The Creation of a World
How is an immersive experience created? How do we find the first ideas to bring an entire world to life?
When we decided to stage, at a unique and completely original event, the four universes around which we created a whole range of immersive experiences, a problem quickly arose: how to bring together four radically different universes in a place as modern as a Parisian hotel room? What story could bring American West cowboys chatting with Marie-Antoinette, or justify a conversation between Prohibition gangsters and early 19th-century carnival performers? A unique problem required a unique story.
Our company specializes in historical experiences. Our characters come from different backgrounds and centuries; some are famous, others have remained in the shadows. But one thing unites them: whether it's Marie-Antoinette, a modern woman ahead of her time, or Priscilla Kayes, lion tamer champion of animal rights, all are originals, striking personalities born in eras ill-prepared for their arrival.
So how to explain this modernity, these anachronistic desires? Maybe they had already met? Marie-Antoinette might have derived her fierce desire for independence from an unexpected meeting with Mae West, the irreverent Broadway star. Legs Diamond, a little-known gangster, would benefit from the charm of a Western legend like Wild Bill Hickok.
This implied that an external force, capable of manipulating time, was behind these meetings, and perhaps even these atypical destinies.
This is how we invented “The Originals, Image Fixers,” the first image consulting agency operating outside of time, crossing centuries to discover the strongest potentials and ensure their success.
The very name was born from the conscious desire to create a strong link between our experience and the place where it would be held, an atypical hotel north of Paris, The Originals Maison Montmartre. Our experiences also serve to highlight a brand or place; the “originals” of History would thus ally with the hotel The Originals symbiotically. From a simple place, the hotel thus becomes a part of the story, as valued as our characters.
The immersive relies on the creation of complete and detailed universes. So we established the main documents that any agency worth its name needs: a logo, a brochure describing the services offered, and profiles of their most important clients.
But immersive experiences are also based on the five senses. Dim lights, incense and perfume, background music, we put everything in place to transport our participants into the different eras staged. The icing on the cake? Gourmet bites (financiers, cornbread…) and drinks (tea, whiskey sour…) for the thematic delight of the taste buds!
Finally, we had to create the structure to guide our participants into our world, from their invitation to their exit from the experience. How to make them enter the universe we had just created? By making them themselves become historical characters looking for advice! We therefore let them choose which characters they wanted to embody: Mata Hari, Alexandre Dumas or Scott Fitzgerald. Furthermore, a bracelet given on arrival would allow them to enter the timeless bubble in which the Monthly Meeting organized by our agency took place. Once in the experience, they could discover our most prestigious clients and interact with them; the boldest tried the lasso, while others had their cards read!