About
Synopsis
The ghost of a soldier who fell in combat emerges from his memorial tomb 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 global forces and whose destiny is written in the stars... can you reunite them and show them a vision of a world without war?
Concept
FONCE is a narrative-driven fairy tale of love and war, taking classic tropes and subverting expectations with two distinct possible endings, enabling the audience to witness from first-person perspectives the struggle and victory of two distinct protagonists (male and female) and the starlight binding their destiny together. 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 and interactive experience with game elements, with the spectator embodying the characters themselves along their adventures. Learn to fly with fairy wings; dance on ice or paint stars in the sky; patrol an urban battlefield and show courage as a means to reclaim lost love.
The VR experience implements a non-linear narration in the form of flashbacks and two different possible endings. The spectator embarks on an emotional journey in this virtual world of hand-drawn backgrounds, 3D animation, and motion capture, 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 NPC or background interactions. We give the spectator agency, blurring the distinction between viewer and character, set across frozen rivers, memorial cemeteries, wind-swept fields, urban battlespaces and through the heavens. We let the spectator become the storyteller.
Discover a vast and multilayered world, dreamlike visions of a starry night beneath a frozen gorge and solemn cemetery. Flashback to an apocalyptic world cast in black and white, a war-torn city and dangerous battlefield where a faceless enemy lurks, depicted as a red mass. You are more than a spectator. Your behavior transforms the experience through subtle alteration of the narrative, reaching the resolution of the story by different means and depending on personal behavior. The more you explore, the more you trigger interactive sequences. The more thought and personality of the protagonists revealed, the more intense the experience.