brand. He switched from PowerPoint to Canva to save & export his branding design to Google Drive & now uses Notejoy to plan out future lift filming events. He can import files from Google Drive into Wix directly for his new Rising Salamander Showdown Series brand sites.

Program 5: The Canva Program

In 2019 December, VCC started using Canva to create his brand logos & generic Instagram posts then export the designs directly to his Google Drive.

Program 10: Rebranding Campaigns

VCC rebrands his channels from the inside-out when need be. A rebranding campaign takes around 4-5 hours per campaign & usually involves the entire channel series being rebranded with a new logo, new name & complete overhaul of everything including on the elevator community wiki.

Program 11: The Instagram Guide Program

In 2021 August, VCC tested a demo of the Instagram Guide feature for his lift filming Instagram page. He first tested it out with his Atlantic City lift galore of 2021 August & it turned out to be a success as he can share them directly to his stories & highlights. He will only use this feature for the best lifts of the month & recommend places on his Guide to others looking to get started filming lifts. This program is rarely used & used once every quarter only.

Program 12: The Flowpage Program

In 2020 December, VCC researched the advantages of having a linktree, so he researched all the possible options & decided to go with Flowpage as it's free & is the most flexible of them all. He replaced all his YouTube description links with a single link to his Flowpages. He did the same with his Instagram & Tiktok.

Program 13: The Wix Program

In 2021 July, VCC started using Wix to promote his sub-brand: The Rising Salamander Showdown Series. He owns two websites on Wix: one for The Rising Salamander Showdown Series, the Rising Salamander Academy blog (which is on the main website) & the Rising Salamander Showdown Portfolio, which gets updated once every month or once every two months. He started using Wix ADI since it's vastly more powerful than Google Sites but at the same time is equally reliable. It is even more powerful as it includes free email marketing embedded within & multiple dashboard customization options, with its own blogging & event creation widgets. This is the perfect bundle for promoting the best lifts of the month. Instagram integration is included. In 2022 June, VCC made a shift to Wix altogether for all his blogging efforts from that point forward, abandoning Google's Blogger platform in favor of a more modern, sleek & intuitive user-interface.

However, as of 2022 December, thanks to Google Sites & joining his websites from all four of his YouTube channels into one master website, he is yanking all of his Wix sites offline in favor of the new Google site.

Program 14: The Tiktok Program

In 2020 December, VCC launched his Tiktok account to preview upcoming showdowns, feature the 3 best & worst lifts of the week & for shorter lift videos that wouldn't do well in a formal showdown. He does not use Tiktok very much, only for the trailers of in-person & hybrid productions.

Program 15: The Reels & Stories Program

In 2021 January, VCC started importing some of his existing Tiktoks onto Instagram Reels without any editing so that more people can see the Tiktoks. He posts pictures of his & other people's finds on his story & asks them to rate the fixtures, cab, configuration or the entire lift in general, with scales ranging from 0-4 to 0-16 & 0-40.

Program 16: The Virtual Lift Filming Program

In 2021 December, VCC discovered that the online building creators for Skyscrapersim were hidden upon scouring the Skyscrapersim forum for reasons why the original link to the building creators were taken down. He uses the alternative link to get to the building creators & build the buildings. Using Skyscrapersim & Bandicam, he records virtual lift videos on his computer, which get uploaded directly to YouTube. He resumed virtual lift filming as of 2021 December 17 & he plans to continue to use this method as his main method of lift filming until further notice when the coronavirus cases die down. Furthermore, he planned to begin producing bimonthly virtual showdowns of the best virtual lifts of the month starting 2022 January until the Omicron transmission dies down. Since then, the building creators have been taken down leaving him no choice to postpone Program 16 & film lifts fully in-person on a part-time basis until further notice to limit coronavirus exposure.

As of 2022 August, VCC created a whole new channel called The Blue Aura Hornet in anticipation of the rumored release of Beno's new & upcoming third generation of building creator software. It never happened yet, but in the meantime VCC found a way to get the first generation of the software to work on his computers through a Wayback machine archived link. He's been actively building buildings & filming lifts on Skyscrapersim since, which open source software has been placed in his private OneDrive repository for seamless access between his main studio in Scotch Plains & his laptop. Program 16 is therefore continued on the fact that the current building creator software as well as the Skyscrapersim client in his private OneDrive repository continues to work.

The Rising Salamander Showdown Series

In 2021 August, upon rebranding his entire channel, VCC created a brand for his exclusive blog posts & premieres called The Rising Salamander Showdown Series. His brand suite comes with four programs as follows:

Program 6: The Rising Salamander Showdown Series

VCC started a new brand for his exclusive in-person, hybrid & virtual productions called The Rising Salamander Showdown Series. This brand has its own website & its own flowpage & is the one-stop location for accessing all current premieres for a newsletter week. The website was created using WIX ADI, the AI design assistant for WIX & uses the blue theme just like the main website. This brand has its own logo but shares the same theme with the Blue Aura Habitat parent brand. The Rising Salamander Showdown Series, as of 2021 August 15, has its own dedicated YouTube subchannel shared under the roots of VCC to premiere the best lift galores of the month at the end of every month. Additionally, a shared playlist between the two channels is updated with the end of the month trailers & supplemental followup premieres which air on the last Friday & Saturday night of the month, except for rare occasions where they may have to be premiered on the last Thursday of the month. This website lists all the upcoming premieres in event form. He created an Instagram account for it on 2021 August 24 which he will use to announce upcoming showdowns at the end of every month.

However, as of 2021 December 15, during his third major rebranding campaign, VCC changed his entire color theme across all his sites from green to blue to reflect his admiration & respect for the Otis Lift Company.

Program 7: The Rising Salamander Academy

The Rising Salamander Academy is a weekly blog service hosted by VCC which gets updated after every lift galore on a separate website dedicated solely to The Rising Salamander Showdown Series. Blog posts are called readcasts, where the categories range from under 200 words to over 500 words spread across 5 categories. Special blog posts may contain more than 1,000 words, e.g. text overviews of overnight lift galores. VCC takes pride in providing only the very best of his work to the Rising Salamander Academy, so he only posts his best work on the academy. Starting 2021 September, he will be inviting other lift filmers to make contributions to the Rising Salamander Academy by writing their blog posts of lifts that they found. He will use this to slowly put a stop to The Rising Salamander Times weekly newsletter & shut down that site altogether by 2022 May as his blog posts gain more traction. He will open a monetized Medium account starting 2022 February to make side money with his private lift filming blog posts shared outside the lift filming community. Starting 2021 September, readcasts for end-of-the-month premieres automatically get flagged as premium readcasts by default.

Program 8: The Rising Salamander Showdown Portfolio

The Rising Salamander Showdown Portfolio is an online portfolio created on Wix by VCC & his sub-channel The Rising Salamander Showdown Series as an image-only gallery portfolio showcase of the best lifts of the month. These pictures are from lifts premiered directly on The Rising Salamander Showdown Series channel itself. Only the best lift galores of the month get showcased on the portfolio. VCC created this website under a child account with the parent administrator being his main account, for use of co-authoring between the 2 sites & 2 channels.

Program 9: The Rising Salamander Express

The Rising Salamander Express is a monthly or bimonthly email campaign service hosted by VCC to email subscribers on a monthly or bimonthly basis of the top 3-5 best finds of the month. This is the first email marketing approach in the history of lift filming. This email marketing approach is used to promote the end-of-the-month exclusive premieres as well as promoting upcoming Rising Salamander Academy readcasts.

Social Media Humor

VCC sometimes posts some of his memes on his lift filming Instagram wall, of course, lift-filming related, to add some humor & laughter to his Instagram fanbase. He also posts memes from other creators on his Instagram story, These are not just lift-related memes. He also shares humorous introvert posts, being that he is an introvert.

Other Programs

Another one of his goals was to monetise one of his platforms by 2021 December. He planned to do this through his Flowpage, where he will accept donations.

New Brands

Brand Fonts

His brand fonts are Nimbus Sans, Schibsted Grotesk, Deja Vu Sans, Verdana, Saira & Franklin Gothic, depending on medium used.

Philosophies

VCC adopted 6 core philosophies throughout his lift filming career thus far which allowed him to maximize on all his lift filming events regardless which case scenario goes.

1. They who expect the worst but prepare for the best are they who acquire emotional neutrality & emotional invincibility & therefore wins every time.
2. They who plan ahead of time are destined to win the vast majority of the time.
3. Adopting a "what if everything goes right?" mindset when going out to film lifts is wise.
4. Always be ready, prepared & expect to get busted & have a serious confrontation with security at all times when filming. Cut the camera as soon as you feel a displacement in your energy.
5. Not all beautiful looking lifts have a high ride character. Sometimes, the most plain-looking lifts can have the most epic & awesome ride character.
6. Always buy JDM vehicles. Don't buy anything else besides Honda, Toyota, Mazda or Subaru. Your soul, mind & wallet will thank you later.

Coronavirus Pandemic

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, he took a 9 month break from filming lifts followed by another 5-ish month break from lift filming. Since the pandemic started he managed to film lifts at the Mall at Short Hills along with his father’s workplace to close off 2020 strong & filmed a bunch of lifts throughout 2021. He received his second coronavirus vaccine in 2021 June, which allowed him to safely return to a mid-time lift filming schedule until the coronavirus daily case counts dip down even further below early 2020 March levels & average week 1 2020 March levels (around 5-7,000 cases/day for at least 2 consecutive months). As of 2021 May, he is filming lifts on a mid-time basis throughout the year, wearing a mask, using hand sanitizer & social distancing despite having been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. As of 2022 August, he is once again on a hybrid lift filming schedule with a heavy bias towards lift filming during school. However, since graduating school in 2023 October, he is now back to filming lifts on a hybrid, part-time basis regardless how bad COVID is, alternating between in-person & virtual productions as required.

Controversial Moments in the Lift Community

For this section, actions done by VCC were italicised, while consequences were bolded. So far, throughout his 6 & a half years in the lift community, he has sparked 6 controversial moments.

1. From 2015 July to 2016 September, VCC falsely claimed that the new OTIS Series 2, 4, M2 & M4 fixtures were boring because they barely pressed compared to the older Series 2, 4, M2 & M4 fixtures & ignited a firestorm throughout the lift community in reaction to the news of the tallest glass Series 1 & Elevonic 401 lifts in an atrium worldwide (at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis) getting modernised with white OTIS Series M2 fixtures. This caused several lift filmers to chain react & block him from commenting on their videos as of the time the mod at the Marriott Marquis was completed. During that time, he continually bashed other new OTIS installations & modernisations for being bog standard, basic & boring, causing other lift filmers throughout the community to become fed up with the negativity, then blocking him from making future comments. His mindset towards OTIS quickly changed in October 2016 when he took one of the newer OTIS hydraulic lifts near his house for a ride in person.
2. On 2015 September 9, he watched a video of DieselDucy getting fire recalled down to the lobby at the Millennium Hilton near Fulton Street in New York City by a security guard who did not take too kindly to him filming the lifts. VCC went nuts & spewed trash comments on every single YouTube video of the Millennium Hilton hotel, causing lift filmers throughout the community to enforce rash ultimatums against any lift filmer who spews trash comments at the security guard who committed the act. This was his second & most serious strike in the lift community so far & was the one that almost got him terminated from YouTube. A year later, he sifted through the trash comments & started deleting them one by one, sincerely apologizing to those he affected with his rash comments.
3. From 2017 October 8 to 11, VCC copied & pasted similar variants of the same comments containing the word "FRIRND" in all caps across various lift filmers' videos, causing them to become fed up with him & almost block him or re-block him if they unblocked him before. This prompted him to become overwhelmed & post a reaction video to it on YouTube, which fueled the fire farther. He almost voluntarily quit YouTube by the end of the week but screamed the F-word as loud as possible in the school hallway when he got to school on October 13, 2017 to get steam off his chest. He nearly destroyed his vocal cords & narrowly dodged extended detention.
4. From 2019 April 13 to May 26, VCC spammed multiple Discord servers, YouTube chat threads, comment threads & Google Hangouts threads with the question "Y FRIRD?" in Helvetica Neue Bold Unicode font in all caps on his Android phone, causing lift filmers across the U.S. lift community to become fed up with it quickly & temporarily enforce a ban of the word "FRIRD", "FRIRND", or "FRIRF" in the servers & chat threads where the spamming took place. These bans took place until the end of 2019.
5. In 2021 December, VCC started spamming comment sections on most lift videos rating the lifts "W" or "L" based on his opinion of the lifts. This caused many lift filmers to quickly become fed up with it & one of them replied to his comment & told him to stop. He never wrote "W" or "L" comments on the videos again. The reaction happened in the first week of 2022 January.
6. In 2022 May, as VCC was recovering from his wisdom tooth extraction surgery, he went to work on two different web applications: A lift character report & a lift efficiency analysis report. Both of which provided automated analysis reports of the lifts being analyzed, which could be pasted into a YouTube comment directly with the correct markdown syntax. He copied & pasted the comments from the analysis apps onto multiple YouTube videos from lift filmers across the country, causing them to become extremely fed up. They claimed that he was "so smart" & that he had "no idea what he was talking about", when in reality he copied & pasted comments from his apps. One of the most popular & well-known lift filmers in California replied to a comment he left on another lift filmer's videos telling him to stop. He then went on to modify his apps to offer four levels of comments instead of one to make the comments look unsuspecting & to avoid spamming comment threads on future videos. This is the most recent fallout of his in the lift community.

Channel Rebranding

2017 Rebranding - Name Rebranding Campaign

VCC was originally Technicalboy3000 in 2017 July when he moved to New Jersey. He changed his username to Hunterdon County EleFilms by Technicalboy3000 then again in October to HC EleFilms by Technicalboy3000. He only slightly rebranded his profile picture, not a new logo.

2018 Rebranding - Name Rebranding Campaign

On 2018 June 15 VCC rebranded his entire channel from scratch from HC EleFilms by Technicalboy3000 to Clinton Township Lifts by MagicalLift256, dropping the Technicalboy3000 name altogether permanently. He was originally going to rename his channel MagicalLift4194304 but due to numerical complexity concerns, he decided to use a smaller power of 2 aka 256, which is 2^8 instead of 2^22.

2021 Rebranding

August - Name Rebranding Campaign

On 2021 August 1 VCC rebranded his entire channel from scratch from Clinton Township Lifts to VCC due to the fact that he moved out of Clinton Township, NJ to Scotch Plains & Ewing, NJ as of 2021 August. He also removed the MagicalLift256 subname at the end altogether. This made sense as his father moved to Union County in 2020 December which is near the eastern end of New Jersey. He now has a new surname which he introduced at the close of 2021 called Toyotis4Runner4437Gen2. This is because his dream vehicle was the Toyota 4Runner (is now Lexus GX), his favorite lift is the Otis Gen2 & his lucky number is 4437.

December - Color Scheme Change

On 2021 December 15 VCC changed the color theme of his entire channel from green to blue to reflect his admiration & respect for the OTIS Lift Company.

2023 Rebranding

In 2023 May, VCC updated his logos to be more simplistic across all platforms as well as assigning a default blue-to-purple gradient across his entire brand & his other channels.

The Blue Aura Habitat

On 2022 August 14, VCC decided to release an umbrella brand for his three (soon to be four) YouTube channels as well as define the purpose of his four channels through the Blue Aura Habitat. These channels are the following:

Channel Name	Channel Mascot	Purpose	Launch Date
VCC Urban Bound Productions	Mustang	General content (in-person, hybrid & virtual)	2015 October 4
The Rising Salamander Showdown Series	Salamander	Exclusive content (in-person, hybrid & virtual) where only the best lifts of the month or season get premiered at the end of either that month or the end of the season	2021 August 15
The Blue Aura Hornet	Hornet or wasp	Skyscrapersim content ONLY (virtual)	2022 August 4
The Skyscrapersim Cobra Showdown Dynasty	Cobra	Exclusive Skyscrapersim content ONLY (virtual) where only the best virtual lifts of the month or season get premiered at the end of either that month or the end of the season	2022 December 19

Additionally, he created clean introductions tailored specifically to each channel as well as an umbrella intro for his new umbrella brand "The Blue Aura Habitat" through Canva.

Channel History

2015 - Launch of his First Channel

On 2015 October 4, VCC filmed his first virtual lift video for his first YouTube channel Uphoisting Experiences by Technical 3000 (back then). It was the first lift video he ever filmed for his YouTube channel. On December 26, he filmed his first in-person lift video at the Marriott City Centre in Washington D.C. It was a 1980's Westinghouse Selectomatic Mark 6 with RT fixtures & digital 7-segment floor indicators (round type with round directional indicators) traveling 1.8 m/s in a set of 4 for 18 floors. Two days later he published his first lift video. However, during the coronavirus pandemic, he deleted all of his in-person lift videos including any video where he talked in the video up to 2016 November 6 when he filmed the 2011 Schindler 330A lifts at the Springhill Suites hotel in Moosic, PA. His website (at the time on Weebly) went public a few days prior to him going to Washington D.C.

2018

On 15 June 2018, VCC dropped the Technicalboy3000 name completely from his YouTube channel & rebranded it from the inside-out. His theme color changed from green to red & orange to signify a rebirth of his channel. He rebranded it as "MagicalLift256". The full channel name was "Clinton Township Lifts by MagicalLift256" to bring recognition to his new hometown, Clinton Township, NJ. He lived in Clinton Township, NJ for more than 4 years until 2021 August when he moved to Scotch Plains & Ewing (now Flemington), NJ. He kicked off his new channel with three trips that summer, the first, to Elizabeth NJ (17 June 2018) to film a set of Dover hydraulic lifts followed by a set of Kone HornrtDisc lifts, the second, to Secaucus NJ the following month (14 July 2018) to film a set of Kone traction lifts followed by Fujitec hydraulic lifts & a Dover Impulse hydraulic lift, the third, to Atlantic City the following month (5-8 August 2018) to film a set of Schindler generic, Schindler-Northern generic & two Otis lifts. Under this channel name, his favorite memory was filming lifts in Los Angeles in 2019 December with his uncle. Premieres went online at various points in 2020 January. He also assigned a hornet mascot for his channel.

2021 - Launch of his Second Channel

On 2021 May 11, VCC changed the color scheme of his channel from orange/red to green & replaced the hornet mascot with a salamander mascot just in time for him to resume in-person lift filming upon his reception of the coronavirus vaccine.

On 2021 July 30, VCC decided to change his YouTube channel name to Northern & Western New Jersey Lifts, dropping the Clinton Township & MagicalLift256 names altogether. Two & a half weeks later, he launched his exclusive in-person/hybrid/virtual channel called The Rising Salamander Showdown Series, where he hosted his Hard Rock showdown, called Showdown of the Year 2021. This was the most successful of all his overnight lift filming trips & the least stressful. Not even his borgata trip in 2018 February came close.

In 2021 December, VCC changed the color scheme from green to blue across both of his channels & added a slug to the end of his first channel called Toyotis4Runner4437Gen2, to signify one of his dream vehicles & his favorite lift. This change, however, was short lived.

2022 - Launch of his Virtual-Only Channels

On 2022 June 6, VCC subtly rebranded both of his channels to VCC, changing the mascot on his main page from a salamander to a retriever pup. He changed the blue color to a flat color scheme to make rebranding easier in the future. He made the font scheme consistent across his entire brand to the highest degree possible. He also changed the style theme of his videos & began including trailers before each lift galore.

On 2022 July 28, in anticipation & excitement of the release of the third generation of the Skyscrapersim online building creators provided by Beno, VCC announced the launch of his third YouTube channel The Blue Aura Hornet along with his umbrella brand The Blue Aura Habitat. This channel is dedicated specifically towards Skyscrapersim content only, though his other channels sometimes host Skyscrapersim content. No in-person or hybrid content is allowed on the Blue Aura Hornet channel at all. He formally launched the channel on 4 August 2022, with his opening premiere a day later at 5:00 PM EST. His dedicated mascot is a hornet.

On 2022 October 1, upon seeing the early success of The Blue Aura Hornet channel, VCC announced his 4th channel coming 2022 December 19 as The Skyscrapersim Cobra Showdown Dynasty, which has the same purpose as both The Blue Aura Hornet & The Rising Salamander Showdown Series channels. It will contain his most exclusive virtual-only (Skyscrapersim) content of the month or season when it launches on 2022 December, with the first virtual showdown taking place tentatively on 2022 December 20 at various points throughout the day.

On 2022 October 13, VCC rebranded his Instagram & Tiktok as The Blue Aura Habitat to include content from all four of his channels at once, as well as changing the URL of the flowpage to match the URL of his umbrella flowpage, so viewers of his Instagram & Tiktok pages can view the respective flowpages of his channels.

2023 - Future

Current Channel Name	Handle
VCC Urban Bound Productions	The Blue Aura Mustang
The Rising Salamander Showdown Series	The Blue Aura Salamander
The Blue Aura Hornet	The Blue Aura Hornet
Skyscrapersim Cobra Showdown Dynasty	The Blue Aura Cobra

More info can be found by clicking this link: The Blue Aura Habitat

Significant Events Timeline

2015

October

4

8:00 PM - FIlmed first lift ever virtually on Skyscrapersim. First lift video on his channel. He declared himself as the first lift fimer of Staten Island at the time, as Specialty Elevators by Technicalboy3000.

December

23

6:00 PM - Launched website for YouTube channel.

26

11:00 PM - Filmed first lift ever in-person. Westinghouse Selectomatic Mark 6. Marriott City Center in Washington D.C.

28

8:00 AM - Officially launched YouTube channel & uploaded first lift video. Name changed to Technicalboy3000.

2016

July

30

9:30 PM - Rode first lift solo. ThyssenKrupp Momentum. Courtyard by Marriott Fort Lauderdale Beach. First lift not in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or Washington D.C.

November

8

First documented lift. All footage before was burned.

December

25

10:00 PM - First high rise lift filmed. Marriott Marquis NYC. Schindler Miconic 10. First destination dispatch lift filmed.

26

1 Year Anniversary of YouTube Channel. First MRLs ridden since childhood. First KONE EcoDiscs filmed.

2017

January

16

2:00 PM - First successful speed recording conducted. IKEA, Elizabeth, NJ. 2015 Schindler HXPress hydro.

February

11

1:00 PM - First Gen2 ridden & filmed. ROW NYC. NYC.

21

4:30 PM - First Dover Impulse ridden & filmed. First lift filmed south of Fort Lauderdale, FL. Key West, FL.

25

11:00 AM - First OTIS Elevonic 411 filmed. First lift filmed in a Hilton. Fort Lauderdale, FL.

April

1

5:00 PM - First Schindler 300A filmed. Courtyard by Marriott. Scranton/Moosic, PA.

23

6:00 PM - First OTIS 211 filmed. Series 5. Towneplace Suites by Marriott. Scranton/Moosic, PA.

May

24

8:00 PM - First hospital lift filmed. High speed OTIS Elevonic 411M. Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. NYC.

July

2

Moved out of New York City. Moved to Northwestern New Jersey. Clinton, NJ.

20

9:30 PM - First trip to Atlantic City. First solo high rise lift film by himself. OTIS Elevonic 411. Borgata.

October

8

9:00 PM - First lift filmed in Connecticut. Otis Series M2 hydraulic. Courtyard by Marriott. Cromwell, CT. First HydroAccel.

9:15 PM - Oldest lift filmed to date, 1986 OTIS Series 1 hydraulic. Courtyard by Marriott, Cromwell, CT. First LRV.

December

23

3:00 PM - First time getting stuck in a lift on camera. 3:15 PM for 3 minutes. OTIS Series M2 hydraulic. Courtyard by Marriott. Cromwell, CT.

31

11:00 AM - Oldest lift filmed to date, 1976 National GAL hydraulics. Embassy Suites, Piscataway, NJ.

2018

January

1

4:00 PM - First mall lift filmed. 2006 ThyssenKrupp oildraulic which replaced a 1988 Dover oildraulic. Bridgewater Commons Mall.

February

3

8:00 AM - Passed the New Jersey Rite of Passage. Tropicana. Atlantic City, NJ. West Tower. 1996 OTIS partially modernised by Schindler in 2003.

24

11:00 AM - Oldest lift filmed to date, 1971 OTIS Series LX hydraulic. Newark Airport Terminal A.

June

15

11:00 AM - First major rebranding campaign of channel. Name changed to Clinton Township Lifts by MagicalLift256. Brand color changed from green to orange.

16

12:00 PM - Tallest hydraulic & tallest impulse to date. Country Inn & Suites by Radisson Newark Airport. Elizabeth, NJ. 7 floors.

July

18

8:00 AM - First lift filmed in Clinton Township & Hunterdon County, NJ. Otis Series 1 211 LVM. Beaver Brook Concourse.

21

10:00 AM - Tallest lift in Clinton Township filmed. 1976 National GAL. Holiday Inn, Clinton, NJ.

2019

January

12

6:00 PM - Got his first vehicle. 2019 Honda CR-V EXL.

March

8

3:30 PM - Passed his road test. Solo lift filming expanded to the rest of New Jersey.

April

24

11:00 AM - First time riding a traction lift in a mall. Fastest mall lift to date. 1.6 m/s Schindler 700A. First 700A ever. Nordstrom, Mall at Short Hills, Millburn Township, NJ.

1:00 PM - First time riding an OTIS lift in a mall. First OTIS 2000T ever. Nordstrom, Menlo Park Mall, Edison Township, NJ.

July

8

Filmed the most lifts in a single day. Freehold Raceway Mall (4) followed by Mall at Short Hills (8) followed by Hilton Short Hills (1). 13 lifts filmed in a single day.

August

2

3:30 PM - Filmed first KSS 140. Westfield GSP. Paramus, NJ.

3:45 PM - Filmed first relay logic, triple-speed OTIS 2000 E. First flat older Series 1. Nordstrom Westfield GSP. Paramus, NJ.

6

11:00 PM - Filmed first Schindler 500A. Marriott. Stamford, CT.

September

16

3:30 PM - Filmed fastest MRL Gen2 to date. Kean University. North Avenue Academic Building. Union Township, NJ.

October

4

6:00 PM - Filmed oldest lift to date. Kean University. Vaughn Eames Hall. Union Township, NJ. Armor from 1961 but buttons replaced in 1980s with GAL JetPlus.

December

21

5:00 PM - First lift ridden & filmed on the West Coast. First lift ridden & filmed in California. Tallest & fastest Schindler 700A's. Hilton, Glendale, CA. 2 m/s, Installed 1993.

23

Best lift filming day of his career.

9:00 AM - Filmed first Mitsubishi lifts ever, first AI controlled lifts, first Mitsubishi MRL lift & first glass MRL lift in an Embassy Suites. 2 m/s. Embassy Suites, Glendale, CA. Installed 2012.

12:00 PM - Filmed first UNDERDRAULIC lifts ever. Hilton, Glendale, CA. Installed 1992. Deepest underground hydraulic & lifts in general to date. 6 floors underground.

4:00 PM - Filmed first Fujitec lift ever. Hollywood Crossings, Hollywood, CA. Fastest mall lift at 2.5 m/s. Highest rising at 30 m.

4:30 PM - Filmed tallest & fastest outdoor lift. 1.5 m/s Fujitec. Overhead traction unit.

2020

February

14

11:30 AM - Filmed the oldest lift of his career thus far despite being slap-on modernised. 1956 Dover piston-pump overhead drive hydraulic unit with GAL buttons.

March

7

7:00 PM - Filmed & rode last lift before the coronavirus pandemic. Staten Island NYC. Historic Old Bermuda Inn. Old Montgomery hydraulic lift.

8

3:30 PM - Solo lift filming expanded to the entire country.

November

25

8:00 PM - Found out Beno Building Creators were taken down. Temporary stop to virtual lift filming.

December

19

10:00 AM - Filmed first lift during the coronavirus pandemic. Mall at Short Hills, Millburn Township, NJ.

26

11:00 PM - Achieved senior lift filmer status (5 years in the lift filming community & filming lifts).

2021

March

12

10:00 AM - Filmed first Hydrofit ever. 8100 building, Hunterdon Medical Center.

July

16

9:00 AM - Filmed first Dover Traflomatic ever. Gateway Center, Secaucus, NJ.

August

1

7:00 AM - Second major rebranding of the channel. Changed from Clinton Township Lifts by MagicalLift256 to Northern & Western New Jersey Lifts (VCC)

9

2:15 AM - Filmed first Otis Elevonic 401s. Hard Rock Resort South Tower, Atlantic City, NJ.

September

1

8:00 AM - Filmed first Schindler 3300 XL ever at Kean University in Union Township, NJ.

December

15

12:00 PM - Third major rebranding of the channel. Changed the whole channel operations from green to blue theme to reflect his admiration for the Otis Lift Company.

17

5:00 PM - Temporary return to virtual lift filming upon scouring the Skyscrapersim forum. First virtual lift filmed since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 April.

2022

January

24

2:00 PM - Got his second vehicle. 2020 Acura MDX SH-AWD.

May

19

5:00 PM - Invented the Speed to Height Relationship, Efficiency & Discrepancy Analysis as a clever, yet simple technique of determining whether a lift is fast or slow. This technique sparked controversy quickly across much of the United States lift community.

22

8:00 PM - Fourth major rebranding of the channel.

June

10

10:00 AM - Return to a part-time fully in-person lift filming schedule.

11

1:00 PM - Abandoned old blog & started new blog on Wix.

17

10:00 PM - Got his third vehicle. 2022 Subaru Outback.

August

4

7:00 PM - Launched third channel called The Blue Aura Hornet, specifically for his virtual lift videos. This channel serves as a virtual-only lift filming channel where no hybrid or in-person lift productions are allowed to be premiered on it.

14

2:00 PM - Launched umbrella ecosystem brand for his three channels called The Blue Aura Habitat. This umbrella encompasses his three channels: LAHTO the Pup, The Rising Salamander Showdown Series & The Blue Aura Hornet.

September

25

8:00 PM - Launched his first public professional database via Airtable, called the Database of Entrapment Incidents.

October

2

5:00 PM - Announced the future launch of his 4^th channel, the Skyscrapersim Cobra Showdown Dynasty, the exclusive channel tailored to the same purpose of both the Rising Salamander Showdown Series & the Blue Aura Hornet, where he will only show his exclusive Skyscrapersim videos of the best of the month. If everything goes as planned, he plans to schedule the launch of his new channel to December 19 with the first showdown taking place on December 19 at 10:00 PM.

25

10:00 AM - Announced a new live TWITCH channel for the Blue Aura Hornet, where virtual live lift filming will take place on certain Thursdays from 7:30 PM - 8:15 PM & certain Sundays from 5:00 PM - 5:45 PM. They will be announced ahead of time in Discord servers he is a part of as well as posts on his main & Blue Aura Hornet YouTube channels.

December

19

11:00 AM - Launched fourth YouTube channel (Skyscraper Simulator Cobra Showdown Dynasty)

2023

January

2

10:00 AM - Announced transition to mainly a virtual lift filming schedule using the Blue Aura Hornet & Skyscrapersim Cobra Showdown Dynasty channels as well as increased involvement on the Skyscrapersim niche of the lift community for the next several months & deemphasis on in-person & hybrid lift filming in order to concentrate more on school & disassociate from the drama throughout the lift community. Announcement available on the master website

March

2

9:00 AM - Announced rebranding campaign for his main channel, dropping "Northern & Western New Jersey Lifts" for "Vertical Challenger Chariot".

May

16

4:00 PM - Rebranded entire channel suite with a universal blue-to-purple gradient & simplified logos. Applied serif font to body text while applying technical sans-serif font to heading text.

July

28

8:00 PM - Commenced a 5 1/2 month complete hiatus from lift filming (both in-person & virtual) to focus on his business endeavors & job search.

October

18

6:00 PM - Received degree from his university, signifying graduation & completion of school.

2024

January

7

4:00 PM - Returned to virtual lift filming on a part-time basis, after a 5.5-month hiatus.

11

11:00 AM - Returned to in-person lift filming by filming the Montgomery Twinkie M glass hydraulic lift in the food court at the Rockaway Town Square mall in Rockaway Township, NJ, after a 12.5-month hiatus from in-person lift filming. First lift filmed in-person since 2022 December.