“They came up with an outstanding design,” said Kurt Haunfelner, vice president of exhibits and collections at the Chicago museum. Added Attraction Publication: Los Angeles Business Journal By: David Haldane Published: February 1, 2010 They’re sitting in seats that rumble at the Solomon Victory Theater,” one reviewer companies to work the sector today, said National World War II Museum in New gushed in the New Orleans Times-Pic- Bill Ward, a professor at UCLA’s Scholl Orleans. Simulated snow falls from the ayune newspaper. “It is a world-class, of Theater, Film and Television, who has ceiling during the Battle of the Bulge; an theme park-style attraction combining taught entertainment design. anti aircraft gun rises, rotates and appears education and entertainment in a stirring to fire above the audience; and a 25-foot and inspiring package.” ‘The advent of new high-definition, high- guard tower appears out of nowhere quality image projectors has made a big along with the nose of a B-17 bomber. Hettema, 55, said he started the company difference,” Ward said. “But it’s become eight years ago to get into what he sees more difficult for big companies to sustain It’s all part of “Beyond All Boundaries,” as a burgeoning field of “experiential the creative potential that each project re- the museum’s new multimedia cinema design” -immersing audiences in multi- quires. They’re all custom built; you’re not experience narrated by actor Tom Hanks media spectacles. These attractions most building a Buick, you’re building one of a that opened in November. And it was often are designed and built for museums, kind. I don’t think there’s an economy of brought to you entirely by a tiny Pasadena theme parks, resorts and hotels. having a very large organization working startup, [The] Hettema Group. “First and on something when there’s only going to foremost we are storytellers,” said Pres- It’s not a new idea, of course. More than be one of them.” ident Phil Hettema, who spent 14 years 50 years ago, Walt Disney Co. made his- at Universal Studios, finishing his tenure tory by putting together the first group of At any given time, Hettema said, his group there as senior vice president of attraction Imagineers to create experiential theme is involved in about 15 design projects development before launching his own park attractions for Anaheim’s Disney- requiring anywhere from 18 months to shop. “What we try to do is tell stories land. Technological innovations since five years for completion at costs ranging using architecture, theatrics and media to then have vastly broadened the field. And from about $500,000 to several million impact people in emotional ways.” recent years, experts said, have seen a dollars. Once the company gets a contract proliferation of smaller companies like from a client and establishes a theme, The New Orleans show got a good recep- Hettema’s – many in Southern California – a team of artists, designers, architects, tion. “A magnificent and moving spectacle eager to get in the game. engineers, producers, writers, musicians that explodes ... onto the oversized screen and model builders creates the concept of the museum’s luxurious new 250-seat It’s easier for small companies than big at Hettema’s 15,000-square-foot studio Added Attraction Publication: Los Angeles Business Journal By: David Haldane Published: February 1, 2010 in Old Town Pasadena. Then, when the movie opened and are well above our customer approves that concept, the pre-Katrina levels,” said Bob Farnsworth, company puts the project out to bid for the museum’s senior vice president for contractors to build. capital programs. ‘The response has been terrific; we get nothing but positive To date, Hettema said, only a handful of comments and we believe it will remain his company’s plans have actually been popular for years to come.” constructed: a 75-acre resort in Aqaba, Jordan, designed to evoke the cultural Hettema believes that the future growth traditions of the Middle East (a job that of his industry is secure thanks to young paid the firm in the $5 million to $10 people being increasingly multimedia million range); a 200-room hotel, also oriented. in Aqaba, with the same theme (about $500,000); a touring exhibit, now at the Holly Willis, director of USC’s Institute for California Science Center in Los Angeles, Multimedia Literacy, agrees. “It’s some- depicting the cultural contributions of thing I see happening,” she said. ‘The field African-Americans to U.S. history (about is definitely burgeoning, especially in $500,000); and, most recently, the Nation- museums where they want to reach new al World War II Museum show (about $9.5 audiences.” million). The latter was a five-year project. Much of the inspiration for the New Orle- Other Hettema projects already designed ans show, Hettema said, came from the or in progress include a 600-foot observa- stories his 86-year-old father told of being tion wheel (similar to a Ferris wheel) for a fighter pilot in World War ll. ‘The goal Harrah’s Entertainment on the Las Vegas was to put you into the experience so you strip, and a major exhibit for Chicago’s can see it with new eyes,” he said. “We Museum of Science and Industry about worked on that project longer than it took life on Earth and Mars. to fight the war.” ‘They came up with an outstanding de- sign,” said Kurt Haunfelner, vice president of exhibits and collections at the Chica- go museum, where the new exhibit is planned. Hettema’s competitors include Thinkwell Design & Production and BRC Imagination Arts, both in Burbank, as well as Goddard Group in North Hollywood and Jack Rouse Associates Inc. in Cincinnati. Craig Hanna, chief creative officer at Thinkwell, expressed his respect for Hette- ma, saying, “They produce excellent work and are known for quality.” The recent opening of the World War II museum attraction made a big splash in the Big Easy. “We have tripled our visitation since the .