Nowadays museums do not only impress with what they have on display, but in the best case, already with their very own design and architecture, going even further Tilman Thürmer, CEO of Coordination Asia, he created Shanghai Film Museum, with a vision of connecting content, design and visitors, as well as communicate the past, present and promising future. As the creator state, ‘’The main challenge was to create a structure that could communicate the museum’s mostly moving content. To create a base on which a variety of images could be communicated, a simple and modern color scheme of black, white, grey and metallic, was chosen. Referring to the essence of film – light and shadow – the colors evoke the memory of the golden age of film. The base functions as a modern stage for historic as well as modern content, resulting in continuously consistent and recognizable graphic output.’’
In 2011, Tilman Thürmer was selected as the Art Director of the new Shanghai Film Museum through an international screening process led by President Ren of the Shanghai Film Group. Thürmer was assigned the task to create a museum concept that brings the Shanghai film history alive and to design a landmark museum of international allure. With his team for over two years, they put the vision on the realization of the new museum.
The location of the new Shanghai Film Museum was selected with care. Situated off a busy thoroughfare south of Xujiahui, the museum occupies the site of the original Shanghai Film Studio, now part of Shanghai Film Group. Over 15,000 sqm this museum will share the story of Shanghai filmmaking, from its magical beginning in 1896 until present day’s 3D blockbusters. The museum boasts 4 floors, over 70 interactive installations and a collection of 3,000 historic exhibits. As the first film museum in the city, the museum will have a leading role in maintaining the international position of Shanghai film and raising awareness
‘In the past, museums seemed to be not so much for people, in the last two decennia this has changed for the better. Museum concepts are now developed bottom-up, from the visitor’s point of view.’ Contemporary museum design, assumes a more natural role in daily life. ‘Visiting a museum is still about absorbing knowledge and educating oneself, but it became a more interactive, engaging and fun experience, far from “boring” or “dusty” ,Says Thürmer. For that essential reason, Thürmer chose to create a museum experience drive by interaction and dialogue, that invites visitor to be part of the story of Shanghai Film. He integrated interactive environments, hands on displays and real-time production studios with the museum existing collection of historic objects and images.
The experience will start in the beginning of the journey. Visitors are immediately immersed in the museum’s content. As ascend to the start of the exhibition on the fourth floor, the lift counts down from ten to one imitating the start of an old film. The visitors emerge to become a ‘shining star’ for the 20-second shuffle along a red light bulb carpet, accompanied by the flashes of silhouetted paparazzi at ‘Carpet of Lights’ Surfaces are dark and lacquer-like, stroll along and find ‘Nanjing Road’ as Shanghai most famous commercial street have been captured in many photographic lens focus and becoming an early classic iconic movie scenes.
An aesthetic journey continued into the ‘River of Dreams’, a smart interactive installation, a film stream album where glowing touch-screen surfaces reveal personalities from 1949 to present day. It is presented in English and Chinese. Through touch and play application, the visitor can catch the film in this stream and learn more. Down to second floor, where the visitor can experience more intuitive modern film and television production processes and powerful media environment.
Art Cinema room can be found in the first floor, it was equipped with the most advance movie screening technology, including the US Christie Digital System offers the latest digital projection equipment. These advanced screening technology designed to bring moviegoers extraordinary visual effects and unmatched dynamic experience.
Coordination Asia successfully brought the vision into reality to make Shanghai Film Museum not only as “a temple of history” it is clear that the real connection is build to link the past, present and future of film making by integrating fully equipped real-time production studios, in which visitor can participate in the craft of film making.
A mixture of professional studios for animation, post production, sound and live broadcasting enable visitors to see firsthand how film professionals use traditional craft as well as modern digital technology to create features for the silver screen. Not only that, it also provides a place where professional and non professional in film industry can interact to exchange knowledge and inspiration.
Project: Shanghai Film Museum
Art Director and Lead Designer: Tilman Thürmer / COORDINATION ASIA Ltd.
Photo by: Tilman Thrmer / COORDINATION ASIA Ltd.