A Place for Everyone: A Virtual Climate Reality
Step into the Museum of the Future: 2092, where memories from Nottingham, UK, unveil a world shaped by climate change. By 2050, implanted AI and nanotechnology have captured every experience, chronicling a new dark age. We follow the poignant journey of UK citizens turned refugees, fleeing inhospitable coasts, only to face the harsh realities of displacement and societal breakdown. As the refugees seek refuge, they encounter power struggles, survival tactics, and a shocking revelation that challenges their very humanity. A Place for Everyone is not just a VR film; it’s an adaptive exploration of a possible future where themes of climate, survival, and morality intertwine, leaving viewers with a haunting reflection on the fragility of our shared existence. The immersive experience goes beyond conventional storytelling, filmed using volumetric capture and using real-time brain data to dynamically adapt the VR experience, ensuring each viewer engages with a unique exploration of our current trajectory.
Directors statement
The inception of “A Place for Everyone” stemmed from one simple question: Can a horror experience catalyze agency for climate change? Our aim was to immerse audiences in the visceral realities of climate-induced displacement, envisioning the harrowing consequences when swathes of our country become uninhabitable. Crucially, we sought to challenge the pervasive “othering” of refugees by portraying them as British.
Our creative journey began with grassroots conversations in Nottingham’s libraries, where producer Rachel and I engaged the public with generative AI images of climate futures. These dialogues, alongside insights gleaned from discussions with climate scientists at The University of Nottingham, laid the groundwork for our narrative.
We shot the film in volumetric video, between 3 and 6 cameras, which allowed us to work with real actors, and place them in virtual environments. There being no rulebook as to how to film with VolCap we adapted techniques from traditional filmmaking and shot on a soundstage at the Virtual and Immersive Production Studio in the old Carlton Studios in Nottingham.
About the Team:
Richard Ramchurn Director
Richard currently lives in Nottingham with his family where he developed his second brain controlled film “The MOMENT”. Founder of creative agency AlbinoMosquito, Richard has made and shown work on the BBC, TATE Modern, The Lowry, CONTACT, RNCM, The Royal Exchange, The Roundhouse, Grand Theatre Groningen, BRIC Brooklyn and in Sulimani Iraq, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. He is a practicing artist working across the mediums of theatre, film and digital technologies.
Callum Berger VR Developer
Callum is a postgraduate researcher at the HORIZON Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Nottingham. His previous research has looked into applications of machine learning in turn-based games and the effect of fear on heart rate within fear-based virtual reality experiences. He is currently working on the personalisation of virtual reality horror experiences using physiological data at the University of Nottingham.
Rachel Ramchurn Producer
As a freelance producer Rachel’s work has ranged from short film, music videos and animation to large scale community and interactive projects. She has worked with AlbinoMosquito for many years, most recently producing brain controlled movie ‘The MOMENT’ and adaptive experience ‘Before We Disappear.
Mat Johns Script writer/DOP/Lighting
Mat studied Film and Television at Salford University in the UK, and for the past ten years has been writing, directing, shooting and editing short films both on a freelance and independent basis.
‘A Father’s Day’, selected for over 160 film festivals, this multi award-winning zombie short film is Mat’s most ambitious project to date and was made with the support of Creative England’s iShorts, a short film initiative delivered as part of the BFI NET.WORK, and has been viewed 4 million times online.
Scrubber Fox Sound Recordist
Gary Naylor aka Scrubber Fox started performing as a musician in school 1995 in a Brass band and began composing his own music on an Atari ST in 1997. He is now a multi talented AV artist who builds his own circuit audio visual instruments, runs workshops with a diverse range of participants, and performs to large and small audiences across the UK. He has delivered workshops in Helsingor, Denmark, Edinburgh University, Leigh Turnpike gallery, Urbis, prisons, libraries as well as speaking at schools and colleges about his work. Since 2015 he has been creating AV installations using circuit bent vintage games consoles and video mapping. Scrubber Fox is a regularly supports Venetian Snares since 2012 and has also supported 65 days of Static. He has performed at Sines and Squares Festival in Manchester and in London at Bangface, Ginglick.
Sumit Sarkar Asset Design
Sumit is a visual artist based between Manchester and London UK, whose artwork takes the form of digital and analogue paintings and sculpture, animation and work inspired by graffiti. The content of his work ranges from the fantastical characters of Sumit’s KrikSix world, to his modern interpretation of the Hindu gods, Ananta, through to his sculptural graffiti work, Kerst.
Sumit also works as an AV director, animator, illustrator and workshop leader, and is involved in various live art events around the UK, from aerosol art and drawing battles to live digital painting and sculpture.
Tom Harris – Sound Recordist
Ben Szymanski – Production Assistant
Laurie Lloyd-Jones – Vol Cap Technitian
Yousuf Patel – BTS film
Sarah Bowler – Costume
Theanne Mitchell – Costume
Doug West – Props
Cast:
Jessica Milford – Sophia
Lisa A – Lana
Max Martinadale – Baby IO
Leif Ramchurn – Oliver
Stella Lock – Mary
Jonathan Cleaver – Dad
Deanna Malbon – Demi
Ali Gadema – Henry
Barry Smith – Allister
Simon Bates – Simon / Worker 1
Alison Martin – Cleo
Emma Pallett – Teresa
Laurence James – Daniel
Tashsaka Baumber – Nihiri
Tammy Heath – Liz
Ryan Thompson – Dominic
Doug West – Worker 2/Armed Guard 2
