DEJA VU:
An Endless Virtual Journey
An interactive VR film presenting an endless story across three timelines — Laval Virtual 2022 · ICIDS 2023 Kobe
Overview
An Endless Story Across Three Timelines
Deja Vu is an interactive VR film that presents an endless story across three timelines of a single event, where past, present, and future intertwine to change a painful memory of past reality with a happy ending in present virtual reality — but, is it possible?
Officially selected for Laval Virtual 2022, it represents a new method of interactive storytelling for the virtual reality medium, introduced at the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS) 2023 in Kobe, Japan.
Narrative
The Story
The story concentrates upon an Architect. He is annoyed by a memory of rejection by the character Liz, a former love. So, he decides to create a loop in time to change the events as he wishes. He redesigns the place where he met Liz to express his love again.
He, the Architect, creates three different timelines of that fateful day, each centred in one of the parallel universes. In one, the young Architect, Tom, is waiting for Liz in order to express his feelings and suffer the rejection again. In another, the Architect explains to Liz how she had previously rejected him, which in effect caused him to design this virtual reality. In the final universe, the Architect and Liz are a happy couple visiting the art gallery.
Later, the Architect experiences a Déjà Vu and realises that there is a glitch in the matrix he has designed. The audience recognises that the intervention of the virtual system caused Liz to reject the proposal in the first instance. It reveals an interaction between the current virtual reality system and real events from the past.
Credits
Creators Behind Deja Vu
Our diverse team blends storytelling, technology, and innovation to bring immersive VR experiences to life.
Director & VR Storyteller
Mohammadreza Mazarei
Lead Developer
Tom Wine
Actor
Laleh Alipour
The Minds Behind Deja Vu
Actor
Pezhman Azizi
Mocap Supervisor
Samuel Chu
Animation Artist
Todd R Flitton
Music
Erikmusic
Sound Design
Tiggi McCarthy
Sound Design
Barnabas Olga
Project Supervisor
Dr Melanie Lee
Unreal Engine Packaging
Jon
Academic Impact
Research Publications
Story-Without-End: A Narrative Structure for Open-World Cinematic VR
ICIDS Conference — Kobe, Japan
Story Without End: Interactive Storytelling for Virtual Reality Medium
Media & Performance Research Symposium — Staffordshire University, UK
The Generic Elements of Interactive Cinematic Virtual Reality (ICVR)
Beyond Conference — Belfast, Northern Ireland
Interested in collaborating?
We are always open to creative partnerships, academic collaborations, and festival screenings.
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