Venice Immersive competition

Nana Lou

Nana Lou is one of the three projects, coproduced by France Télévisions' StoryLab, to have been selected for the Venice Immersive competition

Nana Lou is a VR interactive animated short film inviting the viewer to play a spirit accompanying a grandmother during her last moments, a fantastic journey through the Tree of life between the present at the hospital and colorful memories.

Synopsis

Immersed in the world of the spirits of the ancestresses, you are appointed, with two other guides, to accompany Nana Lou on her last journey. 

On the day her granddaughter Clementine gives birth in a maternity hospital in Tokyo, Nana Lou has a stroke at home in France. She finds herself at the hospital, stranded between life and death... By your luminous presence at her side, you help her revisit her memories and pass away in peace.

Nana Lou is a VR interactive animated short film inviting the viewer to play a spirit accompanying a grandmother during her last moments. By your luminous presence at her side, you will comfort the main character as she faces medical ordeals and help her revisit her memories to make her last journey a wonderful story.

Mamie Lou

Illuminate Nana Lou's last journey

Inspired by the pioneering work of physician Elisabeth Kübler Ross on end-of-life care, the experience invites the viewer to engage using their gaze and hands. Their luminous presence warms the room, catching Nana Lou's attention, and their hands provide comfort, sparking her joyful memories. She responds with a glance or a gesture, and an object from her past materializes, floating as a projection of her memory. By delving into Nana Lou's memories, the viewer slowly lights up the past, reliving a scene in the intimacy of the character.

However, untangling Nana Lou's memories isn't easy: with every medical intervention she receives, the viewer is thrust back into the Tree of Life, navigating its branches to return to Granny Lou's room. The transformation of the Tree of Life symbolizes her condition, with each new sequence representing a stage in her illness's advancement.

A fantastic, emotional, and sensory journey through three unique worlds

This experience is unique due to the multiple perspectives offered and the interactive relationship between the user and the character.

In the Tree of Life, the user floats in the mist above a suffering plant world. He’s guided by spirits towards different miniature rooms, where they can see Nana Lou and other characters by her side. Then he steps into these rooms, which is expanded to human scale, where he takes on a physical presence alongside Nana Lou. Finally, when a piece of a memory appears, the user dives into Nana Lou's memory, adopting her viewpoint.

Each state is located in settings with distinct worlds. The Tree of Life, a gigantic plant on an immeasurable scale, represents a fantastical world, an ecosystem of luminescent plants fed by a luminescent sap and the home of sparkling spirits. In contrast, Nana Lou's clinical room is cold and realistic, its simplicity offering calm to accommodate the viewer's warmth. Lastly, Nana Lou's depict personal spaces, invaded by plants, hybrid vegetation, and ordinary objects that occasionally start to float and come to life.

Isabelle AndreaniIsabelle Andreani - Director

An author and director of fiction, especially in immersive technologies. Her career took off with the birth of the internet and digital technology.

Isabelle, having honed her skills as an engineer and researcher in physics and later acquiring a master's degree in new technology management, initially created web applications in the nuclear sector. This was followed by a stint in marketing for home automation. Her entrepreneurial drive led her to create a startup, an online art school, and a freelance consultancy focusing on the production of editorial content.

For the past twenty years, she has been innovating in interactive content and digital experiences. Isabelle is an influential member of the XN commissions of CNC and Pictanovo and imparts her expertise by instructing new narratives at the collegiate level.

ID de la video FTV Preview

Director and screenwriter: Isabelle Andreani

Original music: Cyrille Marchesseau

Visual development: Romane Poch and Ghislain Pariset

Producers: Small Creative, Skill Lab, France Télévisions

The StoryLab

The StoryLab is France Télévisions' label for immersive content and innovative storytelling. Exploring the field of possibilities offered by XR technologies, the StoryLab shifts the boundaries of storytelling and experiences for the public. Using various genres and formats (documentary, animation, fiction...), always interactive and immersive, the StoryLab coproductions speak to issues that shape our society by offering new perspectives. Regularly awarded, the coproduction can be found on francetvlab.fr.

Hélène Marteau
Contact - France Télévisions
Clara Luc
Contact - France Télévisions