Video
Description
XR Interactive Film
Virtual Death Experiences / Amusing Ourselves to Death / Techno - Ecological Ethics
The Last Play is an XR interactive film that constructs a virtual death experience within a future entertainment metaverse, where death has become a designed commodity. The project immerses participants in a private brain-machine interface, tasking them with exploring a designer's legacy and confronting a critical choice regarding mortality and ethics. As a multi-sensory interactive experiment, it fuses cinematic narrative with mixed reality through motion tracking, environmental audio generation, embodied gesture recognition and filmic spatial composition, ultimately questioning whether the endless repetition of virtual death erodes our reverence for life itself.
XR Film Visual
PANIC: Yes / No
Panic does not arise from the mere fear of danger, but from the realization of its inevitability ---- the feeling of being defenselessly exposed to it, with no possibility of escape or control.
VR in Serious Context
VR Reconstruction of Crime Scene (2023 Florida, USA)
In Florida, USA, a judge for the first time used VR in the courtroom to experience the defendant’s perspective at a wedding in March 2023. The defendant was charged with aggravated assault for allegedly waving a gun at guests during the event, but he claimed it was an act of self-defense. To support his argument, he commissioned an artist to reconstruct the scene using virtual reality, allowing the judge to immerse themselves in his situation and assess the validity of the self-defense claim.
VR: Seriousness VS Entertainment
Research of Death Experience
We conducted research to gather various forms of death that people wished to experience. We hope to utilize the most unique traits of VR--immersive and sensory impact, so we ultimately selected these three extreme sports as representations of death.
Mixed-Reality Film Theory
360° Frameless Camera
Traditional films rely on shot composition, while MR film requires consideration of how the audience perceives from all angles.
Physical Space
Agency & Perspective
Interactive Narrative Models
Janet Murray proposes four interactive narrative models in his book: Hamlet on the Holodeck:
Concept
“MR X VR” Dual Narrative Structure
The film adopts a dual narrative structure of MR X VR, where the player gradually explores the storyline through physical space and virtual world.
Emotion Curve
Narrative Elements
Screenplay
Scene Design
Desert Flying
Ocean Diving
Volcano Climbing
Physical Space
Inspiration
Construction
We constructed a physical space to symbolize Matt’s brain-machine space, using the red light as a metaphor for “death”.
Technique
XR Embodied Code: XR Rig
MR Passthrough
Shader: Dynamic Radial Masks
Player Test
By Chenfei Liu
Contact: +86 17310140714
Email: liuchf2022@shanghaitech.edu.cn