Immersivity with all details in mind
The cast consisted of leading Finnish actors and actresses including the award-winning actor Santtu Karvonen. The acts were built in a way that there was always a professional actor accompanied by a professional game designer to ensure the smooth experience of the immersive adventure.
The show also featured a live jazz band and a live techno set by Samuli Kivelä, contemporary circus elements created by Recover Laboratory, which consisted of interactive encounters with live music by Onni Boi, performing arts and contortionists.
As the story was a modern Scandinavian take on the film that inspired it, the costume design demanded for stylish high-quality solutions and the cast was dressed in Finnish designs created by Aarikka, Anni Ruuth, Frenn Company, Ivalo and Eväkäs.
One team was led by one of Finland’s hottest artists, Riku Nieminen, while the captain of the other team was a well-known escape game enthusiast and writer Katleena Kortesuo.
More than 3000 people applied to join their teams, but only 8 people were chosen by Agnes and her team. The selected players ranged from pensioners to NASA engineers and everything in between.
ESCAPE TRAIN- a 13-hour long immersive theatre on a speeding train
In 2017 Ágnes Kaszás with her company InsideOut Productions scripted and directed a 13-hour and 1000 km-long immersive theatre show, set on a speeding train through Finland for VR Finnish National Railways, produced by TBWA, in collaboration with Nordisk Film based on the 20th Century Fox movie Murder On The Orient Express.
The production was live-streamed by DNA and gained worldwide visibility resulting in media mentions by Sunday Times, Lonely Planet, and all the Finnish main tabloids. It also won two Bronze awards in the Eurobest creative festival and Ágnes was invited to the Up The Game conference as one of the main speakers.
Great media attention
- 40 000 000 impressions
The Escape train gained wide global visibility. Well known media channels around the world, like The Sunday Times and Lonely Planet reported about the event. Lonely Planet recommended Poirot fans to travel to Finland for this one-off experience, and the most widely spread newspaper in Britain, The Sunday Times, listed the Escape train as one of the hottest travel experiences of the week. Also Agatha Christie official Facebook site featured the experience on her official Facebook site. Meanwhile all the Finnish main tabloids ( HS, IS ) and their social media channels were following train process keenly.
The whole 13 hour Escape Train experience was broadcasted live via Facebook by industry leading professionals from DNA Networks and VR. And the experience was manipulated by viewer votes transforming the viewers to active participants.
INTERACTIVE SHORT FILMS
Between 2019 and 2022 Agnes with her company IOP Games created 5 interactive short films.
The vision was to create game-changing immersive solutions by fusing technology with modern theatre to entertain, educate and inspire our audience.
DIGITAL ADVENTURE GAME- THE CONCEPT:
The viewers interact with characters played by professional actors on touchscreen devices. Characters and storylines are pre-recorded in HD videos but they create the feel of a live experience for the audience. The videos are further enhanced with detailed, high-quality visuals and graphic design.
The viewers decide how the story evolves by solving riddles and making dramaturgical decisions.
READ MORE ABOUT IOP GAMES COMPANY HERE
This game is not only ideal to entertain but also to educate the audiences while doing so. With Mission: Planet Blue we aim to raise awareness of global warming but also to warn against the dangers of hoaxes and misinformation spreading online. Topics that any teenager living in today’s world should have a good understanding of.
"You are contacted by an underground group of teenage activists claiming to have found a secret formula to stop global warming. They are not the only ones interested in this confidential information: a secret organisation wanting to hide this from humanity is also after it.
The activists badly need your support but you still need to earn their trust, so that you can help them on their quest to uncover the formula. The fate of planet Earth is in your hands."
Length: approx 50 min
Languages: English, Hungarian
Mission: Planet Blue
Those who remained awake
X-ray eyes? Ability to fly? Man in an artificial-intelligence-controlled robotic-super-suit? These are some outdated superpowers, don’t you think?
We need a new breed of superheroes for the challenge ahead of us!
"Set in the near future, after a catastrophic magnetic storm, everyone on earth using an electronic device froze and the lucky ones not using a device during the storm are given funny, one could say useless superpowers."
Length: approx 50 min
Languages: English, Hungarian
Magical Forest-Board game of the mind
"You are spending your summer holiday with your grandparents in the countryside when you notice an overgrown stone table in their garden. As you sweep the leaves of it the lines on the table light up and you are transported into this magical world full of mysteries."
It was designed for the youngest audiences in mind to play together with their parents. The experience took them on a magical journey and talked about self-discovery in an age-appropriate and fun way while also challenging them with riddles.
Length: approx 50 min
Languages: English, Hungarian
Hack On Deck
"A 16 year old hacker needs your help, but so does the agent who’s after her. Only you can help them and only you can decide whom to trust. It’s never as simple as it seems. You will find hidden servers, hack into the secret databases, fight computer viruses and lay traps. And in the end…. well it’s up to you how the story ends."
Length: approx 50 min
Languages: English, Finish, Swedish, with subtitles: Hungarian, Estonian, Latvian, Russian
Site-specific shows
Between 2015 and 2019 Agnes Kaszas with her company scripted and directed many different site-specific performances, which combined Art & Technology with immersive theatre and exciting twists inspired by gamification elements.
Just to mention a few shows: Destination Unknown, Mr. Bear's Afterparty, and Curious Case Of The Five-Star Hotel.
These shows were used to create successful art opening parties, corporate company events and for young people alternative activities at urban events and festivals, such as MOW, Slush Festival, University of Helsinki, H2Ö Festival, Sideways Festival, Viaporin Kekri, urban family days and many other festivals in Helsinki.
Pop Up Art House
Pop Up Art House was a feministic and norm critical art festival at Diana Stage in Helsinki.
The concept was realized during 2013-2015, by Blaue Frau, Ágnes Kaszás, Laura Dammert, and the Artistic Team.
We moved in and out two times a year and created an open living room that was torn down afterwards. Each of the festivals had a specific theme to which all the works presented in the festival were related to.
Pop Up Art House included lots of art exhibitions, theatre shows, a bar, music performances, workshops and other events, like Baltic Circle Festival.
