La Fura dels Baus revolutionized the scene by creating shows with the public standing where fear and surprise were key factors, things happened and people could move freely. All this is also present in the new project led by Carlüs Padrissa that part of the horror film [REC]by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plazato create a immersive metacinema experience in an old industrial warehouse converted into a cultural and multidisciplinary space, Utopia, 216, located in Cristóbal de Moura, 126in an area of Barcelona undergoing transformation between Diagonal Mar and Sant Martí de Provençals.
Although the place has nothing to do with the modernist estate where it was developed [REC]their characters will be present in this hybrid proposal between cinema and theater. Various actors will recreate fear live and direct, but the public will be key to the show. Their reactions will be recorded and projected on the walls, appearing in different places, mixing with images from the film.
Up to 250 people will be able to attend this new experience from March 3 to 6. [REC].1, this is how this experiment has been baptizedwill force the public to react: run away, jump, scream, turn away or face the unknown. “We have done a lot of research on the mechanisms of fear that makes you weak, easy to dominate and brings out the worst in you,” says Mireia Romero, Padrissa’s right-hand woman. There is a parallel between the film, which takes place in a building in the Eixample where a team of reporters is trapped by an unknown virus, and what happened with covid-19. “We joined the idea of the virus that appears in the film with the current virus that has changed us, limited our freedoms and closed cities and countries”.
flying zombies
In your proposal there will be zombies threatening you and flying through the walls (thanks to a harness) like the one that this Thursday has been seen in action in a small tasting of the show. But better not reveal too much. “I hadn’t seen anything until now and it’s amazing”, Balagueró confessed after attending a small tasting of the [REC].1. “Using the cinema to create an interactive experience that goes further is promising and fascinating,” adds the filmmaker in the editing phase of his new film, also a horror film. Asked about the success of Carla Simón in Berlin, he comments: “The Golden Bear will not translate into great results at the box office. It is the contradiction with which we live.”
“Using cinema to create an interactive experience that goes beyond is promising and exciting”
Jaume Balaguero
Returning to the new format that has brought him to Utopía 126, he considers it interesting to explore new territories, especially with La Fura. Although there are experiments with theatrical horror cinema, none will be the same as that of La Fura, some ‘cracks’ when it comes to interacting with the public and their emotions. The experience of his more than 40 years of experience backs them up. Padrissa explains that in her shows there are three audience profiles: “Those who want to live it to the fullest and want to get into the game always put themselves in front and are almost never afraid. Then there are those who put themselves against the wall and get away from everything and finally, those who stay in the middle and, when they panic, they freeze, they freeze. They tend to stand close to each other, creating a mass like sheep when the wolf comes.”
ensures that it is not necessary to have seen the filmcommon thread of his proposal, to fully experience the [REC].1. “The film is very documentary, it is shot with a mobile camera with the characters very close and many close-ups. It works very well when we project their images on the walls, very enlarged or less, always moving, like everything in this proposal”, he comments Padrissa. “Here the camera will appear when you least expect it.”
“We are in the funniest phase: we still can’t imagine what will happen to live cinema”
Pep Gatell
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The assembly is in the “laboratory” phase, recalls Pep Gatell, another historical member of La Fura, president of the Épica Foundation, a multimedia creation space that connects culture and science. Laboratory means that [REC].1 is still in the running-in phase. “We work with little budget. We do not know if later we will reformulate the experience. We could do something different by joining passages from more than other films to recreate a world that transports us to a snowy mountain, to the jungle or to any other place. The cinema offers immense possibilities”, he points out. It sounds like a metaverse with the difference that they interact in real time with people of flesh and blood, as happens in the theater. “There is much left to do, we do not yet have the finished product but we are in the funniest phase: we still can’t imagine what will happen to live cinema”. But projects and ideas are not lacking. They are already preparing ‘AkelarreLive’, which will be presented in the coming months in the Basque Country.