She is there, near us, sitting on the bus.
She doesn't yet know that a white woman is going to demand that she give up her place.
We see her waiting, unfolding her skirt.
In a few moments, the police will ask him to get out of the bus.
She will refuse.
The judge will want her to admit to having behaved badly.
She will refuse.
We watch all these scenes standing, helmets on our heads, like around ten other spectators.
The three-dimensional characters walk around us, disappear, reappear a little further away.
To discover
TV tonight: our selection of the day
It is a forgotten episode of American racial segregation that resurrects
Noire
, this documentary experience by Stéphane Foenkinos and Pierre-Alain Giraud, shown last week at the Fipadoc Festival in Biarritz.
Taken from a book by Tania de Montaigne,
Noire
traces the story of this teenager who, in 1955, was perhaps the first to refuse to give up her place to a white person.
A gesture that Rosa Parks would repeat a few months later and which would trigger the fight for civil rights in the United States.
Also read: Portrait of Giroud, shocking film on Ukraine, investigation in nursing homes... What documentaries on TV this year?
A “physical” experience
It took 48 cameras to produce this augmented reality experience in Taiwan.
To film the actors from every angle, before digitizing their actions in 3D.
As a result, the characters become visible regardless of the point of view of the audience in the room.
They move naturally, following a simple and effective narrative thread.
The settings, which one imagines would be difficult to reconstruct, show a little less plausibility.
Which did not prevent a septuagenarian from trying during the session to catch objects that only appeared in his helmet.
A funny Tantalus.
Noire
makes an impression.
Andrés Jarach, who heads the Immersive department at Fipadoc, explains the sensations felt:
“We are not simply spectators.
The experience becomes physical.
And the memory that we keep within us is close to an emotion experienced.”
This production perhaps embodies what is best in this booming field.
“Technology is evolving rapidly and the genre is reaching a certain maturity, with care taken in the writing
,” observes Andrés Jarach, himself a director.
No more computers to carry on your back or Daft Punk-style helmets to put on.
Noire
is also part of a more viable economic model for producers.
Because the experience is collective.
Solitary experiences, much more numerous and less complex to create, can also seem less friendly in comparison.
Born at the Center Pompidou,
Noire
was able to travel and meet new audiences.
But these immersions will always encounter a delicacy: you must agree to wear a helmet and move your head to scrutinize invisible objects... A rather enjoyable spectacle for external observers.
Another success shown at Fipadoc,
Gaudi, the divine workshop
.
This is not augmented reality - digital elements integrated into a real space as in
Noire
- but purely virtual reality.
The characters and settings are made by video game software.
Spectators find themselves immersed in the workshop of the Barcelona genius.
Then in a forest.
Then in the choir of the Sagrada Familia.
The voice-over repeats lines written here and there by Antoni Gaudi.
A remarkable immersion from a French studio.
Will we one day see 3D experiences in schools, to serve as introductions to learning?
Also read: A virtual reality headset to combat astronaut “blues”
But all this, in terms of sensations, is almost nothing compared to some 360° films.
Very real views shot by a suitable camera, without limits imposed by framing.
No blind spots.
Once the helmet is put on, all you have to do is turn your head to discover the reality around us.
This allows, for example, to visit the International Space Station.
Last year, Fipadoc showed
Space Explorers: The ISS Experience
, produced by a Quebec studio.
After a walk around the station with the astronauts, the blue planet was revealed beneath our feet 400 kilometers below.
Magnificent and dizzying.