MINDSHOW! There is pretty much NOTHING that gets me more excited about virtual reality than Mindshow : which turns an HTC Vive into a performance capture tool, allowing users to create animated stories with digital puppets. It's like having a film FX pre-visualization tool to play with. For years now I've been anticipating Mindshow's release to the public and now, this week, it is finally HERE. You can roll onto Steam right now and get it for free. To celebrate, we've got Mindshow CEO Gil Baron ...
Sep 01, 2017•1 hr 43 min•Season 1Ep. 114
If you're in the amusement industry, Kevin Williams is a name you probably know. Once upon a time he headed up the "DisneyQuest" project in Orlando for the Mouse House, and beyond that he's a consultant on numerous projects, the editorial voice of The Stinger Report and founder of The DNA: Digital Out-of-Home Interactive Entertainment Association . This year he's starting an all new conference focused on the Future of Immersive Leisure . We talked about that, his history in the amusement industr...
Aug 25, 2017•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 113
Oh, do we have a multi-layered episode for you today. First, we turn to Jacob Patterson of Think Tank Gallery, as we drop in on the night of their media preview for their next big show Drinkin', Smokin', West Coastin' . Then we unlock the No Pro time machine (Where do you think all that Patreon money goes to?) to enter the world of Nocturnal Fandango before The Sudden Loneliness Gift disrupted their dreams and plans. That's where we find Jason and Kevin Davidson, the couple at the heart of that ...
Aug 18, 2017•1 hr 19 min
Christian Dieckmann is the Chief Strategy Officer of 3D Live , a technology studio in Los Angeles that specializes in creating "holographic" 3D. Their LED video wall has made appearances at VRLA and other gatherings, showing that there is something magical to letting those of us outside a virtual space see what happens when participants and performers are interacting with virtual worlds. Christian is going to be speaking at the Future of Immersive Leisure conference at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas ...
Aug 11, 2017•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 111
After two years (!!) we're back with Annie Lesser for a conversation on how her work has evolved as she's become a mainstay of LA's immersive theatre scene. Plus: field reports from Noah about Midsummer Scream and a pop-up event for HBO's Big Little Lies that pulled in some of LA's best immersive actors and creators. What a week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 04, 2017•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 110
At this year's San Diego Comic Con the most buzzed about things weren't movies: they were immersive. Pop-up "marketing activations" for Westworld , Blade Runner 2049 , and Mr. Robot drew on the talents and skills of immersive theatre makers and ARG crafters to created the biggest tentpole for immersive this side of Sleep No More . We check in with Daphne Mir and Maxwell Robison who checked out Westworld and Blade Runner 2049 , respectively, to get a connoisseur eye view of these immersive gatewa...
Jul 28, 2017•58 min•Season 1Ep. 109
What can we say about this Open Forum edition? Well: we crack open a can of worms and we go right in. That's what. WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 23, 2017•56 min
Steve Boyle, the CEO of the SF Bay Area's Epic Immersive stops by to talk about their work in immersive theatre and VR... and about their new show The Infernal Motel. Plus: A bit about the Future of Immersive Leisure conference this September in Las Vegas A call for submissions in next weeks OPEN FORUM episode An op-ed from Noah about some of the issues popping up in the SoCal immersive scene All brought to you by our generous Patreon backers. Sustaining Backer: Ross Sigworth Music By: Chris Por...
Jul 14, 2017•1 hr 7 min
Lauren Ludwig of Capital W stops by to take a deep dive into the process behind her latest, the much talked about Red Flags . Which means we dive deep down the acting and process rabbit hole. What does that have to do with Jon Hamm? You'll see. You'll see. Plus: "live events locksmith" Simon Rust Lamb jumps in to answer YOUR questions about getting a new production company off the ground. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 07, 2017•1 hr 14 min
John Bucher of Sideshow Media Group joins us to talk about his upcoming book Storytelling For Virtual Reality , and in the process gets Noah to go way, way off script. (Warning: content advisory.) Plus the creator of the augmented reality/immersive theatre piece Transmission , which will be making its debut at the Edinburgh Fringe stops by. Brought to you by our Patreon backers, including sustaining backer Ross Sigworth. . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 30, 2017•1 hr 24 min
Vinny DePonto is an amazing mentalist based out of New York City who knows a thing or twelve about immersive theatre: he's been working for the past few years with Third Rail Projects on shows like Sweet & Lucky and the recently opened Ghost Light . While on tour in LA, Vinny stopped by NoPro headquarters to talk with Noah about how magic is the original immersive theatre and his own background in working in both magic and immersive. Plus: we get Meiyin Wang, the new Festival Director of the...
Jun 23, 2017•1 hr 13 min
"When in doubt, LARP it out." That, thanks to Andrew Hoepfner is one of our unofficial mottos here at NoPro. So it is with great exuberance that we introduce today's guest: Jason Carl of By Night Studios. By Night Studios are the folks who publish the Mind's Eye Theatre series of LARP games-- live action versions of the classic RPGs Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse . These are among the NoPro crew's formative immersive experiences, and the lines have been going strong and mat...
Jun 16, 2017•1 hr 10 min
This week on the show, the co-director of The Overlook Film Festival--Landon Zakheim--joins host Noah Nelson for a lively discussion. We also check in with Mike and Russell of My Haunt Life to see how the Hollywood Fringe is going. Plus we tease OUR panel at the Hollywood Fringe: The Fringe of the Fringe! This Saturday June 10th at 11AM! For even more news: check out NoProscenium.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 09, 2017•1 hr 18 min
Welcome to the all-new No Proscenium Podcast. The format has changed! But we've still got an amazing guest for you: contemporary artist Simon Birch, the creator of The 14th Factory, which has been turning heads in Los Angeles since it opened. The 14th Factory is three acres of art--much of it immersive--and all of it designed to create a sense of awe and wonder. It's a can't miss spot in LA this summer. Plus we check in with Ricky Brigante of Inside The Magic to talk about an otherworldly attrac...
Jun 02, 2017•57 min
Two years. One hundred episodes. Guiding you through everything immersive. This very special episode of NoPro features the voices of some of our friends--all looking forward to the future of immersive entertainment. (It's also super short, as these things go!) We'll see you back here next week, for the ALL NEW No Proscenium. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 26, 2017•34 min
Our man in NYC -- Zay Amsbury -- and Bryan Bishop (Senior Reporter for The Verge) join master of ceremonies Noah Nelson for a wide-ranging talk about how we talk about this immersive thing of ours. Oh, yeah, it's one of THOSE episodes. The "I-word," ARX vs. ARG, virtual reality and more come up as three dudes try and figure out which part of the elephant they are holding. All part of the lead up to episode One- Zero-Zero. Plus a flash facts version of News & Notes. WARNING: WE CUSS. Hosted o...
May 19, 2017•1 hr 39 min
The proprietors of LA's most deliciously strange haunt--Creep LA--invite you to meet the family: The Willows family, that is. Planned as a year-round production, The Willows is the Creep take on the classic murder mystery dinner. If 'Clue' were staged by The Addams Family and viewed through a disturbed gothic indie horror lens. Naturally, we love it. We dig deep into what makes the show possible and the vision Justin Fix and Daniel Montgomery have for it and their production company on this bloc...
May 12, 2017•1 hr 20 min
The LA immersive renaissance is really heating up, and choreographer Sophia Stoller is bringing some stunning dance chops to the table this month with her piece 'The Other Side,' which uses some infamous experiments in social control as her inspiration. We dive into the inspiration for the show and Stoller's craft... and you get a nice dose of news, notes, and an old fashioned Noah rant after the interview proper. All brought to you by listeners like you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...
May 05, 2017•1 hr 10 min
This is a first: an After Dark episode with someone who isn't on the No Pro team. Here's another first: talking to a member of The Speakeasy Society solo... well, mostly solo. Maybe there are special guests. Maybe not all of the are human. Maybe you'll have to listen to find out what we mean by that. This is one of those lovely philosophical discussions about the form where we really get our hands dirty. And occasionally curse. So grab a drink (but don't drive!) and join us After Dark, won't you...
Apr 28, 2017•1 hr 16 min
Story time: months ago, while driving Interstate 5 in California, I listened to Kent Bye's interview with Jessica Brillhart of Google. In that episode of his " Voices of VR " podcast Kent offered up an "elemental theory of presence," mapping the classical elements onto the different building blocks of immersive experiences. It was like a door opened up in my head. Luckily, I didn't drive off the road. I knew at that moment that I had to have Kent on the show. I knew I had to bring him into our l...
Apr 21, 2017•1 hr 39 min
What can we say about Dasha and Keight, Keight and Dasha? If you're a fan on the LA immersive scene you've probably encountered their work with Annie Lesser ( Getting To Know You , Covell ), or seen Dasha in Delusion or had the most disturbing one-on-one possible with Keight in Lesser's A(partment 8)--which is getting a reprise this year at the Hollywood Fringe and is appearing at the Overlook Film Festival as The Chalet. But that's their resumes. What's it like to, you know, just hang out with ...
Apr 14, 2017•1 hr 23 min
This week Noah is joined by Jon Lawrence Rivera, founder and artistic director of LA's Playwright's Arena to talk about their 25th-anniversary show "The Hotel Play," a site-specific piece that unfolds in a series of hotel rooms at the Radisson by USC. We get into their writing process behind telling a mosaic story with a writer's room of playwrights. (Apologies for the slightly off sound quality. SOMEBODY forgot a cable and we recorded on the laptop... but it sounds better than the pre-Yeti mic ...
Apr 07, 2017•1 hr 4 min
Marissa Nielsen-Pincus, Associate Artistic Director of Third Rail Projects, joins us to talk about the a of immersive performance. Marissa has had a major role in crafting and keeping up Third Rail's most famous shows, and we get into the spirit of the craft and her approach. All that plus the usual News & Notes, brought to you by Patreon backers just like *you*. Note: the News & Notes section is a bit long this time out. Interview starts at 19:39. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy ...
Mar 31, 2017•1 hr 11 min
I first met Ben Hill in 2011, on the eve of the second Hollywood Fringe Festival. We became fast friends. In the years since the Hollywood Fringe has become an important incubator for the immersive arts here in LA. Capital W, Annie Lesser, and Shine On Collective all got their start at the Fringe. This year is poised to be the most important year for immersive at the Fringe yet: for reasons we delve into in the podcast. Join festival co-founder Ben Hill and myself as we take a tour through what ...
Mar 24, 2017•1 hr 20 min
This week: we travel up to the Presidio in San Francisco to talk with Vicki Dobbs Beck, the executive in charge of ILM's xLab. That's the part of Lucasfilm--yes, that Lucasfilm--whose mandate is to explore the immersive frontier. They're working on a whole range of immersive, virtual reality powered projects, and host Noah Nelson talks with Beck about how she views the world of immersive entertainment. Join us as we gaze into the future, and get incredibly excited about how the digital and physi...
Mar 17, 2017•53 min
It's always a big deal when an internationally known theatre company like Rimini Protokoll hits Los Angeles. It's an even bigger deal for our team when they hit LA with an immersive, headphone driven show like Remote X. And it's a really big deal that they're doing it under the auspices of Center Theatre Group, the biggest theatrical producer in LA. So naturally we just nerd out with director Jörg Karrenbauer and talk about process and theory, because No Proscenium is a podcast for theatre nerds...
Mar 10, 2017•46 min
We've wanted David Mack, the strategic director for Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre and a consultant and producer in his own right, on the show for ages. David is a fellow traveler in the LA arts scene and knows more than almost anybody here about what's what. So naturally we start talking about the Big Picture: how the real estate market and the demographics of LA impact and influence the art that is made here. This one works as a solid compass point for producers of *any* kind of performance art h...
Mar 03, 2017•1 hr 21 min
Live from the ThinkTank Studio... well, virtually live anyway: we talk with VR Scout editor-at-large and immersonaut extraordinaire Jesse Damiani about his exploration of Sundance's New Frontier, his development of scripting tools for digital and live immersive experiences, and a whole lot more. PLUS: so many notes you will run out of sticks to shake at them. Including details on our first unofficial Fringe Town Hall: putting two great tastes--the Hollywood Fringe and immersive--together in a fo...
Feb 24, 2017•1 hr 32 min
Jeff Leinenveber and Jarrett Lantz have been around the immersive scene in LA for a minute. The two Imagineers (you know what this is, right?) have worked on Delusion and helped out Third Rail Projects when they popped into town. Now they are turning their theme park sharpened skills on their own immersive work with the newly announced The Nest, coming this April: and we're here to tell you all about it. Well, that and the usual nonsense we get up to. All that plus a massively NEWS focused News ...
Feb 17, 2017•1 hr 49 min
Rubber Ducky Optional! Thrills! Zay-our man in NYC-sits down with Siobhan O'Loughlin, creator of Broken Bone Bathtub, the globe-trotting solo show that takes place in bathtubs. Chills! Noah butchers some names, as usual! News! Notes! Surprises! Stick around for the end credits: there's one! ALL BROUGHT TO YOU BY WONDERFUL PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 10, 2017•56 min
