In a stunt promoting Hulu’s July 26 launch of “Light as a Feather” season 2, Viacom’s Awesomeness will let fans virtually enter the world of the paranormal teen thriller — and interact with avatars of the show’s cast.
Debuting at VidCon US 2019 next week (July 10-13), the “Light as a Feather” mixed-reality experiences use Magic Leap’s spatial-computing headset. They were created by Awesomeness together with Magic Leap and the ViacomXR lab, which focuses on developing AR and VR content across the media conglomerate’s divisions. According to the companies, the two “Light as a Feather” activations are the first volumetric, extended-reality narrative experiences based on a TV show or film produced for the Magic Leap platform.
Of course, outside of VidCon (which is owned by Viacom), access to the “Light as a Feather” XR experiences will be limited: They require the $2,300 Magic Leap One headset, which is designed for developers. Magic Leap, which has raised a staggering $2.6 billion to date, has yet to introduce an affordable consumer version of its mixed-reality system.
In the Hulu show, a seemingly innocuous game of “light as a feather, stiff as a board” spirals into horror when the girls who played it start dying off in exactly the ways that were predicted. The “Light as a Feather” mixed-reality activations will put fans at the center of the story to join the cast of the Hulu series — including Haley Ramm, Liana Liberato, Brianne Tju, Brent Rivera and Alex Wassabi — as they work together to put an end to the curse.
In the first “Light as a Feather” XR experience at VidCon, attendees will be invited to lie down in the center of a physical booth and then will be virtually levitated by the chanting avatars of Violet (Ramm), McKenna (Liberato), Alex (Tju) and Isaac (Rivera). At the end of the experience, fans will receive a video of themselves acting out a scene with the cast that they will be able to share on social media.
The second experience is more like a game: Fans will experience digital objects, interacting with the world around them using the Magic Leap headset. The game begins as McKenna invites the user to help break the curse of “Light as a Feather”; she guides participants to find objects in a virtual recreation of Violet’s bedroom that will trigger scares and unlock secrets. As the game continues, more characters appear to help provide clues.
Season 2 of “Light as a Feather” premieres on Hulu on July 26. The companies plan a second mixed-reality activation for the series slated for October, timed to the launch of the final eight episodes of season 2. The show is produced by Awesomeness, Wattpad and Grammnet Productions.
“This partnership with the ViacomXR team and Magic Leap allows us to be at the cutting edge of where technology meets storytelling,” said Nikki Scoggins, VP of marketing for Awesomeness.
The “Light as a Feather” XR project showcases how spatial computing enables new forms of storytelling, according to Daniel Diez, Magic Leap’s chief marketing and communications officer: “This foray into spatial adaptation of a popular entertainment property, offering fans an entirely new way to engage with the characters and stories they love, is a rich and compelling example of just that.”