Project Orpheus is a collaborative effort between WeMakeVR and the creative interdisciplinary studio MediaLAB to address the question: How can you give someone sitting on a couch at home the feeling that they are inside a TV show? The script is based on a Dutch TV series about five medical students that are invited to work with a renowned physician, only to find out his experiments are a lot more sinister than they initially believed. The VR experience is the result of planning, writing, shooting, stitching, and editing, all done with the aforementioned question in mind.

The VR experience gives viewers an impression of the TV show’s eerie atmosphere and lets them experience the show from the perspective of a test subject. By starting out in an operation room and almost instantly falling into a comatose state, the uncanny feeling of the experience is conveyed to the viewer in the first moments. Additionally, the use of spatial audio guides the viewers’ attention throughout the film and creates a greater sense of immersion.

The experience was distributed via a custom-built app for AVROTROS and was premiered at the VondelCS in Amsterdam. The experience can be viewed on YouTube, Vimeo and the VR content platform LittlStar and the app is available for Android and iOS.