The MetaMovie Presents: Alien Rescue
You don’t watch this movie, you live it! As you journey through this vast, cinematic VR adventure, you’ll be joined by supporting characters played by live actors. Together with fifteen other role-playing audience members, your entire cast will embark on a revolutionary shared storytelling experience. Combining immersive VR storytelling, live theater, role-playing, and video game mechanics, a MetaMovie is like nothing you have ever done before.
Be the lone hero, or bring along a co-star: Alien Rescue is made to be experienced with friends. As the Hero, you’re the star of the show. You have the freedom and agency to do or say whatever you want, and our cast of veteran VR actors, trained in the art of improv, will respond to you and might even go along with your suggestions. Or, be a Sidekick and support the mission. Flying through the scene in a tiny Eyebot avatar, you won’t talk during the show, but you’ll have more agency than you might think. Using intuitive controls, you can make your little bot flash red, green and yellow, giving you a novel way to communicate with the cast. And, you’ll be role-playing along with everyone, with the cast talking directly to you and treating you like one of the team.
HOW TO ACCESS THE LIVE PERFORMANCE IN NEOS
This is a live performance for up to 16 players in the social VR platform Neos VR. You will need a VR ready PC and an HTC Vive/Pro/Pro 2, Oculus Rift/Rift S, Valve Index or Windows Mixed Reality headset to access the social VR platform NEOS.
PURCHASE A TICKET
Live performances weekly - Hero tickets are $30, Sidekick tickets are $10. You can purchase your ticket at themetamovie.com.
Dates for the show:
Oct 30th at 7pm BST
Oct 31st at 7pm BST
Nov 4th at 7pm GMT
Nov 5th at 7pm GMT
Nov 6th at 7pm GMT
Nov 7th at 7pm GMT
Nov 12th at 7pm GMT
Nov 13th at 7pm GMT
Nov 14th at 7pm GMT
Nov 19th at 7pm GMT
Nov 20th at 7pm GMT
Nov 21st at 7pm GMT
FACTS ABOUT ALIEN RESCUE
Cast: Alien Rescue features five live actors, all professionals with years of VR acting experience. They are located across the globe, from New York to South Africa, Kansas to Connecticut. This troupe has been working closely together for nearly three years.
Running Time: Alien Rescue is a live performance that usually runs between 70 and 80 minutes. Because every show features a new Hero who’s actions are wildly unpredictable, show times vary.
Hero Agency: Alien Rescue puts one audience member right in the center of the story, where they role-play with the cast. Heroes can say or do anything they want, and they can even affect the story.
Story Branches: While the story is rooted in traditional cinematic story techniques, there are branching storylines and special scenes that are unlocked by Hero choices along the way. As part of the MetaMovie experimental mission, the cast continues to explore novel ways of running the show, using once a month ‘experimental shows’ to test new branches, story mechanics, and fresh ideas.
Sidekick Agency: Audiences come in different flavors and not everyone wants the spotlight. Audiences seeking a more passive experience play as tiny Eyebots who don’t speak but do have agency - more than is obvious at first glance. They can utilize an intuitive “flashing lights” mechanic to ‘talk’ to the cast using red, green or yellow flashes of light that glow on their avatar. In this way, Sidekicks can ‘support the mission’ by scouting, warning, and otherwise alerting the Hero. And, some parts of the story can only be unlocked through Sidekick actions.
Asymmetric Shared Live Experience: Alien Rescue is built specifically for PCVR, but also offers Sidekicks the option of a desktop experience. Using any modern PC and headphones, users can ‘go to the movies together’ even if they are situated all across the globe. Desktop users and VR users can be together at the same time, in the same show, creating a unique asymmetrical experience.
Video Game Mechanics: An avid gamer, Jason has created a health, weapon, and damage system into the Alien Rescue experience in order to create deep immersion and a ton of fun. Characters wield the D.O.V.E. plasma pistol in order to protect themselves from the dangers lurking in the Kelosite Research Facility. Using a health and damage system, Heroes can cause damage or even kill just about anything or anyone. But it works both ways, and Heroes quickly learn that sometimes it’s more prudent to take a non-violent route.
Deeply Immersive Maps: With seven large and detailed maps (game lingo for levels, or areas of a world) Alien Rescue immerses audiences into a dark and spooky sci-fi environment with barely-lit passageways, creepy labs, and eerie soundscapes. The crown jewel is the incredible Blackhawk Spaceship, at 160 meters long (nearly two football fields) and 55 meters high, with four levels and over twenty rooms. And, our maps are all connected using a custom programmed ‘instant teleport’ system that reduces load time from one map to the next to zero seconds. Audiences traverse the world of Alien Rescue seamlessly and instantaneously, without the typical “loading screen” found in most VR games and experiences.
HTC VIVE Eye and Face Tracking: All actors in Alien Rescue utilize the HTC Vive Pro Eye headset which features eye- tracking, and they utilize the newly released Facial Tracking device, also by HTC, which tracks the lower face. These added expressions bring their avatars to life. The subtle shifts of eyes, a blink or a wink, a slight grin or a strong grimace: these are the tools of an actor and our cast uses them to create passionate and memorable dramatic and comedic performances.
Neos VR: Neos is one of a few widely recognized “Metaverse” social VR platforms like VRChat, Altspace, etc. Using these platforms and their tools, users create interactive work and socialize in a variety of ways: meetups, concerts, games, hang-outs, education and research. Neos allows users to build, code, and work together inside the VR world, in real-time. The platform features a unique inventory system, a powerful scripting language, a cutting edge physics engine, full body tracking, haptics support, and a multitude of other tools and functionalities, making it a draw for top VR designers and coders.
ABOUT THE CREATORS
Jason Moore is an award winning, cross-platform writer, producer and director with over twenty five years experience working in the film, theater, television and XR industry. His films Paradise, Nebraska, American Seoul, and Animals have been screened in over sixty film festivals and have won multiple awards. Paradise, Nebraska was distributed to multiple national and international television outlets including The Sundance Channel. He has directed television commercials internationally, working with DraftFCB, BBDO, DDB, and Lowe for brands including McDonalds, Toyota, Beeline and Gambrinus. His broadcast television directing credits include Strictly Sex with Dr. Drew on Discovery, Who Gets the Dog on Animal Planet, Hooked Up with Tom Colicchio on The Conversation Channel, and more. In 2017 Jason created the MetaMovie Project, a series of research and performance experiments centered around live storytelling in virtual reality. His latest work, The MetaMovie Presents: Alien Rescue, was invited to perform as a work in progress to the 77th Venice Biennale VR Expanded, where it won a Special Mention from The Fanheart3 Awards. Alien Rescue will make its World Premiere at the Raindance Immersive Festival in October, 2021, where it has been nominated for Best Multiplayer Experience.
Avinash Changa is VR-maker, director, and international speaker on the topic of Immersive works. He is founder of WeMakeVR, with notable productions such as ‘Ashes to Ashes’, ‘Meeting Rembrandt’ and most recently “Angels Of Amsterdam”. Angels of Amsterdam is part of the official 78th Venice Biennale selection, and is in competition. The work is also selected for the Netherlands Film Festival, and in competition for the Gouden Kalf Digital Culture.Currently he is working on the next generation of immersive experiences, including live social VR performances, hybrid theater/vr, educational works, and hyper-realistic volumetrics. Since founding award-winning studio WeMakeVR in 2013 he’s become a much- requested speaker and guest for international conferences, TV-programs and other media covering the Immersive industry. Highlights include a 6-minute feature on BBC News Live, MIT’s EmTech, The Next Web, CodeMotion, and the Guangzhou International Innovation Festival in China. He often speaks about the role of Immersive Technologies such as AR, VR and MR in the future of other industries, and he’s passionate about it’s untapped potential. His mission is to bring meaningful applications and content to the world that improve quality of life for everyone.
CREDITS
Creator/Director: Jason Moore
Executive Producers: Jason Moore and Avinash Changa
Original Story by: Chris Insana
Screenplay by: Chris Insana
Avatar Design by: Ultranique
Production Design by: Zach Harris
Original Score by: Moritz Sebastien
Art Direction: Michael Biszko
Sound Design: Justin June
Lead Programmer: Raul Anthony Ybarra
Technical Artist: Ryuvi, Christopher Turk
Programmer: Sharkmare
Technical Consultant: Benjamin "Enverex" Hodgetts
Editor: Michael Zhonga
PR & Social Media: Annabelle Paulino
CAST
Nicole Rigo as Z
Kenneth Rougeau as Baxter
Craig Woodward as Cello
Marinda Botha as C.L.A.R.C. and Ursula
Social VR adventure game with live actors for up to 16 players | Running time: 70-80 mins | Platform: Neos VR | Compatible headsets: HTC Vive/Pro/Pro 2, Oculus Rift/Rift S, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets
Award nomination: Best Multiplayer Experience