Dennis Earl Moore Productions (Brooklyn USA) provided essential design and media services for the acclaimed new heritage center documenting the life, work and legacy of George Washington, located in Mt. Vernon, Virginia, close to the nation's capital. Open since October 27, this family destination is titled the Donald W. Reynolds Education Center. Its unique, multimedia visitor experience flows through 16 galleries and theaters covering 17,000 square feet. It is part of a recent $110 million expansion of the interpretive exhibit areas within George Washington's Mt. Vernon Estate & Gardens, the prestigious 50-acre complex on the site of George and Martha Washington's former home. Mount Vernon is said to be the most popular historic estate in America with an estimated 1 million visits annually. It is open 365 days a year.
Dennis Earl Moore Productions (DEMP) brought to the task extensive experience on heritage projects, including the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney, Nebraska (winner of a 2001 Thea Award) and The Price of Freedom: Americans at War exhibit at the National Museum of American History (production of a 15-screen multimedia experience on the Vietnam War).
Three-Dimensional Storytelling
The company's distinctive, holistic "three-dimensional storytelling" approach was developed by Moore over some 35 years of creating unique multimedia environments for museums, world expos and corporations.
"Our role is always to listen to, and creatively support, the client's vision in concert with the team," says Moore. "We think outside the box but inside the budget." Dennis Earl Moore Productions joined the George Washington project's core design team at its inception, working with Christopher Chadbourne & Associates, Museum Design Associates and the center's executive director James C. Rees and education director Ann Phillips Bay. "James Rees and Ann Bay were the spearhead and the guiding light of this project," says Moore. "James thoroughly understands his visitor base, from the 7-year-olds to the 90-year-olds, from the typical museum-going family to the veteran to the dedicated history buff. When a client truly understands the nature of their audience, that's when we can really help them tell their story, and help them to serve and attract that audience."
Moore defines three-dimensional storytelling as a discipline that involves "the seamless integration of design and appropriate technology to create a human connection to a story and its core ideas and present it with curatorial accuracy in a unique public space outside the home."
Custom Theater Experiences
Moore's background as an IMAX filmmaker comes into play in two custom theater experiences: the Revolutionary War Theater and the Legacy Theater. Both were created, produced and directed by Dennis Earl Moore Productions.
The most popular feature in the exhibit is the 110-seat Revolutionary War Theater (the Elizabeth and David Bruce Smith Theater). Guests encounter it at around the midpoint of their visit. The state-of-the-art theater immerses its audience in a 14-minute telling of three key battles. "Boston, Trenton and Yorktown defined the arc of the war and the arc of Washington's character," comments Moore. "In Boston he became a hero of the people. In Trenton, a general. In Yorktown, he became a commander and diplomat of international stature." Through compelling narration and skillful use of historic images, artifacts and battle maps, the story unfolds with both drama and curatorial accuracy. Audiences are given a sense of George Washington's thoughts and actions as well as the conditions the soldiers experienced. In-theater effects include lighting, fog, falling snow and rumbling seats that evoke cannon fire. Ultra-high-definition video is presented on a pair of giant custom screens (a rectangular background screen 12-feet by 28-feet and a tilted oval front screen 12-feet by 16-feet) paired with a nine-channel surround sound system. "The effect is exhilarating," wrote Desson Thomson in the Washington Post. "It's as if you're watching the American Revolution from Washington's own strategy table."
The last stop in the exhibit hall is the Legacy Theater (the Gay Hart Gaines Theater) which literally surrounds its audience with its stirring conclusion using images, music and the spoken word. General Colin Powell (retired), presidential historian David McCullough and the Grammy-winning Brooklyn Youth Choir are among those who pay tribute to George Washington in this five-minute wrapup that Dennis Moore calls a "kinetic postcard." It is presented in ultra-high-def video, in a 360-degree wraparound cinema (diameter: 44-feet; capacity: 110) using 13 projectors.
A master of high- and low-tech
Moore's thorough understanding of technology and how to apply it in the service of storytelling is manifest in the introductory animation sequence. It works to introduce young George Washington while inviting people to take the rest of the journey through the exhibit hall, and has special appeal for children. The storybook-style sequence of simple drawings (done with modern digital techniques but looking like traditional cel work) depicts the future first president from a five-year-old boy to a mature 16-year-old surveyor. "In the first half, you see things that happened to him, and in the second half you see how he took charge of his life at a young age," says Moore. The animation walks along from right to left along a 26-foot curved strip of screen. The picture moves along the screen by means of a rotating projector, and the sound follows the picture.
Knowing when to use technology includes knowing when not to use it, and the giant head of George Washington (6 ½ feet high) conceived by Moore to mark the entrance to the education center is a prime example of the effectiveness of simple, low-tech optical illusion and scale. "At first glance, the head appears to be a convex sculpture," explains Moore, "but on closer examination it is actually a negative sculpture - concave - in which the eyes and the nose and the face and the head appear to turn and follow you around. Lighting is part of the illusion. It's an old magic trick. And it plays on the concept of getting inside George Washington's head," he adds.
Preliminary engineering, technical design and AV design ; Dennis Earl Moore Productions.
Final engineering and installation; Design & Production of Lorton, VA under DEMP's contract and direction.
Exhibit fabricator; Art Guild, Inc.
Lighting designer ; Available Light.
Sculptures; Studio EIS of Brooklyn with forensic anthropologist Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz.
About George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens
Since 1860, over 80 million visitors have made George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens the most popular historic home in America. More info: www.mountvernon.org.
About Dennis Earl Moore Productions
Dennis Earl Moore Productions (DEMP) is an entertainment design and film production company based in Brooklyn USA and headed by Dennis Earl Moore. Museum of. More information: call 718-875-8024 or email demp@dempinc.com