The Hettema Group (THG) is a world-renowned creator of award-winning experiential entertainment and uniquely creative projects. Phil Hettema on the Art of Storytelling Publication: Blooloop Published: October 2015 The Hettema Group (THG) is a world-re- be a life-changing decision. company, as an in-house project manag- nowned creator of award-winning er/project designer,” explains Hettema. experiential entertainment and uniquely His enthusiasm marked him out, and creative projects. he was given opportunities both to take He worked with Jani on a variety of proj- on responsibility and to express himself ects, which led him firstly to the Los An- The company’s gift for storytelling is no- creatively. Gradually, it became clear that geles Olympics in 1984 where he became where more evident than in their concept, this was something that would be a com- one of the three production supervisors design and production of the One World pelling career choice. for the opening and closing ceremonies, Observatory atop the one World Trade and then on to New York for the Statue of Centre in New York. The Observatory “I decided if I really wanted to do this, Liberty Centenary. offers visitors a spectacular panorama of I needed to figure out a bit more about the city, and uses cutting-edge technology what I was doing, so I quit my job at The Universal Years and media-based elements to immerse Disney and went back to design school visitors in the history of New York and the at Art Centre College of Design in Pasade- In the late ’80s/early ‘90s, Hettema went personal stories of the people who creat- na, because I really wanted to get a solid to work for Universal Studios, initially as a ed the One World Trade Centre. background in understanding design and show producer for their theme parks. communicating visually.” Hettema spoke to Blooloop about his “It was a very small creative organization background and storytelling, some of his After leaving Art Centre, he did a number at that point: I think I was number six. I most outstanding projects, and, of course, of things, including building puppets for produced the show for Hollywood Park, the One World Project. He describes Sid and Marty Krofft, before reconnecting and we did it in about six months. It was himself as a “child of the theme park age.” with Bob Jani, who had been the Vice very fast, but turned out to be very suc- As a Californian, he visited Disneyland President of entertainment for all the cessful.” regularly as a child, and it captured his Disney parks for many years. imagination. Later, when studying He went on to spend fourteen years at music at California State University, Long “He loved to mentor young people, and Universal, the last ten or so as Senior Vice Beach, it made sense to apply for a part- gave dozens of people their start in the President for Attraction Development time job at Disneyland. It turned out to business. He brought me on board that for the parks worldwide, which included Phil Hettema on the Art of Storytelling Publication: Blooloop Published: October 2015 any new attractions put into any of the conceived in sedimentary layers and was connection with the audience, that would parks plus the master planning for the still alive today.” be a pretty powerful thing.” Osaka park. He also led the creative con- cept team for the second theme park in THG has done a substantial amount of As the Group has moved forward, it has Orlando, ‘Islands of Adventure’, which he work subsequently in the Middle East, but had the opportunity to do increasingly describes as “one of the most satisfying this was the beginning. While working on exciting projects for museums and in projects. Who gets to have an assignment the project, Hettema began to get calls theme parks, including in Asia where like that? From a blank sheet of paper, about other, more typical theme park and there is a big market for new theme park to start to conceive and put together the museum projects. experiences. ideas for a major theme park. That was a fantastic time, a fantastic opportunity.” “Our company is fundamentally about the Forging that personal connection be- belief that if people experience things at tween the story and its audience has He explains, “‘Islands’ was an especially a visceral level, whether it’s sensory or we remained at the core of the vision. exciting project for me because it was make them see something in a new light, a park based on stories and immersion they’ll remember that story in a more “The common thread is always ‘who is into those stories. We created a whole compelling way. They’ll take it with them; the audience, and what is the story we’re land called ‘The Lost Continent’ that was they’ll have more of an emotional con- telling, and how do we make it impactful evocative of the history of storytelling nection with it. I think that is the common for them?’” and myths and legends: a rich tapestry of thread through everything we try and do.” ideas with a unifying experience of laugh- The High Roller ter. I’m very proud of that park.” Beyond All Boundaries He continues, “Four years ago a good During a lull in the industry when there THG then had an opportunity to develop friend of mine from Universal days, Greg was little capital being put into new a project for the WWII Museum in New Miller, now Head of Project Development attractions, and no prospect of a new Orleans the award winning Beyond All as Caesar’s Entertainment, said: ‘We want big theme park on the horizon, Hettema Boundaries 4D film. World-class histori- to build the world’s largest observation decided it was time to start seeking new ans worked on the story, and Tom Hanks wheel.’ That was the brief, and we took it challenges. came on board as the executive producer, from there. We brought in the structural becoming very involved with the script, engineer, did all of the conceptual design, “I just wanted to do something different and ultimately narrating the project. and worked out a way to do what we and a little more challenging”. think is the most beautiful wheel in the The exposition involves an hour-long world, overcoming some real technical The Hettema Group Is Born experience; a large scale multimedia pre- challenges.” sentation with a screen 130 feet wide by Not long after leaving Universal, Hettema 60 feet tall, multiple layers with physical Ultimately, they created the High Roller, a was called by a representative of the King moving sets, multiple layers of projection groundbreaking structure with 28 cabins of Jordan in the Middle East, who had an and moving seats: that can hold 40 people apiece: “It’s a idea involving the creation of a new devel- complete experience, helping people to opment community in Jordan in Aqaba. “…all in the service of telling this massive see Las Vegas in a new way.” story in a compelling way, and in a way “That was a project that really launched that helps grasp the global scale of it. The Studio Structure our company. We began doing a lot of re- That’s certainly one of the projects that is search and design and created a fictional really meaningful, particularly for me. The “As the studio has evolved, we have come history of that site based on geological reason it was of interest in the first place to think of ourselves in the three major data, the seismic history and the history was because my dad was a pilot out of En- divisions of the studio. in general. We talked about how a city gland over Germany during the war, and could have been built up there, which so it was our chance to talk through those • The first is ‘show design’: the creative pieces of the foundation might have been things and bring him into that story. I had design and storytelling element. laid 1500 years ago, and which 700 years a personal connection, and I thought if we • The second is architecture. Under- ago, and literally designed a city that was could make that same kind of personal standing the space we occupy is a fun- Phil Hettema on the Art of Storytelling Publication: Blooloop Published: October 2015 damental piece of experiential storytell- difference, it just doesn’t have the same meanings. It obviously has a geographical ing: if you don’t understand and control impact.” reference: you can see for a long distance. the space, it’s very hard to be able to You can also chronologically ‘see forev- tell a complete story. We don’t feel He adds, “I think that if the storytelling er’-or for a long period of time. But the comfortable in a situation where there’s is good, then you can really capture your one I like the best is that ‘forever’ is also someone else designing the box, and audience. I think the nature of people, a vision for the future, regardless of time we’re designing what’s in it, because of all of us, is that we want people to tell or distance. And so we wanted people to we think as the line between media and us stories. If you can get your audience’s contemplate a little bit about ‘where am I architecture blends, it is important to attention and start weaving a compelling in this big story?’.” think of the space as a storytelling tool.