"We brushed it more than 100 times and became 'shareholders'. "In the past year, a girl has come to the immersive sci-fi experience theater of "Three-Body Problem: Beyond Gravity" on the 7th floor of Fengchao AI PLAZA on the west bank of Xuhui every three days on average. The girl told reporters.
This immersive sci-fi experience theater, known as "Three-Body Problem: Beyond Gravity", is officially authorized by the three-body universe, the copyright owner of "Three-Body Problem", and is based on Liu Cixin's sci-fi masterpiece "Three-Body Problem III: Death Eternal".
The whole experience integrates immersive performance, VR virtual reality, AR augmented reality, artificial intelligence and other interactive digital arts, the audience will be incarnated as the crew of the "Gravity", take the space elevator, board the spaceship and Captain Movovich to pursue the "Blue Space", and Guan Yifan to explore the mysteries of the universe, experience the darkest moment of the water droplet attack, choose the launch of gravitational waves, decide the fate of the solar system, open ending, and witness the starship civilization pull anchor and set sail in the dark forest.
In the past year, "The Three-Body Problem: Beyond Gravity" has been performed more than 400 times and received about 30,000 spectators. The ticket price of the experience is more than 400 yuan, and from the perspective of frequency and cost, the female user who has swiped more than 100 times is worthy of being a "shareholder".
"In the past year, we have received a lot of feedback from users, such as: why don't you let me go into the hibernation pod, why can't I change the group, why did I suddenly dance?", said Zhang Yushu, the chief screenwriter of "The Three-Body Problem: Beyond Gravity", also based on user feedback, the theater will upgrade the choreography, and the 2.0 version of the experience and performance iteration will be officially launched in May.
With the rapid development of technology and the increasing demand for cultural experience, immersive entertainment has gradually become the new favorite of the cultural industry. According to the statistics of professional institutions, the market size of China's script killing industry in 2019 was twice that of 2018, and by 2022, "immersion" has become the mainstream offline entertainment method for a new generation of consumers, with nearly 10 million consumers and a market size of 10 billion yuan.
A 120,000-word script that breaks through from 0 to 1
When the chief screenwriter Zhang Yushu joined the project team in 2021, he went to all over the country to experience more than 50 immersive projects, including Disney, Asia Building, etc., as well as script killing, secret rooms, etc., and spent a lot of money on the experience alone.
"When I decided to join this three-body project team, I made a lot of mental preparation. Zhang Yushu said that some friends around him acted in the stage plays of "Three-Body Problem I: Once Upon a Time on Earth" and "Three-Body Problem II: Dark Forest", "It is actually not easy to do a good job in this project, and it is likely to cause a bad reputation." ”
In one photo, Zhang Yushu is lying on the ground, with a 120,000-word script spread all over the ground. This is based on "Three-Body Problem III: Death Eternal", and after a lot of discussion by the team, there is a 120,000-word script. "Because the plot is multi-lined, just like a game, when we wrote the script, we made an outline, the horizontal axis is space, the vertical axis is time, and finally there are more than 100 grids. ”
For example, "Hamlet" is the longest of all Shakespeare's plays, and the script translated by Zhu Zhenghao is about 80,000 words, "Waiting for Godot" is about 40,000 words, and some local works, such as "Thunderstorm", are about 80,000 words. It can be seen that the 120,000-word script is actually quite long. Zhang He, the creative producer of "Three-Body Problem: Beyond Gravity", said.
"When I first came in, it was a big construction site. Zhang Huanzhang, the core actor & executive director, said that many actors rehearsed while watching the construction of the venue.
The entire project is wholly owned by SenseTime and will finally be officially opened to the public on April 26, 2023.
Not only three-body fans, but also drama fans
"Judging from the flow of people in the past year, we found that the audience is roughly divided into three categories: one is the three-body problem fans, who have read the book of "The Three-Body Problem" and even experienced the content of various IPs developed; the second type is drama fans, these people care more about the immersion in the experience, the professionalism of the actors, etc., this group of people is also a frequent visitor to many stage plays, musicals, and drama scenes; Qian Xinyuan, the marketing director of SenseTime's science and technology cultural industry innovation "Science Fiction Planet", told reporters.
There were many theater fans who came to the scene to interact with the main creative team that day, "I have watched "Sleepless Night" many times, and I will also watch some plays and musicals on Broadway, their performances are relatively more accurate, "Three-Body Problem: Beyond Gravity" I have also brushed many times, and it is more interactive, I like this more." A "shareholder-level" boy told reporters.
Dianping and user reviews on the Damai platform can also see the characteristics of some users, such as some users said: "The original novel of the Three-Body Problem is quite good, and there have been many derivative film and television works in recent years, but is it the first time I have seen the form of immersive drama!
There are some users who are not satisfied, such as the experience of the live installation, the acting skills and dedication of the actors, the fullness of the plot, etc. "Looking at the comments on Dianping, we sometimes have a feeling of self-esteem. We also hold regular meetings to make some improvements based on some comments on user comments. Chief screenwriter Zhang Yushu said.
For the 2.0 version of "The Three-Body Problem: Beyond Gravity", which will be launched in May, why has the number of actors been reduced from 16 to 12? How many old actors can continue to perform? How to create and arrange the humanistic thinking in the original book into the new version?...... These have become topics of concern for experiencers.
From interaction to performance, improve precision
At the meeting between the main creative team and users, under the guidance of rehearsal directors Zhu Sujie and Chen Furong, the audience came to an interaction of "I'm glad to meet you".
"The audience went to the theater for two hours, and this time was very precious. As the main creators, we hope that every minute of the audience's on-site experience is a concise and accurate performance. Rehearsal director Zhu Sujie said that in the immersive experience, each actor is like a flower, there is no front or back, even if the actor is walking in the theater, his back should tell the same story, the same as the front.
"There's a whole theater with all kinds of spaces, all the sizes, sizes, and styles that they're all about, and for the actors, they need to be flexible with all the different spaces. Zhu Sujie said.
It is understood that in the early recruitment of actors in version 2.0 of "The Three-Body Problem: Beyond Gravity", more than 300 resumes were received, plus twenty or thirty old actors, and the main creative staff had to select a new round of roles among about 350 people to play different roles.
In early May, in version 2.0 of "The Three-Body Problem: Beyond Gravity", the performance part will be more intensified, and the improvisational interaction part will be relatively weakened, "Judging from the situation of some influential immersive theaters or musicals, it is a trend from interaction to performance. A heavy fan at the scene said this.