Seniors Get "Out There" At Comic-Con

Thousands of cosplayers dressed as their favorite characters from the Marvel and DC universes streamed into Grande Halle De La Villette for Comic-Con Paris. Small shops filled the complex, selling film and comic book merchandise to eager fans. There was also a variety of stands in which cosplayers could take photos, including rooms of iconic shows like Stranger Things or Rick and Morty. With journalism passes in hand, we were able to skip the large lines and go straight to the room containing “Out There: A Musical Experience in Mixed Reality.” Many others had crowded around, eagerly awaiting their turn to test out the world of augmented reality.   Created by companies Magic Leap, Wilkins Avenue and Pollen Music Group, “Out There” is the first immersive musical in augmented reality. The experience follows the story of a girl named Liv, who is locked in her bedroom by her grandmother as a way to protect Liv’s future after the death of her mother. Surrounded only by books and family portraits, Liv develops a rich imagination that includes a magical spirit whom she believes will free her from her prison. The user’s experience begins when they enter Liv’s bedroom, which contains only a few dolls in the corners and some paintings on the pink striped walls. They then get fitted into an augmented reality headset, and the immersion begins. Liv first asks the user if they brought their magic, prompting a sprout of sparkles to seemingly spring from the user’s hands and give her the ability to fly and sing. Throughout the four-minute song, Liv dances around the room as portraits of her family members come to life and sing to her. The perception of the user also changes as they walk around the room: certain instruments become louder as they approach the portraits, providing a real sensation that the user is moving within the song. By the end of “Out There,” the user is left wondering if they helped Liv escape or if their encounter was all simply a figment of Liv’s imagination.“The whole idea originally came from a concept that I had which was based on my little niece, [Lyvia]. She gave the name of Liv,” founder of Wilkins Avenue and creator of “Out There” Thibault Mathieu said. He was always fascinated with her imagination and ability to see magical creatures from books about around her. “The whole idea came from a simple family story,” Mathieu explained. For musical director and co-producer of “Out There” Alexis Harte, the story paralleled some experiences he had had with his own daughter. “I have a daughter who went through some hard times. In this case, the mom is a portrait who cannot reach out; all she can do is sing to [Liv]. As a parent, how to reach my child when they felt that they were unreachable is a concept that resonated with me very much throughout this project,” Harte said. The personal connections to the young people in their life resonated with Songwriter and Co-Arranger Rachel Garlin as she composed Liv’s song in the musical. “I felt resonance with [Liv]. There are a lot of negative voices that all of us are subjected to all the time. One thing we have to do as humans and artists is turn down the negative voices and not let them confine us. A message to the young people: turn off your inner critic and as [dancer and choreographer] Martha Graham said, ‘Keep the channels open.’” In order to bring such a massive creation to life, the “Out There” team had to continuously work and modify the technology of augmented reality and spatial computing. Once the participant puts on the Magic Leap headset, they are immersed in a world of fantasy. Thus, it is critical for the interactive experience to incorporate technology that “places the holographic images and animation within the physical scene,” Matheiu said. Equally important to the animations themselves was the sound. In some versions of augmented reality, participants are left feeling dizzy and disoriented due to a sensory disconnect between what they are seeing and what they are hearing. To curtail the negative effects, Harte declared that they “really spent a lot of time [on the soundtrack and sound effects] so that if you are hearing something, it is really where it should be.” For Harte, the goal was to reach the perfect amount of immersion, “not too much immersion that [the story] isn’t conveyed in a crisp and tangible way.” To achieve this, those in charge of the musical component of “Out There” focused in on the vocals as a medium by which to evoke immersion. They prioritize this component of sound because as Harte explained, “[there were] obvious sources in the room emitting the sounds—the portraits.” For Garlin, the biggest challenge was the song itself: conveying a “bigger story in a short amount of time.” Another vision the creators have involves bringing “Out There” to international film festivals. According to Mathieu, the team premiered their project at Comic-Con Paris because they had contacts there. The creators also felt that their project was entertaining, like other events at Comic-Con, yet innovative enough to make “Out There” unique. Mathieu believes that larger film festivals will embrace the musical’s augmented reality experience because “for the past two to three years [traditional film festivals have] started embracing visual reality.”While “Out There” employed amazing new technology, the special effects aren’t the only thing the creators hope their audience will take away from the experience. After hearing much praise about the musical’s innovative style, Mathieu recalled his surprise when reading an article about an “Out There” viewer who was moved to the point of tears by the musical’s beauty. “That’s really what you want as a creator,” Mathieu said.