by Bob Rogers, BRC Imagination Arts
For years, special effects and theming have been used as reliable substitutes for imagination and thinking in our industry. Clients are easily dazzled and seduced by these things, but by themselves, they ultimately lead to superficial empty results.
If you were putting on a play, would you begin by buying sets, costumes and special effects and then look for a story to go with them? Or would you look for a great and compelling story idea, turn that into a great script and then look for just the right sets, costumes and effects to bring that story to life? Of course, you’d do the latter.
So why does our industry so often theme a zone before they know what the area is about? Beats me, but it happens. As a result, projects end up with the intellectual and emotional depth of a Taco Bell (actually, Taco Bell might have a more clearly defined point-of-view).
Here are a couple of guidelines we use at BRC to help steer us clear of the empty theme syndrome:
1. Ask, what is this really about?
It isn’t enough to do a Mexican Village or a Dutch Village or an Adriatic Village if that’s all they are. To have power, your theme must have a point-of-view. As the designer or showman bringing this area to life, you have to know exactly how your audience is supposed to feel and why. You need to know the story. What is it about?
Sets and settings play supporting, not starring roles. The story is the star. What is it about? Until you can answer that, you don’t know what your sets, setting or effects should be or how they need to make us feel. If you can’t explain that in a complete sentence, you aren’t ready to design your sets or effects.
Joe Rohde explained that very well when describing his approach to designing Disney’s Animal Kingdom. How were we supposed to feel about nature and wild life? Until he could answer that, he didn’t know what to design. A formal English garden? A heavily symbolic Zen garden? Once he understood his theme as the wonder and power of the natural environment, he knew the formal garden and Zen garden were out. He knew that everything needed to have a very natural look, as if not planned, but a spontaneous expression of the wonder, beauty and power of nature. He knew he had to carefully scale his buildings down so the trees would be bigger than the man-made things and thus more powerful.
2. A theme is always a complete sentence.
“Flowers” is merely a subject, but “Flowers are beautiful,” is a theme. That is a dangerous, difficult idea, but it keeps you disciplined. A complete sentence forces you to take a position. It gives you a point-of-view. Describe the theme of your current project in a complete sentence. Does it have a point-of-view? If so, then perhaps it is now “about something.”
3. A “Back-Story” is not necessarily a theme.
A few years ago, elaborate back-stories were in vogue. Pages and pages of fictitious histories were written about projects. The theory was that these stories would give projects an intangible “something” that would project authenticity. Instead, the back-story often just did nothing because the guest didn’t receive, understand or care about a complex story that had not been told. If your back-story is something the guest understands, and if it provides a strong, clear point-of-view, then it might be a useful theme and you might be about something. My nominee for the simplest and easiest to understand back-story is Universal Studios. Their whole back-story is: “This is where movies get made.” That’s it. Next, turn that into a theme by providing a point-of-view. Perhaps: “Enter the glamorous and exciting world of moviemaking.” Suddenly, the place has a meaning. It is about something.
So, before you slap your next theme onto the face of another butler building, ask yourself, is this project about something? Currently, our company, BRC Imagination Arts, is putting the finishing touches on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum opening in April 2005 in Springfield, Illinois. Does this museum have a theme? Yes, absolutely! The entire center has a unified view of Lincoln. The theme is “Lincoln is Job.” As you recall, Job is the Old Testament figure who remains steadfast, although one tragedy after another befalls him. With this as our inspiration, we are telling the Lincoln story as a classic tragedy in which Lincoln perseveres for what he believes in. Every imaginable thing goes wrong, but he refuses to give up. Then, just when everything starts to go right (war over), he is shot. This simple, overarching thematic choice really tells us exactly how the audience needs to feel in every scene and gallery. Is our atmosphere or theme “about something?” Come to Springfield, Illinois after this April (maybe give us ‘till June to get it running smoothly) and judge for yourself.
Bob Rogers is one of the world’s best-known attraction strategists. Newsweek has called him “the theme park industry’s resident futurist.” His Burbank firm, BRC Imagination Arts, creates museums (such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum) and nonfiction attractions for major organizations including Ford, General Motors, NASA, Walt Disney Imagineering and Universal Studios. More information at www.brcweb.com.
