A World First in Quebec: Culture Shawinigan To Host Interactive Augmented Reality Film Experience
IMMERSIVE MOBILE TOURIST ATTRACTION PRODUCED BY CIEAR INC. TO DEBUT SUMMER, 2018
Quebec City, Quebec ̶ December 5, 2017 ̶ Culture Shawinigan and CieAR are proud to announce Phantasmagorie, a new interactive augmented reality (AR) film experience aimed at enhancing and sharing Shawinigan’s cultural and historic gems with tourists of all ages. This unique experience will be open to the public and will debut just prior to Summer, 2018.
Phantasmagorie will guide visitors through various Shawinigan cultural and historic attractions as they interact in an immersive experience that takes storytelling to new levels. Phantasmagorie allows visitors to travel in time to the turn of the 20th century and interact with haunted characters from days gone by that appear in the real life venues as life-size 3D characters.
Within the Phantasmagorie experience designed by renowned director and writer Olivier Asselin and inspired freely by the work of Jules Verne, visitors find themselves in the midst of a criminal investigation, between real-life objects and a 3D virtual world that features haunted characters they can see and almost touch. As visitors move through the experience, they set out to help solve the mystery and the circumstances around the death of La Stilla, one of the most famous sopranos of the Belle Époque.
Phantasmagorie is possible through a team effort comprising the City of Shawinigan, Culture Shawinigan, CieAR, Tourism Shawinigan, and DigiHub Shawinigan with funding made possible from the Canada Media Fund.
“Shawinigan wants to become a digital leader and Culture Shawinigan is proud to contribute toward digital art projects,” said Bryan Perreault, director general and artistic director at Culture Shawinigan.
“For tourism, new technologies must first serve and amplify the experience of our city’s visitors by allowing them to become actors within their own experience. A project as creative, innovative and interactive as Phantasmagorie makes Shawinigan a fabulous playground where virtual and real worlds intermingle and bring visitors into a fantastic universe, unique to Shawinigan, ” said Valerie Lalbin, general manager at Tourism Shawinigan.
Philippe Nadeau, one of Digihub Shawinigan partners and General Manager said “DigiHub is proud to contribute to this project, which is in the spirit of its digital entertainment business. In Phantasmagorie, the real mixes with the immaterial, in a game that transcends matter to offer an incredible immersive experience, and that allows us to offer the future of the entertainment industry today.”
About The City of Shawinigan
Nestled in a bend of the Saint-Maurice River, the City of Shawinigan fascinates with its vast expanses of water and boreal forest, as well as its amazing cultural and scientific activities. The area, which covers nearly 1,000 square kilometers, lends itself to a wide variety of activities year-round.
About Culture Shawinigan
Culture Shawinigan ensures support for the arts, letters and culture in its territory, and fosters the cohesion necessary for their sustainable development. Recognized as a major performing arts and visual arts supporter, Culture Shawinigan also works in the areas of heritage, cultural mediation and cultural entertainment. Their team works energetically to provide citizens with quality artistic and cultural programming. Culture Shawinigan is also interested in and has integrated digital arts into several projects.
About Tourisme Shawinigan
As a local destination management organization, Tourisme Shawinigan is actively involved in the economic development of the city through its tourism industry. Tourisme Shawinigan acts in concert with its members and industry stakeholders, and participates in the fields of hospitality, promotion and business support, thus positioning Shawinigan as a tourist destination of choice. From this perspective, digital technologies as development tools naturally integrate with the goals of Tourisme Shawinigan.
About DigiHub
DigiHub Shawinigan is a complete ecosystem for the development of projects in the field of digital entertainment. DigiHub Shawinigan promotes the creativity and sharing of knowledge and expertise in the field of digital development and mobile applications. It is the place where creators, programmers, project managers, students and others meet to work collaboratively on their projects.
About CieAR
CieAR is a Québec City-based developer and producer of customized interactive and immersive content that greatly enhances storytelling through the use of life-size, 3D-animated characters that spring to life in immersive scenes, complete with spatialized audio and user interaction.
Originally published at ciear.ca.
