Experiential Entertainment Definitions
Experiential: As a genre, refers to an entertainment, marketing, dining or educational activity that includes a component that is themed, multisensory or participatory. (i.e. It is something you experience.) However, as a broader, all encompassing concept, various types of experiential entertainment contain components from traditional entertainment including live action clips, animated content and music, among other things. For a more in depth look and list of examples, please visit the Experiential page.
Immersive/Immersion: An experiential space involving various senses to create a sense of being someplace other than your current location. This can be achieved via VR headsets, projection mapping overlays, scent and soundscapes, visuals and animation elements, sensory and haptic feedback, lighting, temperature, props and set pieces, actors, visual effects / optical illusions and architecture. Usually involves elements of visual storytelling as part of the total setting, and may include components of actual storytelling to round out the experience.
*NOTE: This term can be VERY confusing. Some companies use the terms immersive and experiential interchangeably. XR companies have previously only used immersive to describe their offerings. However, "immersive" has since been adopted as an advertising industry buzz word to define products such as home goods, clothing, and other non-industry related items. Because the term has been watered down, most are adapting experiential to describe their business. Visit the Experiential page for an explanation of how these terms relate to each other.
IP - Intellectual Property: The creation of an original idea or cohesive group of ideas that have value to a business. The creator owns the rights to their creations unless they are under creative contract or sell their IP. For example, Jim Henson created Kermit the Frog and owned the IP until he sold the muppets, as a cohesive group, to the Disney company.
Licensing: The payment for limited use of someone else’s IP on items like consumer products. (Example: if Stanley paid for the right to use an image of Huntrix (from K-pop Demon Hunters) on a limited edition cup. Licensing fees can be a flat fee, a percentage of total sales or a combination. )
Themed: Spaces using various techniques or sensory triggers to help participants feel as if they are present in an environment based off a singular idea (for example: Space) or a collected group of ideas from a specific genre or owner (for example: Disney Princesses).
Themes can apply from small installations to entire entertainment parks (i.e. theme parks). Theming can range from simple to complex decor, screened content, participatory activities, and other elements from the surrounding environment.
Micro-Attraction: Used in two ways
(Ride Based) A grouping of jointly themed components based around a “ride”. Rides could be trackless, thill, hydraulic - usually something that wouldn’t seem out of place at a theme park, usually with a themed eatery and merchandise shop, at minimum. For example, the Top Gun Experience coming to Las Vegas.
(Location Based) Usually located with a high traffic area taking up a relatively small footprint. They generally rely on motion tracking and projection mapping offering interactive games without the VR overhead. New games and themes can be downloaded directly from a distributor, so updated content is easily acquired for a reasonable cost.
Pop Up: something that does not have a permanent location, and is only available for a limited time.
Marketing: Most often used to promote a product launch or support a larger branded experience. Generally involves some type of interactivity.
Food: A limited engagement menu or guest chef, usually as either a collaboration or test menu (to gauge future offerings)
Retail: Limited time purchasing opportunity, usually with exclusive merchandise. Locations can range from vending machines to entire store fronts.
Transitory: something that does not have a permanent location, but moves as needed.
This is usually either a pop up or travelling experience, and are accessible for a limited period of time. Generally used for either live/concert tours, marketing/support or retail.
Film: Productions shooting "on location" , usually remote units either shooting in specified locations from the script or B-Roll (to establish exteriors and placement).
Edutainment: Programming using entertainment as a basis of educating - started on a large scale with the creation of Sesame Street and Mr. Rodgers. Later adapted by programming / game companies to teach children the principals of economics (Lemonade Stand) and history (Oregon Trail).
Currently, it's widely adapted with the rise of historical site tourism. To prevent further damage or possible injury during walking tours, new applications allow the use of AR/MR or projection mapping / animation to educate tourists on site, without the need to traverse previous pathways.
LBE - Location Based Entertainment: Entertainment offering using a unique setting or geography as part of a presentation.
Previously, this term was used to describe entertainment that leaned more into either performing arts or educational using their surroundings as part of the show. Examples would be a choreographed fight show in a historic ghost town, the laser show projected onto stone mountain, Shakespeare in the park, etc.
With the advent of AR and projection overlays, historical tours can use the locations themselves to show how their were built, how they appeared previously historic re-enactments from famous figures or fights among a variety of other edutainment applications.
Interactive / Audience Participation (or Participatory) / Active Participation:
Up until the last 10 years or so, anyone using the term interactive was, for the most part, discussing video games and their industry. (Interactive was not only a category, but described games as a genre.)
Audience participation was a phrase saved for events like Rocky Horror midnight showings and children’s theater. (If you believe in fairies, clap your hands.)
Active Participation was generally used to refer to things like murder mystery parties, escape rooms and school projects.
Some people use all three phrases interchangeably.
It boils down to: guests / audience members are discouraged from just sitting back and being a passive observer…they are encouraged to be actively engaged in the experience.
It could be something as simple as walking through a maze to being pulled out of the audience, to timed escape rooms, to choose your own adventure theater troupes, to interactive haunts and more.
Projection Mapping: Use of projectors, spatial software and (usually) animated content or motion graphics, using existing light colored interior or exterior structures of almost any shape and size as a screen
Often used in live theater, theme parks, and immersive installations. (Also recently used for non-violent protest.)
Motion Tracking:
(Video Editing) The practice of using text or other markers within a piece of content for identification, spatial tracking or comedic purposes. (For example, if I’m watching a nature documentary talking about bees, the editor might have an arrow or text box following the queen during the footage.) Also known as graphics pinning.
(Filming) Reducing “shake” by locking on to a fixed point of action while shooting, usually used in sports or rapid visual production (also called image stabilization)
(Animation) Mimicking camera movements in mockup or final footage. Used in 2D/CG animation generally for placement and background elements. CG elements are usually used in finished animation.
(VFX) Used as a necessary reference for application of the effects in the finished scene.
(Immersive) The use of optical camera sensors, inertia or external sensors to provide feedback or trigger an event. Used in conjunction with projection mapping, games can be played by using your body as a controller. Motion tracking can also be used as a trigger for a practical effect during a show or haunt.
Invitation to Immersion: Priming a guest to accept the premise of the installation or attraction. It may be something like a themed queue or preshow, or, most often. a physical object. For example, giving your guests a lab coat before entering a science themed escape room, or a lantern before entering a haunted corn maze. It moves the guest from the idea of observation to active participation.
Multisensory / Sensory Engagement: Involving more than one of the five senses. Most forms of entertainment are multisensory, apart from reading and listening to music. Using multisensory when discussing an experience usually involves one or more additional senses. It may be the temperature, scent based, textiles, haptic feedback and other things.
Props:
(Animation) Props are items that will be animated apart from characters and background. (Vehicles are sometimes broken out into their own category.) It's usually an item a character interacts with.
(Games) Parts of the game the player character can interact with.
(Live action productions) Pieces generally not considered part of the set dressing or background. Something a character wears, touches or uses.
Animatic: A visual presentation compiled by an editor using storyboard panels, audio clips (temp or final, music cues and background tracks, and audio effects.
(Animation) The industry this usually refers to. Used to check timing (comedy, reactions, pacing), choreography (dance, fight, walking/synchronization), camera angles & direction, callouts for foreground / background movement)
(Attractions -Theme, Walk Through) Used as a visual reference showing the audience perspective of the experience. Helps in overall planning and helps build teams understand perspective needs, timing considerations, and visual range.
Animatronics: The word comes from combining animation and electronics - basically, programmable electronics used to create 3D character looping animations. Some have elements of lipsync & pre-recorded audio, projection mapping, and static or transitory mounts.
Audio-Animatronics © - Specific brand of animatronics belonging to the Disney corporation
Color Design/Styling: A project's color pallet(s) used as a production guide and an often overlooked part of visual storytelling.
Color and lighting effects can be used for audience misdirection and/or reveals. Clashing pallets can create confusion or to draw attention to an element that seems out of place. Lack of color, greyscale or sepia can be used for establishing time periods, abstract sequences, and otherworldly or monotone components.
(Animation & Gaming)
Tones and lighting effects for characters, props, and locations. Color variants may be created for time of day, environment (cloud cover, lightning), conveying mood or emotion, and situational specifics (campfire, underwater, space).
(Themed)
Used as a delineation between areas (in park or in attraction), and to establish themes like primary colors (kids) Dark blues, purples and blacks (Villians), Pastels (Princesses)
Directional cues - warm tones can lead toward excitement while cool can lead to shaded rest areas and water features. Creates a universal wayfinding / traffic system not dependent on signage.
Colors have to remain cohesive for location immersion, but need to flow smoothly from one pallet to the next.
(Haunts) Lighting and Color can not only influence scene perception and emotional reactions, but can also be used as part of the forward push - encouraging movement and scene progression.
Animation:
(Traditional) The use of consecutive, slightly altered images to convey illusion of motion when displayed at a minimum number of frames per second. Most formats are 2D or CG, but also include stop motion variations including puppets/ posable marquette, paper cutouts, & human actors
(Theme Parks) Refers to the programming used to control the performance movements and cycles of animatronics.
(Haunts) Used to refer to non-human or human hybrid animatronics and effects. Sometimes referred to in the plural - animations
Storyboards: Concept art used to pitch, pre-visualize, develop or direct action, camera movements, or storyline depending on application. Helps visualize and guide production teams to guide cohesion and continuity, plan story beats and timing. Rough sketches are used, since elements may change after initial presentation (generally called revisions). May be used to construct an animatic.
XR (AR, VR, MR, IR) - Extended Reality (Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, Interreality): XR is almost always what’s used to cover the three different versions blending reality with virtual experiences. (I left the most confusing one of this group for last.)
Augmented Reality (Sometimes used interchangeably with mixed reality, but not always) -
In its simplest form, augmented reality uses the real world as its basis and then lays a visual alteration on top of it.
The easiest, and most well known example is Pokemon Go. Players use their phone in the real world to search for and capture pokemon who appear on their screen somewhere within the landscape their phone is focused on (called passthrough). Newer technology uses multiple camera access to allow for even more interactive experience, including direct interaction, instead of through controls on the app.
A second, larger version of AR is something you may have seen in a museum or historic / world heritage site. Animated or filmed content is projected onto items or locations in a way to help visitors visualize history, scientific principals or explanation of processes. While this generally uses projection mapping, this version of AR is usually dependent on using the specific location as part of the storytelling process.
The third kind of AR usually involves vision based technology through glasses or headsets.
(Usually use optical see-through or video passthrough) This works similarly to the AR on personal devices, except the cameras and technology are wearable, leaving the users hands free. Several companies are experimenting with pairing various forms of technology with wearables, but none are currently available for the consumer market (that I know of, off the top of my head.)
MR - Mixed Reality: In recent years, MR has become its own category, but again, the meaning depends on who you ask.
Some people define mixed reality as what augmented reality started as (such as pokemon go). You could see the real world and the overlay, but interaction is app based only. This started to become a standard phrase within marketing circles around 2020 when retailers began using the technology in their apps. For example, a customer interested in a refrigerator could use a mixed reality tool to view it in their space in relation to everything else.
Other people define it as having an additional sensory component, such as haptic feedback.The last group sees it at AR with the incorporation of peripherals (such as an additional controller).
VR - Virtual Reality:
Visual experiences are completely generated, with no real world component.
IR - Interreality
A recently coined term (possibly as a nod to physics) meaning (user created) interactive content only accessible through the use of mixed/alternate reality applications. *Has yet to appear on google trends
Similar to geocaching, users can find and read/leave graffiti, blog posts, letters and even share virtual files through the use of AR/MR. However, the virtual cache can only be accessed in person at a real world anchor point delineated via geofencing.
Some content can be viewed by anyone, while other content can be walled off by specific permissions.
A startup has created an app for the average user called WallaMe, which allows users to leave messages (with some walled permissions in place).
If this is something you’re interested in, you may also want to research the terms spatial tracking, 3D tracking geospatial formats, localization and mapping, scenic geometry, visual–inertial odometry, markerless tracking (SLAM/VIO), fiducial markers, image registration, depth cues (shadows, occlusion).