Monday, July 31, 2006

The storyteller

If Joe Rohde knows anything about computer graphics, he kept it to himself during Monday’s keynote address. Luckily, Rohde knows quite a bit about telling stories — surely a more valuable art.

Rohde is in charge of design and development at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, one of the theme parks at Walt Disney World. In explaining how he led the creation of the park’s newest feature, Expedition Everest, Rohde set out some ideas that any creative professional could profit from — particularly the digital filmmakers and game designers who turned out by the hundreds to hear him.

“I see myself as a storyteller,” said Rohde, and every story has a theme. The story of Expedition Everest is suitably absurd for an amusement park attraction. Visitors travel to the Himalayas, climb Everest and encounter the ferocious sacred Yeti.

But Rohde wanted his story to convey a more serious and substantial theme -- the value of pure, untamed nature. So everything he did was in the service of that theme. Everything — from the furnishings and ornaments designed by Himalayan craftsmen, right down to the doorknobs, was created with the theme in mind.

“Our story is about a myth that became real,” said Rohde, “so one of our objectives is to create a real world for the myth to become real in." But realism for its own sake is worthless. "There is no purpose in detail other than to drive the willing suspension of unbelief," he said. The rest is a waste of time and money.

I’ve never visited Expedition Everest. But I’ve seen countless movies and games which have deployed magnificent technical skill in the service of a story that would draw sneers of disbelief from any well-brought-up 10-year-old. The scientific achievements on display here deserve a better monument than, say, the last few Star Wars movies.

Last year’s SIGGRAPH featured Mr. Star Wars himself, George Lucas. These days he may be better known as the man who gave us The Phantom Menace and the execrable digital character Jar-Jar Binks. Rohde came across as the Anti-Lucas, the sort of fellow who’d have discarded every hint of Jar-Jar or any other digital gimmick that might dilute the all-important story. In short, exactly the kind of guy the artist-geeks of SIGGRAPH need to hear and heed.
(By Hiawatha Bray, Globe staff)

Posted by at 05:17 PM

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