One of the most heartwarming and well-designed participatory VR narratives from recent years, THE IMAGINARY FRIEND stands out even before you put on the headset. Walking around at major XR festivals, you’ll definitely notice otherwise serious attendees suddenly rejuvenated, flapping their physical wings as if they were real birds and shouting “I’m not afraid!” so loud that the entire exhibition hears it. They are all helping an 8-year-old child fighting their monsters away.
The creators Corine Meijers (producer) and Steye Hallema (director) are well-known figures in the interactive and XR world. Corine’s producing credits include the IDFA & SXSW hit ‘Symbiosis‘ and Floating with Spirits which also premiered at Venice. Steye’s Smartphone Orchestra has designed participatory experiences at Tribeca, SXSW, and BIFAN. ‘The Imaginary Friend’ marks their second collaboration. In this interview, they take us on their journey to XR, delve into the creative process behind ‘The Imaginary Friend,’ and discuss the innovative techniques they employed, including advanced volumetric capture, to foster a powerful emotional connection between the audience and the central character.
A film producer meets a second-generation magician
Barna: You both come from different backgrounds and you ended up crossing paths in XR. What were your journeys like?
Corine: I studied cinema in the Netherlands, focusing on cinema, theater, television, and new media, starting in ’97. My career initially revolved around film festivals and co-production markets, but after a decade, I moved on from events to more tangible works, leading me to the digital storytelling and interactive sectors. I honed my skills in interactive storytelling and new technologies at a pioneering company in Amsterdam, Submarine Channel, which led to my current role as the founder of Studio Biarritz, where we’ve developed beautiful projects like Symbiosis and The Imaginary Friend.
Steye: My father was a magician and my mother was an art teacher. So doing something creative has always been my thing. And because my father was a magician, I wanted to be a wizard. And the first way of being a wizard is actually music, because you play an instrument and all of a sudden people feel different. On the other hand, making a living as a musician proved to be hard, so I was always trying to do marketing with weird digital stuff. Surprisingly, my digital experiments garnered more attention than my music. And then at a certain point I just switched because I thought I could do more and have more fun and a better life doing XR.
In high school, my friends and I stood out because we weren’t into soccer. But we still wanted to still impress girls! Which led us to form a creative community. And that eventually turned out to be much more successful than the soccer players. That was the first revenge… And then we formed something like a multimedia theater group. We must have been one of the first to use computers on stage. We were pioneers, creating on-stage computer games with the audience as stars, aiming to engage them beyond passive observation. We had something comparable to the Dogma 95 manifesto. In our case, we wanted to “de-sheep” the audience. We wanted to really make them involved. And that gradually became what I’m doing. I find the audience member the most interesting.
Barna: How did you find each other as producer and director?
Corine: Our journey together began with a VR piece in 2015 called Ashes to Ashes. It was a research project for us to find out what VR is. Is VR more like cinema? Or is it closer to the theater? Maybe something completely new, completely different? We had multiple directors involved and we were really ambitious – but it started to get a bit challenging financially. And that’s when someone brought Steye on the team.
Steye: I was excited about Ashes to Ashes, but when I saw the script I thought: this is actually not a VR script, it is a film script. Fortunately, the other director involved had the same problem with it, and we started working together to make it suitable for VR. And Corine showed this fantastic quality that she let us experiment and allowed things to change about the project, but at the same time she kept the production tight. This combination of flexibility and rigor is so much needed for an experimental genre like XR, so I really enjoyed this first collaboration with Corine. (Ashes to Ashes won Best VR @ Aesthetica Short Film Festival.)
From the audience’s role in VR to The Imaginary Friend
Barna: The Imaginary Friend started out from a theoretical question related to what role the audience should have in VR. Tell us more about this process.
Steye: In 2016 I was the Creative Director at Jaunt VR (a prominent Silicon Valley VR startup at the time) and I experimented a lot with first person storytelling: putting the audience in the shoes of someone else, making the audience look through the eyes of someone else, etc. This was really interesting, but after extensive experimentation, I felt that something was missing: I missed the emotional depth I have when I look at someone who I can empathize with – like when you read a book or watch a film and you empathize with the main character in the story. So I thought about this question a lot: How can we have both the first-person aspect of VR but also that form of empathy that the traditional mediums have done so well? And all of a sudden the solution popped into my head: What if you were the imaginary friend of a little kid? Then we’d have both: a beautifully complex main character and the audience would have a really interesting place, which is completely emotionally connected to the main character. And immediately I knew that I had to explore this. I was aware that it was going to be a very experimental process to make and I knew Corine was the only producer who could produce this with me.
Barna: How did you develop The Imaginary Friend from an initial idea to a full piece?
Steye: It was a long process. First, it took a while to get money. Then it was the format: I originally wrote a script for a 360 video version. It felt like an OK script, but I was not so sure about it. So I did a residency at the National Theatre in London where I was able to test the script with actors. And we recorded the 360 test but it didn’t work. The actors were amazing but the 360 video didn’t work because when the kid spoke to you, you were inclined to react, to communicate back, but of course the kid did not react to you. So we could not break the fourth wall effectively. The interaction felt awkward, like being locked up in a fishbowl. It was clear; we needed a different approach. So we started doing our first volumetric video tests, and we made a really beautiful demo, but that wasn’t convincing either. It was the hybrid volumetric that you see in e.g. Songs of a Passerby, which works beautifully in that one because it gives this quality of a ghost, of a memory. But what I really wanted for Imaginary Friend was to have the liveliness, the jumpiness of the kid, and for that it didn’t work. I knew that the uncanniness of motion capture would not work either, so I realized: it was either going to be animation – but then it would cost so much money that we could not afford -, or it would need to be the photorealistic mode of volumetric capture.
It took a couple of more years to do all the research, for example “head retargeting”, so that the main character can really look at you, was very important to figure out. Because then I started working started working for a volumetric capture studio in Eindhoven called 4DR who uses the French 4dViews system, I was well connected to the tech team there and they figured out how to edit volumetric video (similarly to how you would edit it in a software like Premiere Pro) – which allowed me start thinking in terms of interactivity in the script. So finally I knew I could have a real kid who you are going to be able to interact with, and I felt that was going to be by far the strongest option to create that original empathetic relationship goal we started out with. We create that suspension of disbelief that you are in this intimate, involved relationship with the kid.
Barna: What’s the essence of the ‘suspension of disbelief’ in The Imaginary Friend?
Steye: In traditional cinema, the suspension of disbelief allows audiences to immerse themselves fully in the narrative, accepting the story as reality. In “The Imaginary Friend,” we extend this concept into VR. With the techniques mentioned above, you are able to form a real bond with the child character. The extent of the bond varies from person to person, but all in all I think we were able to figure out such a seamless interactivity mechanics that you don’t see in other volcap pieces yet. So the player really or at least at times ‘believes’ that the friendship is real.
Corine: It’s been a long journey, but the project needed time to marinate. We’ve grown with it, and it’s evolved significantly in every aspect—from the story and acting to the technology and visual style. Our extensive testing, including a significant user test a few months before premiere at Venice, allowed us to refine and perfect the experience. It’s fascinating to see everything come together so cohesively. The reactions we’ve observed are profound. People come out of the experience with big smiles or tears, often seeking a hug. It’s a testament to the project’s emotional resonance.
Steye: We intentionally made the credits lengthy to give people time to process their emotions and regain their composure before removing the headset.
Corine: The diverse audience reception has been one of the best compliments. It’s truly universal, touching people from different continents and of all ages. Now, our focus is on bringing the project beyond festivals, into schools and libraries, to give it a life in the broader community.
Future plans: Gay Simulator and World Peace
Barna: After a highly successful festival launch of The Imaginary Friend, what are your next plans?
Corine: I’m in production now with “Gay Simulator” a VR project by Iris von der Meule, her debut outside of art school, slated for 2025. It immerses users in the life of a lesbian, so you become a lesbian. It’s a simulation piece – challenging users to navigate and embrace queer identity, including the highs and lows of coming out and facing discrimination. It’s interactive and playful, yet tackles serious themes, especially relevant given the persisting discrimination, even in places like the Netherlands.
Steye: One new project I am working on is “Inwards,” a VR journey into the subconscious. It’s going to be a brainwash machine that creates world peace.
Barna: A brainwash machine to create world peace. It’s very timely!
Steye: Yes, it’s that simple… And the other project is ‘Ancestors’, which is a Smartphone Orchestra piece that creates one big family out of the audience by using face merges and AI. This is also going to create world peace, so I am on a mission. I am going to heal the planet because it’s not going well right now.
Corine: On a celebratory note, in addition to upcoming showcases at NewImages (where it recently won the Impact Award) and Annecy, “The Imaginary Friend” recently garnered a children’s jury award in Belgium and we’re really proud of that.
Steye: And it won the XR Story Award in Japan (Beyond the Frame Festival) which I really appreciate because it’s such a different country and the fact that it resonates there shows that the piece is really universal.
More info and behind the scenes: theimaginaryfriend.nl
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