1 min
Alice, the Virtual Reality Play, by Marie Jourdren and Mathias Chelebourg
What if you were Alice, Lewis Caroll's famous heroine? This is what the immersive experience Alice, the Virtual Reality Play offers. Don't be a spectator, become a player!
The authors
Alice, the Virtual Reality Play is the fruit of a collaboration between Marie Jourdren, author and creative director, and Mathias Chelebourg, producer. Both work in the DV studio, which specializes in storytelling, digital innovation and virtual reality.
Before joining the DV team, Marie Jourdren worked for communications agencies, where she created many advertising films. Mathias Chelebourg, meanwhile, has explored the narrative potential of new media through cinematographic and advertising projects, as in the clip Orange Sponsor You created for UEFA 2016.
At the heart of the action
Alice, the Virtual Reality Play is an offbeat, modern adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. The viewer, equipped with virtual reality glasses, is immersed in a fictional setting that retains everything from the British author’s absurd universe.
Inspired by immersion theatre and dynamic video games, the play places itself at the centre of the experience by allowing the player to be Alice, the protagonist. Interacting in real time with characters and objects, the viewer participates in the construction of the journey. The story and the visual environment change according to the player's decisions. The goal: get a crown before the clock rings.
In the wings
Co-produced by the DV studio and the company Synergy Cinema, Alice is an ambitious achievement supported by the expertise of many major names in digital innovation and digital motion capture.
Author Marie Jourdren and director Mathias Chelebourg collaborated with The Imaginarium studio, founded by Andy Serkis, creator of Gollum in Lord of the Rings, and Jonathan Cavendish, producer of Bridget Jones’ Diary. These exchanges made it possible to broaden the narrative field of the work so that it is not fixed but rather changes in reaction to interactions with the viewer.
A pioneering piece
After being unveiled at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, Alice, The Virtual Reality Play has begun an international tour. The work made a particularly noteworthy entry at the Venice International Film Festival, which for the first time in the history of cinema inaugurated a competition for virtual reality works. The play was also presented in Montreal, at the Phi Centre, which is dedicated to art in all its forms, and in New York as part of “Future of StoryTelling”, a futuristic entertainment exhibition.
By imagining what the cinema of tomorrow could look like, Alice is ahead of its time and has aroused the curiosity of audiences around the world.
Alice, the Virtual Reality Play is presented on culturevr.fr, an Institut français platform which offers a panoramic view of cultural innovation in virtual reality.