Now he would bring theme park storytelling to the museum. Joes blog, Themes, Schemes, and Dreams can be found at themesrenewed.home.blog. Fort Worth Museum of Science and History exhibits: We decided to rebuild the museum from the ground up, Romans recalled. Weis gave the following exclusive interview just before sharing the news of his departure with his colleagues. We also had pre-produced B-Roll. John Ford. But in its first year it got almost double the attendance we had planned for, so to increase capacity we quickly added things like Muppet*Vision 3D and more stage shows, then later Sunset Boulevard and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. We did all the graphic and signage design for the exhibition. A former SEGD board member, she is a renowned specialist at graphic design and wayfinding and has applied her talents to several Weis projects, from various museum exhibits to Shanghai Disney Resort. We added Cars Land and a Little Mermaid attraction to immerse guests in more Disney storytelling. CSI happened when Bob and I were in a cab from La Guardia to Top of the Rock. Certainly, the way we design has changed; the way we develop and visualize and engineer things has changed. was my introduction to Bob, he says. Sometimes the conversations would be deep and personal, and other times we would just laugh and laugh at the absurdity of something. Bob loved it because it was related to America. Its an incredible privilege to have this living lab that you can go to and see how people react. Visionary companies are seeking to create new experiences in the spaces they design with Gensler because they know that this is what people are yearning for as we interact with the world around us. In his mind, if you loved these things, it would be very hard for you to neglect them in your mind and heart. I love the idea of place and how you bring a place into a total story. I think there are three main elements of an immersive experience. He is best known for his Disney projects most recently his leadership roles on the Disney California Adventure and Shanghai Disneyland parks. includes serving as president of Imagineering for nearly six years. I Visionary companies are seeking to create new experiences in the spaces they design with Gensler because they know that this is what people are yearning for as we interact with the world around us. Whats exciting for me is bringing immersive experiences and stories into everyday normal life so that we can make peoples lives better. It certainly wasnt guaranteed at that time. Its been great to have the confidence of the company behind us, Weis says. general sessions court docket. We opened the nighttime spectacular World of Color, so people had incentive to stay into the evening hours. Required fields are marked *. The park was initially conceived and built as a half-day experience something guests could visit the afternoon they flew into Orlando, for example. Weir and a fellow teenaged friend were wandering the back alleys of Palo Alto. Our whole mission is to connect to people through space, through places, through the activities that take place in great spaces. The firm already has such an incredible commitment to the cultural vibrancy of cities and the places where we live, work, and play. Under her Seruto & Company moniker, she would collaborate on four museum projects with Weis. Almost 20 years ago, Bob visited my newly formed Seruto & Company office which was super small and unimpressive, Seruto recalls. I was Hes very engaging, and that makes you want to engage with him.. They must have, too, because they hired me shortly after I graduated! Former President of Walt Disney Imagineering Bob Weis is joining Gensler as Global Immersive Experience Design Leader! One of Weiss long-term collaborators is Nancy Seruto, herself the 2020 recipient of the TEAs Buzz Price Thea Award for Lifetime Achievement. We put together a pitch and took it to OLC, and it was exactly what they were looking for. Crossing over into a very different field, Weis had the opportunity to utilize his skills as an attraction and exhibit designer in the creation of Battle Stations 21: a realistic, virtual training experience for the US Navy Training Center near Chicago. During the previous two years, Robert Chapek has sold products at the Walt Disney Company valued at an estimated $6.66 million. was a traveling exhibit in two parts. Bob felt that the best way to conceive something big was to actually do it. changing. It was professionally produced with sound effects and music, and they could email it to family and friends. Oriental Land Company (OLC). We used real props from the studios, but more modern props for the time that our younger guests would relate to. The concept of an exhilarating elevator ride with projected images and lighting was nothing new for Weis one of the concepts to come out of Weiss management of the Disney-MGM Studios portfolio was the Tower of Terror. He stood up for what he thought was right. Amazon Voice Assistant is Finally Being Installed at Disney World Hotels. 20052023 JAK Schmidt, Inc. All rights reserved. And that hasnt changedthat life-affirming, aspirational way of thinking and having a day together where you can celebrate that. Bob Weis, Former President of Walt Disney Imagineering, on Immersive Experiences and the Story of Our Cities and Spaces January 12, 2023 | Q&A with Bob Weis. At 45 minutes or an hour in a visit, an exhibit is considered to be a successful exhibit. Weis grew up in Southern California and fondly recalls his familys annual visits to Disneyland on his birthday every year. Bob is incredible at pitching ideas. thing I learned that has stuck with me for my entire career was the importance Out of the Walt Disney Company's five executives, Robert Iger earns the highest compensation of $47,517,800. The project made sailors feel like they were at sea for twelve hours. People want experiences they can do with other people. The two things most people learn first when talking with Braden is his passion for history, and for Disney. From the U.S. to Shanghai, Tokyo to Paris, Weis' design and innovation imprint has been indelibly left on theme parks, attractions and rides, resorts, and cruise ships. In this medium of immersive experiences, we want to break out of the screen and really envelop all the senses sight, smell, emotion, the feel all the things that can tell the story in physical ways that you will never forget. Not just Bobs ideas, because hes very respectful of others and their concepts. of being generous with our collaborators abroad. People decided their roles. The idea of immersing people into a story goes back thousands of years, but because I spent so many years at Disney, I like to point to Walt Disneys invention of Disneyland. Genslerscommitment to leading the future of designis perfectly aligned with my passion for developing unique, immersive experiences with a diversity of creative voices., Gensler stated that Weis would take the firms design innovation to the next level,expanding its commitment to reclaiming human experiences in the spaces and places where we live, work, and play. He will collaborate with Genslers global leadership platform to envision and bring to life unique experiences for clients across a variety of industries where the firm is immersed from entertainment, lifestyle, hospitality, retail, sports, mixed use, and cultural institutions to wellness and workplace.. was greenlit. I needed an A+ exhibit designer who understands how to work with architects. How can we add magic to everyday life rather than reserving it for people who are going away on vacation? When we During his tenure, Weis was instrumental in bringing. After college, I was lucky to go straight to Walt Disney Imagineering where I could combine these skills of design with an understanding of storyline and how those two things bring spaces to life with live entertainment and embellishments of things like graphics, color, and light. If we can create experiences in places, it will imprint on people a sense of connection that can be very powerful. However, he also has a significant body of influential work in the museum and attractions fields and even military training simulation pioneering projects that established new models, blurring the line between attraction and exhibit, bringing museum techniques to the theme park world and vice versa. Bob Weis Design Island Associates Inc. 2000 - 20077 years Design consultant to Smithsonian, DIsney, Dreamworks, Sony, Fox, United States Navy, Paul Allen. storied culture, and it was critical for us to appreciate that and work closely Sklar left behind a massive collection of Disney artifacts and memorabilia that Weis has been reviewing with a team of specialists. Its always a brainstorming session, a discussion of ideas. In addition to his work in commercial and museum operations, Joe has volunteered his time to animal husbandry at leading facilities in California and Texas and has played a leading management role for a number of performing arts companies. original park had not resonated with audiences as well as we hoped, so I was It laid the groundwork for many popular exhibitions, including Weiss subsequent CSI exhibit. After decades of outstanding work, including becoming president of Walt Disney Imagineering, as well as Global Imagineering Ambassador, Weis announced his retirement in October of last year, and it didnt come as much of a surprise. In 1994 came the launch of Bob Weis Design Island, a boutique, themed entertainment design firm which was co-founded by Diane Fredel-Weis, who was instrumental in its success. Theres an expression in sports, hes a players coach. In the experience design world, the same could be said about Bob. For me, architecture and storytelling have always been melded together. December 17, 2021 by . As Weis shared with Imagineers, When I retire, I am relishing the opportunity to write a book for the Marty Sklar Archives and Im in the process of developing a screenplay for Walt Disney Studios. And it was a joy to work with Leslie [Iwerks] on her documentary about Imagineering [The Imagineering Story, streaming on Disney+]. The attractions, such as The Great Movie Ride and the animation tour, used authentic film props to tell the story of film and television. Our projects can be taxing, and we all We hired Ricardo Legarreta, a famous architect from Mexico, who was in his 70s at the time. Weis hired his longtime Imagineering collaborator Chick Russell, who had worked on both Disney-MGM Studios and Disneys America with him, as the writer on ACTION! Hes so well-suited to lead and organize and cast a group of people to do something, no matter the size of the project., Rick Rothschild, Chief Creative at FAR Out! Unlike ACTION!, where actual members of the filmmaking community portrayed themselves in their roles, CSI took actors playing their fictional characters from another medium the exhibit presented a fictionalized world, but embodied with real scientific exploration. D23: What are some of the biggest changes youve seen at Walt Disney Imagineering during your career? Just over the last decade. thought these skills would be a great fit for the roles they needed to fill. We are constantly refreshing and Theres a hunger to try things, which is creating this beautiful point in time where people are trying things, but there arent a lot of rules or known best practices. He cared about the environment so his goal was to create a TV show that would make people love the ocean and the ocean creatures. Imagineers have such an incredible Founded as WED Enterprises back in 1952, Walt Disney Imagineering has been a staple of Disney Theme Parks since the very start. Battle Stations 21 is very different from the exhibits, says Tim Steinouer. From the U.S. to Shanghai, Tokyo to Paris, Weis design and storytelling imprint has been indelibly left on theme parks, attractions and rides, resorts, and cruise ships. The trick for Imagineering throughout our history is finding that He recently For media inquiries, email var z='zx2e35dace6537df39b14527b6',s=document.getElementById(z),c=document.createElement('span');c.innerHTML=(function(a,b){var i,o='';for(i=0;i
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