Synopsis

The ghost of a soldier who fell in combat emerges from his memorial statue in a cemetery. A river fairy, trapped nearby in a frozen gorge, performs her ballet on ice while painting the night sky with stars. Separated from one another by a sheer rock face, their story unfolds in flashback, each yearning to free the other as well as themselves. Caught up in the throes of innocent love, the young soldier is conscripted for war and advances on the front lines of an urban battlefield where he must find courage to face an unrelenting enemy amidst a certain death. And the river fairy, with her melancholic dance and skyward bursts of light; how can she fly with frozen wings? These two souls, separated by war and whose destiny is written in the stars... can you reunite them?

VR Concept

Fonce is a VR immersive experience that applies novel AI-integrated technologies to craft a compelling and original story. It is a narrative-driven fairy tale of love and war, taking classic tropes and subverting expectations, all while enabling the audience to truly know the struggle and victory of two distinct protagonists (male and female). Introducing modern and complex themes in a fantastical setting, our VR film ultimately conveys a universal message of peace, a variant on "happily ever after" and a unique selling point in a world where armed conflict is unfortunately very common. Further setting itself apart from similar projects, Fonce is a sensory experience with game elements, where the spectator embodies the characters themselves along their adventures. These experiences include learning to fly with fairy wings, dancing on ice, painting stars in the sky, patrols on an urban battlefield, and showing courage as a means to reclaim lost love.

Narrative

Fonce implements a non-linear narration in the form of flashbacks and different possible portrayals of a given scene. A fairy tale of love and war, the spectator embarks on an emotional journey in this virtual world of hand-drawn backgrounds and 3D animation, trying to reconnect two protagonists torn apart by conflict. The non-linearity and flashbacks introduce these game-elements for the audience to piece together the way forward, aspects that distinguish it from similar projects in the genre. They actively participate in the story as it unfolds, with artificial intelligence integration tailoring and augmenting the adventure and enabling alternative tellings of the plot. We give the spectator agency, blurring the distinction between viewer and character, across frozen rivers, memorial cemeteries, wind-swept fields, urban battlespaces and through the heavens. We let the spectator become the storyteller.

Lilia Paul

Director, Producer

Lilia Paul is the lead coordinator on Fonce for technical, creative, administrative, and budgetary decisions. The founder and president of CINE-LITTE, Lilia is an author, director, and producer with over a decade of experience in animated film, having worked on over thirty awarding and critically acclaimed animated projects. She is an alumnus of the Sheroes Program (Germany, 2021) and an Envie d'Agir Laureate.

David Houston

Producer, Author, Composer

David is the creator of the Fonce narrative and musical score, and serves as the lead creative consultant for the director on non-animation related topics. David is a published author of two books, three musical albums, and is currently working with CINE-LITTE on two forthcoming animated short films. He is a classically trained guitarist/composer and holds a Master's degree in linguistics.

EunJin Park

Art Director, Art Designer

EunJin develops and oversees the overall visual style of the visual world, characters, and user interface for Fonce. An animation artist and filmmaker based in Cologne, EunJin studied Fine art in Korea and Media arts in Cologne. She works extensively across digital media including installation, film, and 3D projection mapping.

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