WorkThe Horrifically Real Virtuality
The Horrifically Real Virtuality
A tribute to Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi, performed live in virtual reality: fifty minutes in which the viewer moves among the actors and touches real objects.
The context
After Alice, the festivals were waiting for what came next. The challenge was no longer to prove that virtual reality theatre was possible, but to go further: a longer, more physical work in which the viewer walks around, interacts with live actors and handles real objects inside the virtual set. Directed by Marie Jourdren, the piece revisits the world of Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi, and questions along the way the relationship between virtual reality and cinema.
My role
I led the whole production: budget, schedule, technical and artistic teams, and the trade-offs needed to push the technology further than Alice without putting festival operation at risk — volumetric capture, physical interaction, constant synchronisation between the real and the virtual.
What it changed
The work was selected at Venice VR in 2018 and won Best VR Experience at Future of Storytelling in New York. Above all, it served as a showcase of know-how at a decisive moment for the studio: right after, DVgroup raised €4.5 million. The project turned a festival reputation into investment capacity.
What was delivered
A fifty-minute experience for free-roaming viewers: live actors, volumetric-capture characters, physical objects synchronised with the virtual set, and a setup built to tour festivals — from Venice to the Phi Centre in Montreal.
What remains
Pushing the technology only has value if the work can still be performed every night. Between Alice and this piece, I learned to dose innovation: one real breakthrough per project, everything else proven. That is what lets you go further without the audience paying the price of experimentation.