VR project from Hamburg at Venice Immersive

"You're somewhere where you shouldn't actually be. A somewhat 'Lynchian' atmosphere," answers Martin Prinoth when asked how "Below Deck" feels for people under VR glasses. An experience in which the audience opens up the space bit by bit and immerses itself in the reality of life and work on the high seas. Instead of sitting, you move around with your VR glasses, listen to stories from the Filipino crew and become an invisible guest at a crew event below deck. The voice of a narrator hovers over everything. "We realised very quickly that we wanted to realise the project in VR. This is the only way to fully immerse the audience in our story. A hybrid of documentary and fictional form," adds Martina Mahlknecht. An elaborate endeavour whose beginnings date back to 2020.

Prinoth and Mahlknecht, who realise their projects under the name "TÒSU Film", already wanted to take a closer look at the luxury cruise sector during the pandemic year. "Upper deck and lower deck. You see the global system as if under a magnifying glass. That's what attracted us to the topic," reveals Martina Mahlknecht. But when the world came to a standstill during corona, it was impossible to find a ship's crew and get into dialogue with people. However, another possibility opened up: "During our research, we met people from the Pacific state of Kiribati who were stranded in Hamburg with their container ships. They were unable to return home due to the current coronavirus regulations and were being looked after by the Seamen's Mission - they were stuck in Hamburg for around two years," says Mahlknecht. The two filmmakers made contact with the seafarers - and the XR installation "Overseas" was created.  

Following the project, in which the audience listens to the sailors talking in a flooded pool, Prinoth and Mahlknecht once again focussed on the topic of "luxury shipping". As around a third of all cabin crew worldwide are recruited in the Philippines, the duo wanted to start here: "We knew that there is a large Filipino community in Hamburg. However, it wasn't easy to find young people, as it's much harder to get off the deck in a foreign country today than it was back then. At some point, we met Manolet Castillo in Hamburg, who had worked below deck on cruise ships for twelve years. A real stroke of luck for us. Through him, we then found four more Filipino crew members for our project," says Prinoth. The conversations with the crew about dreams, fears, work and exploitation served as the basis for the script for "Below Deck".  In the VR experience, the crew members play themselves.

Martin Prinoth has a background in Documentary, Martina Mahlknecht in Stage Design. So where did their knowledge of the complex field of virtual reality, mixed reality and extended reality come from? Last year, the duo presented their project at the Venice Gap Financing Market as part of the Venice Film Festival and took part in the two-week Biennale College Cinema VR. The event provided a wealth of expertise on the latest technology and the best ways to realise it. "We made a lot of contacts here and built up a network, which was incredibly important for us. And we also got a very good overview of the technology," says Prinoth. In the end, the decision was made in favour of Meta Quest 3 glasses, which eliminate the need for an additional connected computer. "It's crazy how much the real and virtual worlds have merged in the meantime. Compared to Meta Quest 2, there has been another quantum leap. The cameras, the scanning, the sound - everything has improved significantly," adds Prinoth. Financial support was provided by the Wim Wenders Scholarship from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and the MOIN Film Fund.