Location Based Experiences

A location based experience is judged in a room, by people who did not choose to be experts. It has to work for multiple strangers at once, run all day and still mean something. That is a different brief from a headset film, and it is the work we have originated ourselves rather than waited to be asked for.

With Conservation International we made four pieces in four years and all four were selected for Tribeca. My Africa is a 360 film narrated by Lupita Nyong'o. My Africa: Elephant Keeper put the audience in the Reteti sanctuary feeding an orphaned elephant with real props and no controllers. Drop in the Ocean shrinks up to four participants to two inches tall and lets them ride a jellyfish through a plastic-filled sea, moving freely and seeing each other, with a body-tracking system built for it. Critical Distance put audiences among the Southern Resident orcas on HoloLens 2, seeing echolocation as sound in space.

Each one used a different technology because each idea needed one. The constant is the model: originate the concept, find the partner whose cause it serves, develop the technology, deliver the experience and stand in the venue while it runs.

The same capability has served brands and arts organisations. Song of the Sea took Cartoon Saloon's hand-drawn feature into interactive VR for Oculus and won the Lumiere for Best Interactive VR. Land Rover: Above and Beyond won the Campaign Tech Award for Best Use of VR. The Royal Opera House, English National Ballet and Manchester City have each had audiences put somewhere they could not otherwise stand.

Domes and large-format venues are the next room. The stereo and immersive craft transfers; the throughput and the operation are what we design for.