“It’s a mirror effect of how the person feels at that moment,” explains the director of the feature film V F CCharles-Stéphane Roy. “The sound adapts according to the cognitive reactions of the spectators.”
V F Cpresented by the distributor H264, has still not crossed the borders of the metropolis. Presented at the Cinémathèque québécoise in August 2024, the feature film will be screened in Sherbrooke at the Maison du cinéma on Saturday, November 2. A “revolutionary concept”, according to the establishment.
It is even a very first attempt at adaptive cinema.
The Quebec film immerses the viewer in a whole new cinematographic immersion, beyond the 3D experience. “Each person does not experience the same thing at the same time,” explains the director from Sherbrooke.
For 99 minutes, two sound sources accompany the visual projected on the big screen. A first source is ambient like a standard soundtrack. A second source, however, is personalized. It emanates from an EEG headset and a bone conduction headset worn by spectators.
“We analyze the concentration and engagement of the viewer during certain moments of the film,” continues Charles-Stéphane Roy. We send them a soundtrack that reflects their cognitive state of mind.”
More than 3,000 sound variations are possible from the bank of sounds pre-recorded by production, he says. Simultaneously, nearly 50 spectators experience a different journey in the same room.
The SCINTILLA studio composed a range of soundtracks “in opposition” to each other to accompany the scenes shot. “Stressful”, “soothing”, “harmonious” and “dissonant” sounds enhance the audience’s experience according to their emotions, notes Charles-Stéphane Roy.
Elisapie in the main role
The experience V F C is the first feature film from the director who has been immersed in a musical universe since his childhood. In Sherbrooke, Charles-Stéphane Roy completed his high school studies in the music program at Mitchell-Montcalm school. At the time, he was also a musician in the Youth Symphony Orchestra.
He later produced the feature film Arsenault & Filsdirected by Quebecer Rafaël Ouellet, as well as The Hungryawarded at the Toronto International Film Festival.
On the occasion of the filming of V F Cthe screenwriter and director surrounded himself with several artists, notably the singer-songwriter Elisapie, who plays the main character, and the experimental musician Philippe Lambert. The production also stars actors Étienne Lou, Justin Laramée, Matthew Kabwe and Ambica Sharma.
Artists and neuroscience researchers Yann Harel and Antoine Bellemare Pépin also collaborated on the production. It was also a first cinematographic project for the majority of the technical team.
“It allowed us to approach it in a less traditional way. It’s a lot of challenge, but with super creative people,” says the director who has been developing the project for around ten years.
The scenario of V F C immerses the public in the anguish of a neuroscience researcher suffering from Stendhal syndrome, a disorder which causes a psychosomatic state in the witness after exposure to a work of art which is revealing to them. In Charles-Stéphane Roy’s film, a musical composition invades the mind of the character who must therefore isolate himself.
The screenwriter preferred to limit the dialogues for the benefit of the soundtracks. “It wasn’t written in a very rigid way because we didn’t know how we were going to use techno afterwards,” he says.
The science of music
Charles-Stéphane Roy was interested in the impact of sounds on human brain activities. He then embarked on several scientific readings in addition to voluntarily participating in research centers.
“Over time, sound wins,” the artist realized. This is why he took on the challenge of producing a film which allows the analysis of the attention of an audience in front of a given visual.
“The image is like an anchor point […] The music means that you are not going to record the image in the same way,” he explains.
This one-off event is an opportunity for less movie buffs to enjoy the big screen, notes the co-owner of the Maison du Cinéma, Alexandre Hurtubise. The experimental and scientific aspect broadens the spectrum of the target audience, according to him.
The future of cinema?
Distributor H264’s proposition makes it possible to personalize the traditional cinema experience. In addition to the soundtrack generated based on the listener’s brain activity, a report is given to each participant.
Scientific data, recorded in a web application, reveals the scenes and characters that most captured the viewer’s attention, explains Charles-Stéphane Roy.
“Everyone sees the same thing, but since the sound applied to the stage is not the same, your understanding of the scene is not the same,” he reiterates. Everyone then decodes their final.
“I don’t believe that all films will be adjusted according to our cognitive state. “It’s not to say that it’s the future of cinema, but it’s another approach,” says Alexandre Hurtubise, whose experience V F C is still unknown to him.
The SCINTILLA creative studio built this project for a seated audience in a theater, but the director of V F C believes the technology could eventually be used in other ways. The production aims to tour Quebec, one room at a time due to the equipment required.
The movie V F C is screened at the Maison du cinéma on Saturday November 2 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
