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Curated in association with Kaleidoscope, the Cannes XR Development Showcase is an exciting opportunity to experience 23 of the leading latest virtual and augmented reality titles currently in-development to be pitched, showcased and benefit from pre-arranged 1-on-1 meetings with some of the most emblematic industry leaders, co-producers, distributors and curators of the XR entertainment space.

Featured Projects:

A CONVICT STORY

A Convict Story is an interactive VR project built on The British Library data where we bring to life a story discovered by the linking of data from centuries ago, using data research powered by machine learning. The story follows Mary Randall, who was sentenced in 1792 for petty theft that resulted in deportation to Australia, alongside 16 fellow convicts. Mary is one of many unforgotten people of a past very distant from us, however the life she lived, the injustice she experienced, is easy to empathize with. Her reality was not that different from ours, today. In A Convict Story, we bring the forgotten story back from history, into the physical space through mixed reality.

More broadly, A Convict Story explores how historical narratives can be engaging on the individual, as well as data level. And seek to show that data can help uncover stories by looking at the aggregate.

LE BAL DE PARIS BY BLANCA LI

Le Bal de Paris is a highly immersive VR experience created by Blanca Li. In a dream-like world, the spectators become characters invited to dance all along the play: a waltz, a polka, a mazurka and a cancan. They will be accompanied by dancers present both in the virtual and in the real world in order to increase interactions, to guide them and to conduct the plot in real time. The full experience will last about an hour and a half, including 35 minutes in VR. The diving in the virtual universe will be progressive thanks to a real ball thought as a transition to enter and exit softly the VR experience. The aesthetic is at the center of the project, Blanca Li and her partners are designing a festive imaginary world inhabited by all kinds of creatures. Everyone will be free to dance, live the experience his own way and interact with whom he wishes. It will be a collective and participatory experience.

AHOY!

AHOY! is a table-top sized AR/MR music-driven short story. We’re taken to the experimental island nation of Åker (pronounced oak-air). But the experiment has failed, forcing everyone to evacuate. Our story picks up with an inventor returning to the island after three years of searching for answers. While scheming how to rebuild, he sends a hologram invitation to a new friend—a scientist who has discovered something thought impossible. She might hold the key to repairing the island. But nothing works as expected on Åker. In a communications system anomaly, the invitation lands on our phones instead, not unlike that infamous U2 album. Our inventor wears hologram glasses and we get to see his memories in red and dreams about the island being repaired in blue.

It’s a love song to the impossible and an invitation to build again.

COSMOGONIC

“Cosmogonic” is an adaptation of a fable entitled “Uranium Earpieces” written by Stanislaw Lem. To be close to Lem’s vision we will use the illustrations created by Daniel Mroz whose drawings of the robots were originally published in the first edition of the book, “Fables for Robots” in 1964. We imagine that our VR devices will plug into the big, old, robot head of the Cosmogonic, and the audience will have the sensation of watching his memories. The story of the robots will be told by the Cosmogonic voiceover, narrated as a retrospection on his adventures during his journey through the galaxy and which will guide the viewer.

We want to create an experience of a robot universe with stunning visual references to the machines – created more than 50 years ago but still fascinating today with their surreal forms and elaborate shapes. We want to premiere Cosmonognic in 2021 at the 100 years anniversary of author Solari’s birthday.

The VR prototype will be available in April 2020.

FIND WILLY

Time leap experience inside photo-roman style surrealistic environment. By contrasting images that are frozen or move, audiences can effectively feel space-time distortions and can reconstruct their identity living in three dimensions. In the piece, Find Willy, encourages natural immersion through visual interaction and provides various experience and appreciation elements to the audiences. Find Willy is an interactive Virtual Reality installation project designed for multiple audiences to walk through 4 different districts inside someone’s memory from various aspects. Multiple audiences become the Protagonist in mission to catch software bugs inside the system and walk-through interactive districts of someone’s memory. As the memory flows, the environment turns calm, sometimes dark, but beautiful in some way. Following the story, going inside deeper to the subconscious, audiences will experience the automatic relocation of themselves presence to these districts.

FLOOD

Flood is an immersive location-based narrative VR experience featuring live actors and audience interaction using live motion capture technology. Written by award-winning playwright Rory Mullarkey, directed by Punchdunk Associate Joel Scott and starring Britain’s best young talent.

Set in 2025 during an apocalyptic climate event, audience members are dropped into a beautifully bleak virtual world, where nothing works and it hasn’t rained in years. They meet a group of funny and furious young misfits who are the last to leave the town on the brink of collapse. Then suddenly the sky opens and the rain comes down. As the water rises audience and cast are forced to find dry land.

Flood challenges audiences to work with the young cast who have been left to pick up the pieces of humanities negligence. Flood is a 30 minute, 6DoF, multi-user VR experience featuring live actors.

FUTURE IS YOU

In this VR-experience the viewer finds himself inside a high-tech drone with artificial intelligence – RD-33. This drone is designed for complex analysis of diverse data (ecology, urbanism, efficiency of technologies and social processes, etc.) and transfer them to the scientific laboratory for further work. The storyline of the film is based on the first RD-33 mission, which aims to monitor several cities on the planet, from very polluted and low-developed megalopolises to the cities with high level of environment protection and technologies integration. During the flight, the drone shares its observations with the viewer. It’s MISSION is to inspire people to transform themselves, the future of the Planet Earth by identifying the critical problems, providing ways of solving them and creating empathy for people who lives in hostile environment with willingness to change the World.

HOW IS THE WATER

How is the Water is an interactive 6DOF VR experience and is also produced as a dolphin life simulation and adventure VR game. Through sound and movement, which are modeled on the dolphin with a unique locomotion technology, you completely immerse yourself in a new existence and experience the underwater world with the eyes of a dolphin. Together with the members of your dolphin family you explore a beautiful underwater world. Get to know wondrous animals in a colorful reef environment and understand how they live and what role they play in the ecosystem. Importantly, in addition to the beauty of the ocean and its worthiness of protection, How is the Water emphasizes the destructive anthropogenic impact that change our oceans. It swaps the human perspective on issues such as plastic pollution and overfishing for the dolphin’s perspective, evokes empathy and understanding for the marine life, and connects people to this strange and arcane environment to trigger ocean protection measures!

MANDALA: A BRIEF MOMENT IN TIME

Mandala takes visual inspiration in the Chinese traditional art of the shadow puppet theater, and its most famous story (Journey to the West), and from the Mandala technique used by Buddhist Monks. On the opposite of most of VR experiences which seek strong emotions, Mandala develops a quiet and introspective atmosphere. It deals with the relation to the physical world, based on the Buddhist philosophical concept of impermanence, which considers that all phenomena and objects of the physical world are perpetually changing and have no permanent nature. Mandala is a self-exploration experience, alternating gaming sequences to more philosophical conundrums. It is a promenade theatre including two rooms, and a food and drink chill out zone that is also part of the immersive universe.

CRAFTING MURDER: DEATH IS HER HOBBY

A narrative non-fiction miniseries experienced through radio play and virtual reality, “Crafting Murder: Death is her Hobby” subverts the traditional true crime genre by interweaving the life story of a murder victim with that of her forensic investigator’s. A murder case from the 1930s is solved by studying a “nutshell” – a hand-crafted 360 degree, miniature diorama created by Frances Glessner Lee. An heiress who used her fortune to re-create real life murder scenes in exacting detail, Glessner Lee inadvertently became the “mother of forensic science.” She used her “nutshells” to train police departments in forensic investigation and went on to become the first female police captain in the United States. Her pioneering work embodies the philosophy of “seeing in the round” as an act of witnessing. This project honours a woman’s use of folk art/handicraft to influence forensic science, and seeks to elevate the art and craft of aural storytelling by employing virtual reality scenography.

NOTHING IS SAFE

Nothing is Safe is a heist film designed specifically for immersive 360 video. The film features all the action, deception, technology, and suspense of a traditional heist film. The audience takes the role of a high-tech flying robot who helps two young thieves break into a luxury mansion to steal a mysterious device. The audience sees what the robot sees, sometimes in full 360-degree video view, and other times via a high-tech interface that surrounds them with 3D animation and traditional video.

ONCE UPON A SEA

Once Upon a Sea is a poetic sensory story told in VR and a 360 web series telling the tragic tale of the Dead Sea. Through a physical exploration of the sea’s forbidden landscape, to curious meetings with local characters, introducing the political and ecological complexities of the region, the viewer gets a rare glimpse into one of the world’s most dangerous, soon to be extinct wonders. In the past thirty years, the Dead Sea has receded over thirty meters, as a result of centuries of human intervention and political neglect. Today, all beaches but one are inaccessible to the public due to the danger of the sinkholes; thus serving as a dark veil to Israel’s worst ecological crisis. While exploring the moonlike landscapes, the viewer meets characters from different backgrounds, offering a deep insight into the complexity of the ecological and geopolitical crisis and to why 30 years later, no significant actions have been taken to salvage what’s left of the sea.

REMEMBRANCE

Enter the mind of Felix, a shell-shocked World War I veteran, to find the source of his repressed trauma in this interactive fiction VR experience. As we journey through Felix’s mind we find portals to his memories, going deep inside his disturbed mind, until we discover the shocking event that lies hidden deep within him. Inspired by the film The Cabinet of Dr Calagari, Remembrance is animated with a warped German Expressionist style, echoing the state of Felix’s troubled mind.

RHYTHM OF THE UNIVERSE: IONIA

Rhythm of the Universe: Ionia addresses deforestation and habitat destruction in an interactive “story-living” Virtual Reality game. Deep in a magical forest, a creature of immense power lies injured. Two children, a mute boy, and his precocious sister embark on a quest to find and heal this mythical creature with the power of music. Ionia is the first installation in a series of story-living VR games centered around socially-conscious issues seen through the unique perspective of music, mythology, and history. At ROTU Entertainment, we believe in the transformative power of music and how it can connect us all. We believe in cultivating love, kindness, and curiosity. We strive to create stories that inspire and uplift. We develop games welcoming to all. We strive to be shepherds in the virtual world, gathering and guiding those who will always believe in the power of good. ROTU Entertainment donates a portion of Ionia’s proceeds to Wildlife Foundations to help conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth.

STAY ALIVE MY SON

Based on the internationally renowned memoir, STAY ALIVE MY SON, by Pin Yathay, this experience highlights the devastating choices a parent is forced to make. Captured volumetrically, we meet Yathy and dive through light and space into his heart – the symbol of his love – to experience his story first handedly. A fantastical visual journey unravels via memory objects linked to key moments. Using gaze-activation, the object transforms, breathing life into his memories: living the chaotic evacuation from Phenom Penh, flying in labor camps over rice fields and jungles, and landing near a riverbed where the decision to abandon of his six-year-old son was made. During the experience, the participant’s heart variability, galvanic skin response, and motion-based activity are captured, uniquely personalizing each journey and prompting a call to action: to reunite Yathay with his son, healing one parent’s heart out of the millions devastated from past to present.

TANGIBLE UTOPIAS

Tangible Utopias is an exploratory VR experience immersing the viewer as a first-person into an Odyssey of potential future city scenarios, inspired by the imagination of children worldwide. The project is a continuation of the transmedia universe entitled Government of Children – a civic imagination-driven transmedia world (3D film, VR, web) that encourages children from all over the world to see themselves as leaders and to design their societal future. We have gathered a total of more than 250 visions that will selectively serve as a script for the current VR universe. Tangible Utopias aims to design a alternative multi-layered futuristic societies. The users can personalize the ever-expanding interactive world and reshape it exponentially depending on their own involvement. At the end of the experience, each user receives his/her own customized tangible utopia both as an artistic souvenir, but also as an awareness tool in order to advocate for more ethical long-term cities.

TESLA’S MINDSCAPE

Wade into the subconscious waters of one of the greatest minds in history using XR: As audiences traverse the resonate pools of the space their bodies act as conductive spires translating the vibrations of the opera’s bass into the pervasive emotive undertones of Tesla’s mind. The waters acting as his subconscious convey body-encompassing emotions, whilst the overtones of the opera experienced through the VR headsets rain down from his conscious mind bring a visual narrative that harmonise with the bodily experience of the audience. The audience is free to explore the mindscape as a living time-capsule that responds to their physical location as if they were traversing his neural pathways with the memories of Tesla’s life portrayed in pockets of narrative.

THE SPACE BETWEEN US

After the ecological collapse of Earth, two siblings find themselves on two different planets. All communication has been lost between the two worlds, but their bond allows them to defy the impossible and meet in their dreams. In the VR role-playing game “the space between us”, you embody one of two siblings, constantly growing apart, living separate lives in two different societies. Despite the difficulty of their respective circumstances and their alienation, they always find a way back to one another.

THE TRICK

The Trick – Imagine buying sex. Then, be immersed in the traumatic memories of the person you just bought, and even be her. This installation using virtual reality technologies sheds a critical light on the sex trade and questions what paying for sex entails. Intented for adults and teenagers, this piece meant to raise awareness about prostituted people’s living circumstances and the realities of sex trafficking (there is no pornography in this experience).

BIRDIE LONG GONE

Birdie Long Gone is a 20-minute immersive narrative experience for one spectator who brings travel trun to life, becoming the magical theatre of a quest for origins. The participant plays the character of Claire in an introspective treasure hunt. By opening her illusionist parents’ travel trunk, the young woman tries to find their trail. The experience is a family drama told like a fairy tale. It deals with the roe of illusion in our lives, and more precisely the part played by fantasized memories of our origins in the construction of our identity. These themes are approached through a work on matter and objects, memory supports that betray them as much as they contain them. Birdie Long Gone uses the full potential of augmented reality technology to give objects a magical dimension. Thanks to Demute’s Ahia immersive audio headphones, memories are played to sound, leaving the spectator the space to imagine the ghostly world playing out in front of him.

GONDWANA

Gondwana is a durational VR installation that absorbs audiences into the operatic flux of the Daintree: the world’s oldest rainforest. Set to a perpetually-evolving 10-minute cycle — the life of a phenomenal wet season storm — Gondwana travels through time from the present until 2085, mapping the incredible past and projected future of this extraordinary rainforest across a day of exhibition. Like the rainforest itself, Gondwana is not a linear experience but a generative system that is living, breathing and changing. No two cycles are the same spatially, temporally, or experientially. The project is supported by Screen Australia, Film Victoria, Greenpeace, the Wet Tropics Management Authority and Rainforest Rescue. Gondwana is a unique, multi-sensory experience that asks audiences to come together to see the world not as humans but on the timescale of the forest: where seconds feel like centuries and centuries like seconds.

INT.ACT

Int.act is an interactive experience about processing memories through an exploration of the different stages of a relationship between two people. From the first meeting to make-or-break fights. Taking the role of one of the characters, you are enabled to explore the different memories and the actions affections the outcome of the relationship.

POWERS OF X

Powers of X (and the Relative Impact of Things in the Ecoverse) is an immersive film exploring our planet’s environmental fragility relative to the effects of global consumption and man-made climate breakdown. It is inspired by Charles and Ray Eames’ film, Powers of Ten and the Relative Size of Things in the Universe, which merged design, technology, and media to convey impossibly large and small objects in an accessible way to audiences. Similarly, POWERS OF X utilizes VR and thoughtful design in order to visualize the invisible impacts which threaten our planet today.