In 2023, you’d have to be well-trained to keep up with Emissive’s international expansion. The French company, a specialist in immersive expeditions, launched a new project under its Excurio brand with the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (LIFE CHRONICLES), while working to expand a rich network around its previous productions: ETERNAL NOTRE-DAME and HORIZON OF KHUFU. And the start of 2024 is not slowing down, with a forthcoming exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay at the end of March. A look back at this marathon with Fabien Barati, CEO of Emissive.
Emissive expeditions:
- ETERNAL NOTRE-DAME
- HORIZON OF KHUFU
- LIFE CHRONICLES
- TONIGHT WITH THE IMPRESSIONISTS. PARIS 1874 (opening March, 2024)
Emissive, a worldwide network of immersive expeditions
Fabien Barati – In the first quarter of 2024, HORIZON OF KHUFU will open in Bordeaux (France), Chengdu (China), Beijing (China) and Montreal (Canada). New York should soon follow. At the same time, we’re inaugurating our next immersive expedition to the Musée d’Orsay with GEDEON Experiences in March: TONIGHT WITH THE IMPRESSIONISTS. PARIS 1874. Our efforts are now focused not only on our own productions, but also on developing our network of theatres worldwide. Excurio is a brand at Emissive dedicated to this approach, fully integrated into the company. Historically, we’ve been an agency, although we’re now totally focused on our immersive expeditions.
F. B. – Since the launch of ETERNELLE NOTRE-DAME in 2022, we’ve perpetuated our desire to produce these immersive expeditions (large-scale collective VR, bringing together 50 to 100 spectators per session). But in reality, we’re pursuing a path imagined before the project or even KHÉOPS were released. These successes have confirmed our initial intention. We’re delighted that it’s working technically, and that the audience is following us! It wasn’t an obvious gamble, but we can see it happening with our fund-raising in 2020.
A proven immersive exploration strategy: Excurio
F. B. – We started out with a triple focus. On the one hand, to produce beautiful projects, with premium quality but also a lot of learning and challenge on the part of our teams. And human adventures, based on cultural subjects that fascinate us. We want our expeditions to become standards in consumer entertainment, based on a catalog of content that we produce ourselves as much as possible. Secondly, to create a distribution network with venues and partners all over the world. And finally, to continue to develop our technological platform to make it a simple and obvious tool for our operators and our public.
F. B. – Having HTC as a partner and investor is clearly an opportunity to help us progress on the technological front. Our projects are real case studies for the deployment of consumer VR projects.
F. B. – Imagining a VR distribution standard also means creating a virtuous circle that helps to better identify our industry, from production to distribution. In our approach to venues, we’ve always been lucky enough to have demonstration spaces that have made our task easier. Or even, for some venues, our discussions took place without testing the projects. It was a question of trust, of getting a feel for the market… Now, we have proof of the success of our expeditions.
F. B. – We provide support for each international broadcast, with licenses sold to our partners for our platform. We’re not in a purely franchising mode, but we stay close to the locations to manage technical, marketing and other aspects. In reality, every location is different. At this date, we’re approaching the million spectator mark.
LIFE CHRONICLES, time travel with the dinosaurs
F. B. – LIFE CHRONICLES was a technical challenge for us. It was the first project where we wanted to do without backpacks. In terms of theme, it was less of a challenge for Emissive, as we were able to work closely with the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris to design the story elements. For us, the idea was to take advantage of this to push the narrative further, with a more sustained immersive fiction than our previous projects. This gave us the opportunity to test the density of the project a lot, to understand how to calibrate the story, where to move the viewer, etc.
F. B. – Scientific work is essential to every project. For LIFE CHRONICLES, it was a real opportunity to work with 30+ researchers, paleontologists, botanists… By taking their opinions into account, we had to design a complex experience in the 3D representation of animals and landscapes. As for the paleo-landscapes, it was a challenge to propose an experience representative of history through the ages – and of the countries visited, in relation to what we know today. And we had to bring it all to life! For most of the animals, we had no idea how they moved. That’s where our discussions were so fascinating.
F. B. – In the first few months, the feedback has been great. The museum has set up an electronic guestbook, enabling us to collect audience feedback. LIFE CHRONICLES has enabled some of the public to discover the Museum’s activities. And we’re always happy to get feedback from the public on what might interest them. Our subjects are often universal. But we also work to offer a fresh perspective through our immersive expeditions. Themes are vital from the outset to attract audiences, whatever the country. These are big productions that require this kind of thinking from the outset.
F. B. – We’ve opened up the experience to children aged 8 and over, and recommend it to those aged 11 and over. They have a different way of looking at VR than we do, and are often more curious. Nevertheless, we are cautious in our approach to young audiences.
F. B. – Other theaters will be hosting LIFE CHRONICLES very soon, and in theaters that are already partners with Emissive. We’re making a real effort to perpetuate our network, in a clear market logic. In any case, they’re looking forward to LIFE CHRONICLES and our next productions! Today, we’re expanding strongly into China and North America.
F. B. – The minimum space required for an Excurio expedition is 800m2, including technical and reception areas. We need space to ensure a satisfactory flow of visitors, and that everything is well organized for the comfort of the public. But apart from that, we can set up in a variety of locations, with low ceilings… Nothing is really complex. The Museum’s mineralogy gallery, for LIFE CHRONICLES, is a vast corridor of particular interest to us, impressive at first glance but where we settled in without a care in the world. However, the size of the venue is an indicator of the size of our audience, if we have to go from 80 to 100 spectators, for example.
F. B. – The Excurio platform is intended to open up to other content producers, possibly for smaller venues, but all this is still in the development stage.
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