Bob Weis, Collaborative Creative Pioneer
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Wednesday, March 17, 2021 $ / % 0 1 Opportunity Hub 2 Explore 2 Issues 2 Subscribe Advertise About 2 IPM Books 2 3 Home ! World markets ! Asia WORLD MARKETS ASIA ATTRACTIONS Bob Weis, collaborative creative pioneer By Joe Kleiman March 12, 2021 # 280 " 0 $ Facebook % Twitter & Linkedin ' Email ( Print ) WhatsApp * Pinterest + ReddIt , Tumblr - Save LATEST ARTICLES FEATURES New Jersey’s Clementon Park up for auction March 23 ATTRACTIONS EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY: Senior Director of Exhibits, California Academy of Sciences Bob Weis (standing, third from left) and the Battle Stations 21 team just returned from sea, researching and filming the project. Courtesy Chick Russell. MUSEUMS M+ granted Occupation Now WDI president, Weis has emphasized a virtuoso team culture Permit for Hong Kong waterfront museum building on all his projects EUROPE & MIDDLE EAST by JoeJoe KleimanKleiman ProSlide introduces 17 new water rides for Atlantis Bob Weis is President of Walt Disney Imagineering. He is best Aquaventure Dubai expansion known for his Disney projects – most recently his leadership roles on the Disney California Adventure and Shanghai Disneyland parks. However, he also has a significant body of influential work in the BUSINESS museum and attractions fields and even military training simulation Integrated Systems Events announces ISE Live & Online – pioneering projects that established new models, blurring the line between attraction and exhibit, bringing museum techniques to the theme park world and vice versa. Load more . Bob Weis Photo © Disney Weis was named by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) to receive its prestigious Buzz Price Thea Award – Honoring a Lifetime of Distinguished Achievements as part of the 27th annual TEA Thea Awards. To celebrate Bob Weis and the other Thea award recipients in 2021, TEA will present a series of Thea Virtual Case Studies sessions and publish the ofcial Thea Awards Program (TEA expects to resume hosting its in-person Thea Awards Gala in 2022). To understand more about Bob Weis as a themed entertainment professional and his lifetime of distinguished achievements, InPark editor Joe Kleiman explored a series of projects completed between 2002 and 2009, interviewing a number of creative collaborators. Profiled are: In Their Footsteps: Lewis and Clark; ACTION! An Adventure in Movie Making; Top of the Rock; Battle Stations 21; The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History; and CSI: The Experience. What about Bob? Vision, empowerment, collaboration and trust Bob has an ability to balance all of it. The complexities of the project, the needs of the team, the vision of the organization, the daily challenges and frustrations – and through it all he never loses his love of it. His steady approach allows him to take on intimate projects or scale up to something massive without losing sight of his leadership role and the vision the team is working toward. He takes his work seriously, but also has an amazing sense of humor – dry, insightful and super funny – that comes out when you least expect it and always comes from a place of keen observation. He is inspirational,inspirational, thethe bestbest ofof thethe bestbest inin thisthis business,business, butbut alsoalso soso humblehumble andand justjust lovelylovely toto workwork with.with. Nancy Seruto “At the heart of his style is the empowerment of the individual and the team, treating all with respect and trust,” wrote the Thea Awards Committee of Bob Weis in its ofcial remarks, calling Weis a “world class visionary who is sincerely modest, selfless and kind,” with “a keen ability to align a very large efort…towards success among the more than 100 diverse disciplines required to create a multi-dimensional end product. A lover of history and cinema, whether overseeing a Disney theme park or a traveling museum exhibit, he was, as one of his team members called him, ‘never a micro- manager, but always a collaborator.’” “It’s kind of a life story arc,” colleague and former fellow Imagineer Rick Rothschild said of Weis. “He’s so well-suited to lead and organize and cast a group of people to do something, no matter the size of the project.” Interviewed for this story: Rick Rothschild, Chief Creative at FAR Out! Creative Direction, Rick Rothschild former Imagineer Chick Russell, Executive Producer and Creative Director at Chick Russell & Company,, former Imagineer Van Romans, President of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, former Executive Director, Cultural Afairs, Walt Disney Imagineering Tim Steinouer, Creative Producer at Steinouer Creative, former partner at Design Island Nancy Seruto, Owner of Seruto LLC, former Imagineer John Beckman, Director, Exhibit Design and Production at Adler Planetarium, former Director of Exhibit Design and Development at MSI, Chicago Jen Bressler, Principal, Hunt Design Kurt Haunfelner, Senior Vice President for Exhibitions at California Science Center, formerly Vice President of Exhibits and Collections at MSI, Chicago Bob and Nancy and Van and Tim and Chick and…. Working with Bob, there was always a sense of entertainment regardless of whether the exhibit was permanent or traveling. I felt that Bob had a crystal ball – he was a few steps ahead of everyone, a visionary. Jen Bressler Bob Weis had garnered a reputation for leading the design of Disney theme parks that, according to former Disney Imagineer and longtime Weis collaborator Van Romans, “mixed real stuf with Disney storytelling.” Weis spearheaded the team that designed the Disney-MGM Studios, opened in 1989 and renamed Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2008. The Florida theme park showcased a behind-the- scenes look at the making of television and movies in a fictionalized setting reminiscent of old Hollywood. At the same time, one of its highlights was a series of tours through a real production studio. Later, he would lead the team on the conceptual stages of Disney’s America theme park near Washington D.C. Had the project gone forward (it was canceled in 1994), it would have shared the story of America and the fabric of its people through real stories, as told through Disney storytelling techniques and technology. Concept painting of Disney’s America. © Disney. “We were creating something entirely new that really dealt with the reality of verified history,” says Romans. When designing the Disney-MGM Studios park, Weis and his team consulted with cinema history and industry experts. The attractions, such as The Great Movie Ride and the animation tour, used authentic film props to tell the story of film and television. In much the same vein, the Disney’s America team engaged historians and Smithsonian experts, with the plan to include iconic American artifacts from the Smithsonian and other museums as part of the attraction experiences. Weis, a history buf and cinephile, would apply what he had learned working on the Studios park and Disney’s America to future projects. At Disney, he and his colleagues had brought museum exhibition techniques to the theme park. Now, setting of on his own, he would bring Disney storytelling to the museum. But first, he had a film to make. In Their Footsteps: Lewis and Clark (2002) What Bob is masterful at is the strategic process of developing an idea and moving the idea into reality. He’s skilled at bringing in and organizing all the right people together. One of his greatest attributes is his strategic mindset. He’s able to provoke with properly timed and valuable “what if?” Rick Rothschild “Bob had gone through the Hollywood Studios park and Disney’s America, so Imagineers had seen him lead large projects built on strong ideas, but he felt that he was moving away from being down in the trenches,” says Rick Rothschild, who had worked at Imagineering with Weis on envisioning the US history theme park. “He made a seminal decision to leave WDI to start Design Island and have more direct hands-on involvement – and to make his movie.” 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. Along with Design Island, they also co-founded the film production company Fertile Films. In Their Footsteps production team. From Left : Harlan Opdahl of Triple “O” Outfitters, Tim Steinouer Associate Producer, Greg Jones Editor, Bob Weis Writer-Producer, Cameron Roberts Director of Photography. Credit: Lewis and Clark Film Company “Bob invited me to be Associate Producer on a documentary on the Lewis and Clark expedition,” says Tim Steinouer, who had previously worked with Weis on an unaired television show episode for another production company. The film would be “In their Footsteps.” Herman Viola, Curator Emeritus of the Smithsonian, had been a consultant on Disney’s America, and had remained in touch with Weis. Under the Fertile Films banner, Weis and Viola decided to make a documentary about Lewis & Clark’s trek through the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho. Bob Weis with traveling companion. Credit: Lewis and Clark Film Company. Director of Photography Cameron Roberts rides backwards on a horse in order to capture Jim Gerry on his horse. Credit: Lewis and Clark Film Company. Shooting at Monticello. Courtesy Tim Steinouer. Trailer: "In Their Footsteps: Lewis and Clark" Watch later Share Watch on In 2002, Viola led a group of more than twenty modern Americans on a horseback journey through the Idaho wilderness. Documenting the adventure were Weis, Associate Producer Steinouer, Editor Greg Jones, and Director of Photography Cameron Roberts. Subjects and filmmakers both rode for nine days, often for twelve hours a day, as Viola led the group to key spots documented by the Lewis and Clark expedition. “Bob had this idea that he would edit everything shot at the end of the day on-site, so one of our crew on horseback was the editor,” says Steinouer.