The interactive production stars Orlando Jones, Ayelet Zurer and others, with a new trailer debuting exclusively on UploadVR.
A group of ten people wearing Apple Vision Pro gathers around a table. Through passthrough mixed reality, volumetrically captured actors appear within the scene in front of them, while viewers can move around the table, change their perspective and take part in a branching story.
That's the setup for Empire At Sea, a new 22-minute immersive drama from director Peter Flaherty premiering in competition at Venice Immersive this week. The creators describe it as a "solarpunk AR drama", drawing on a science-fiction genre that imagines more sustainable futures.
Venice Immersive runs September 2-12 as part of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, with Empire At Sea among the projects competing in this year's immersive program.
UploadVR can exclusively reveal a new trailer for Empire At Sea below.
Empire At Sea follows a group of climate scientists who move to a remote oil rig to try to build a sustainable community at sea. Their experiment takes on a very different purpose after a catastrophic event devastates the mainland and leaves them cut off from the outside world.
The story picks up five years later, when a young woman named Lani spots a boat on the horizon. It's the first sign of civilization the community has seen since the disaster, forcing them to decide whether to welcome the strangers or keep them away by force.
The story plays out around a custom-built LED table, with Vision Pro blending the volumetrically captured performers into the physical scene. Ten participants can move around the table simultaneously and follow the action from different positions, while participatory elements influence the branching narrative.