FIND WIILII – EP.1 THE GATE-CRASHER, is a live, hour-long immersive experience where three audience members join two professional actors on a futuristic narrative journey in a virtual reality. The premise for the show is as follows: A sci-fi immersive drama asks audiences to consider the nature and value of human memories.
Audiences are brought into the virtual space as new employees of the teleporter company Iioiig. As part of the FIND WIILII Project, the new recruits must help the company collect and preserve lots of memories. But participants soon find out that the company’s plans are not quite as altruistic as they might seem.
- GiiÖii, a leading immersive studio in Korea, known for its innovative and story-driven content, has teamed up with Ferryman Collective to co-produce FIND WIILII for an English-speaking market.
- The project, translated by producer Deirdre Lyons, was selected as a “Development Showcase” at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival XR Market, drawing attention from its planning stage.
- The production had its world premiere as part of the Official Selection of festival SXSW in February 2023.
I posed some questions to director Whitton Frank, who is making her VR directorial debut with this piece.
What inspired you to adapt this particular work for an English language market?
Whitton Frank – The initial impetus came from GiiOii approaching us with the offer of collaboration. Their project FIND WIILII had been accepted to SXSW and they felt it would be best to create an English translation for its US premier. But upon seeing the Korean version with subtitles, I thought there were many interesting and unique themes that I had not yet seen explored in this medium. There was a lot of material to work with, and that was exciting.
FIND WIILII’s subject matter seems to deal with memory and identity, amongst other themes. What is it about these concepts that you think VR participants would find appealing and/or engaging?
Whitton Frank – As humans, our ideas about identity are very much connected to memory. Who we are, who we become is often based on what we remember of our life, the experiences we have had and what we remember feeling or wanting. These are fairly universal concepts and I think exploring them in VR only heightens those feelings. Being in VR also allows us to play with these concepts because we can constantly change the world around you so you are not always sure what is “real”. This idea, by its very nature, is already part of the VR experience and we are building on that.
What challenges did you face during the adaptation process? I can imagine it involves more than just translation, localization, too, perhaps. Can you give us a glimpse into your adaptation process?
Whitton Frank – One of the big challenges was that this piece is meant to be part of a series, it’s only the first part of a longer story. But for the purposes of showing it at festivals it still needs to be able to work as a standalone story. We had to come up with a way to adapt the story so that it felt complete, while still trying to stay true to the overarching story. When Deirdre and I were writing the translation we tried very much to stay true to the original themes and general flow of the story, but at the same time craft something that would play well with a festival audience.
Whitton Frank – There are also various cultural differences and understanding that needed to be adapted for an English-speaking audience. In addition, we had a limited amount of time to train the actors and run test shows, usually we like to have 2-3 months for rehearsals and test shows and for this show we only had about a month. Also, since we did not create the initial world, there were things about it that were not streamlined in the way that we would normally do them, but GiiOii was very flexible and helpful when we asked for changes.
Have you noticed any cultural difference in the way audience members respond to and interact with the actors, the narrative and themes when comparing the English version to the original Korean production?
Whitton Frank – I feel like in general American audiences are a bit more experienced with immersive theatre and consequently are more disposed to try and disrupt or derail. Once they realise they can interact with and affect the world, they really want to. So, we had to find ways to satisfy that urge. Though, I think our actors are very accomplished at bringing people back to the narrative and keeping the story moving forward. The themes seem to resonate with people from all cultures, at the festival we had people from all over the world come through our show and the themes of memory and identity seemed to be things that everyone connected to.
What future plans do you have for FIND WIILII?
Whitton Frank – In the near future the goal is to take it on the festival circuit, hopefully including Venice, Raindance, Bifan, KFF and maybe even (fingers crossed). Sundance next year, as the rumour is that they are bringing back their XR portion of the festival. In the long run, as I mentioned, this is part of a longer, episodic narrative that involves at least 4 more parts and I know that GiiOii is already putting together plans to start working on the next parts of the story.
Having moved through this process of adaptation, what advice would you give to other companies that may also want to adapt work. What are the pitfalls they need to look out for and/or steps to follow to allow for a more streamlined process? Is there anything you would do differently, in hindsight?
Whitton Frank – First and foremost, be respectful and kind, but also be honest. There were things about the world that we were given that were not streamlined for performance, and at first I was hesitant to be critical, but I think ultimately both teams had to be honest about what we needed and wanted in order for the partnership to work. We respected each other’s visions, and tried to be flexible when crafting this new version, but we also stood firm on the things that would be needed for the adaptation to be successful.
Whitton Frank – GiiOii came to us because they knew we had experience with festivals and an understanding of how to create engaging and immersive performances that people would connect with. It is important to know why your companies are collaborating and what each person hopes to get from the partnership. Losing track of that will ultimately derail and confuse things.
Ferryman Collective has been the author of several highly successful live, immersive, VR productions. What is your view on the future of this new genre of entertainment? How can it (if at all) be positioned next to traditional forms of theatre?
Whitton Frank – I think the sky’s the limit as they say. We often talk about how our goal is to create what could be termed digital broadway. We hope that one day these shows and performances will be seen as the works of art that they are. I think it is an incredibly viable and vital form of entertainment that is accessible to people all across the globe. It allows actors to perform from anywhere, for anyone and create meaningful connection through immersive, virtual performance. In creating these shows our process is not dissimilar from that of traditional theatre: we craft a script, we build a set and costumes, and we rehearse our actors. But instead of costume designers you have avatar designers, instead of set builders you have world builders and so on.
Whitton Frank – Our actors are all theatrically trained because we need those same skills to perform in VR, to overcome the initial feelings of alienation and disorientation that our audiences can experience when coming into the virtual space. Though we use a lot of traditional theatre techniques like masque, mime and puppetry, VR is still something different. It combines pieces of film, video games, immersive theatre and traditional theatre. All of these mediums are wonderful and glorious expressions of human experience and I think VR is simply the newest form of that.
Anything else you would love our readers to know?
Whitton Frank – If you are interested or intrigued by VR theatre, come check it out. There are so many amazing companies creating compelling and vibrant shows in the VR space. I am sure I am preaching to the choir here, but I do hope that people continue to explore the idea of human connection as part of the metaverse. I think it is critical that we never forget that. What we are ultimately doing is bringing people together to experience a story together in a new and unique way, giving them a new way to understand theatre, performance and, hopefully, each other.
Feedbacks on FIND WIILII (EP.01)
Coming off the award-winning success of the festival darling Gumball Dreams, Ferryman Collective continues to trailblaze in this new storytelling medium.
I was privileged to experience a preview of the show prior to SXSW. FIND WIILII had some very dramatic moments of conflict where the choreography cleverly placed the audience (literally) right in the thick of things. In one scene, the antagonist is seen chasing the protagonist up a spiralling staircase, with the three audience members cleverly sandwiched in between the two characters, hastily being ushered up the spiral as the drama heightens. A very clever example of choreography that directly engages the audience.
Personally, the themes of identity and memories are very poignant concepts, so thematically the show resonated with me on a more philosophical level. I was, however, yearning for a moment of stillness to discuss this with the main characters, to probe them for the motivations behind their (seemingly greedy) choices of stealing memories and monetizing them into a corporate business. I did verbally confront one of the antagonistic characters and this bit of improvisation was expertly handled by the seasoned performers.
Ferryman Collective and GiiOii have collaborated successfully before, most notably on the creation and licensing of the Korean version of the Ferryman show: The Severance Theory: Welcome to Respite, which went on to festival and public acclaim across Asia. FIND WIILII – EP.1 THE GATE-CRASHER, is a great experience to catch at the next VR festival. Do not miss it.
For more information, please visit https://www.giioii.com/ and https://www.ferrymancollective.com/
