Felix & Paul Studios is an award-winning creative studio that specialises in creating narrative immersive entertainment experiences that push the boundaries of storytelling. The studio’s latest project is the highly anticipated Interstellar Arc at Area15 in Las Vegas.
Throughout the years, Felix & Paul Studios has partnered with globally recognised individuals and organisations, developed unique experiences, and revitalised cherished brands and intellectual properties in innovative and exciting ways.
Previous projects include a long-term collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, helping to bring shows to life in new ways, utilising VR to place users at the heart of the action. The studio also worked on The People’s House: Inside the White House with Barack and Michelle Obama, as well as Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, the largest production ever filmed in space.
This Primetime Emmy award-winning experience invites users to join twelve astronauts as they complete tasks aboard the International Space Station and perform a Spacewalk.
Now, the team is preparing to launch Interstellar Arc, a futuristic space-themed experience that it describes as its most ambitious project yet.
To learn more about this groundbreaking new installation, we speak to co-founders Félix Lajeunesse, chief creative officer, Paul Raphaël, chief innovation officer, and Stéphane Rituit, CEO.
The origins of Felix & Paul Studios
Lajeunesse and Raphaël come from a film background and started collaborating on short films, commercials, and music videos 20 years ago.
“We shared an interest in pushing beyond traditional media to create immersive cinematic experiences, exploring holographic technology, projection mapping, stereoscopic imagery, and physical environments,” says Lajeunesse. “Over time, we decided to fully dedicate ourselves to immersive storytelling, which led us to virtual reality.”
Their first VR project was Strangers with Patrick Watson in 2013, the first-ever cinematic VR film.
“We approached VR from a perspective of storytelling instead of interactivity, and that caught the attention of Hollywood. We began working on projects like Jurassic World with Steven Spielberg’s team and the first VR project with A-list celebrities, Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern.”
That work eventually led to collaborations with the White House, including filming with the Obamas in 2016, and subsequently to NASA, where the team spent three years documenting life on the International Space Station for the Space Explorers: The ISS Experience.
“For us, the common thread through all of these projects, whether cinematic or interactive, fiction or non-fiction, has been the pursuit of ‘presence’. It’s about bringing people to a deeper state of connection. Presence isn’t a switch you turn on; it’s something you build carefully, almost ritually.
“For us, that craft of presence is even more important than the story itself.”
The journey to Interstellar Arc
Felix & Paul Studios then developed Space Explorers: The Infinite, its first location-based experience, to make what the team shot in space accessible to a broader audience beyond just at-home VR users.
“Initially, we saw it as a one-off project, but as we developed it, we realised that having audiences physically walk through this large-scale VR experience, with a sense of total sensorial immersion, elevated the emotional output of what we had created to a whole other level,” says Raphaël.
“And through this large-scale, high-throughput experience design, we reached not just more people, but a wider variety of people. Those who wouldn’t typically have access to VR devices showed up out of curiosity and were amazed by what was possible.”
The team also discovered two critical things:
“First, it gave us a path to independence from VR device adoption. We now had a direct connection to consumers that wasn’t limited by the number of headsets sold.
“Second, as creators, we found that what was already an infinite visual canvas in VR could become physically infinite as well. With enough square footage, you can create the illusion of limitless space, turning Space Explorers: The Infinite into something closer to the holodeck we always dreamed of—where you can walk through a virtual world without boundaries, socially, with friends, family, and strangers.
“All of this led us to evolve Space Explorers: The Infinite from a one-off event in Montreal to a global touring show, which has now become the foundation for our most ambitious project yet: Interstellar Arc”.
An immersive space voyage
Interstellar Arc is described as an interstellar voyage to an exoplanet. Expanding on this, Lajeunesse says:
“More fully, it’s an immersive journey that transports you across time and space over centuries. You begin in the 24th century, departing from a spaceport in lunar orbit. You board a spaceship called the Interstellar Arc, enter cryogenic sleep, and wake up 262 years later as you approach your destination.
“During the experience, you recover from cryosleep and rebuild your memory, piecing together why you chose to become an interstellar traveller, and what awaits you on this new world.”
The entire experience takes place inside a massive centrifuge-shaped spaceship, creating a thrilling sensation of navigation as visitors prepare for arrival.
“Emotionally, we hope it instils a sense of wonder, awe, and openness to what’s possible for humanity’s future. Unlike much of science fiction, which often leans dystopian, we wanted to present a vision of exploration that is hopeful and collaborative. It’s an optimistic take on where humanity could go if we learn to work together and strive for collective progress.”
Bringing the Interstellar Arc vision to life
One of the biggest challenges in bringing Interstellar Arc to life was creating what the team calls the Agora, a massive centrifuge at the heart of the ship.
“The whole ship has three centrifuges, but most of the experience happens in the central one,” says Raphaël. “We wanted to replicate the sensation of walking in centrifugal gravity, like the rotating space stations in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
To achieve that, the studio developed a redirection technique that seamlessly reorients visitors in every axis—sideways, forwards, up, and down. “Essentially, we take a rectangular physical space and unfold it like a Möbius strip, creating a continuous virtual loop. As you walk in the real world, you’re actually moving through this vast centrifugal space in the virtual world.”
“Perfecting that illusion took about a year and a half, and it wasn’t without doubts. There were moments when it seemed impossible, especially since we had to ensure complete comfort. For us, comfort is non-negotiable. It’s the foundation that allows people to feel everything else we want them to experience.”
Lajeunesse adds that one of the biggest challenges with Interstellar Arc was reconciling real-time rendering with the polish and craftsmanship of a cinematic experience:
“We don’t come from video games. We come from cinema. Our goal is to create interactive universes that retain a deeply cinematic feel and sense of realism.
“This isn’t a game; it’s not a shooter or anything like that. But it’s also not a passive film. It’s something in between; a cinematic, interactive experience of awe, wonder, and discovery. We drew on everything we’ve learned in cinematic storytelling and combined it with interactive elements to craft something truly unique.
“Achieving that balance was challenging, but it was something we took very seriously.”
Storytelling and technology
It was also crucial to balance the storytelling elements with the technology, ensuring that the high-tech elements did not overshadow the narrative.
“Virtual reality, when done right, has the potential to become incredibly transparent, to the point where it almost disappears,” says Raphaël.
“From the outside, it might seem like the highest-tech thing imaginable, but once you’re inside, it can feel more natural and seamless than any other technology, even smartphones or laptops. That’s because it’s not just displaying information; it’s simulating reality.”
“For us, that transparency is not a challenge. It’s what drew us to VR in the first place. Over the last 12 years, we’ve taken a slow, deliberate approach, starting with simple moments of presence, with no cuts and no camera movements, allowing for pure immersion.
“As we progressed, we began to develop tools for editing and cinematography native to VR, and finally, we introduced interactivity.”
With their storytelling background, the pair are careful to maintain that sense of naturalism, he adds:
“Even though Interstellar Arc takes place across light-years and centuries, the one-hour experience is all real-time, with minimal artificial elements like cuts or unnatural camera moves. You’re not just observing. You’re inside the story, living it.
“Our goal is for you to leave feeling like it happened, not just something you watched.”
Interstellar Arc at Area15
While Interstellar Arc will open at Area15, the experiential retail and entertainment complex in Las Vegas, the team envisions a wider audience in the future.
“We definitely want to bring Interstellar Arc to other cities,” says Lajeunesse. “It’s not designed as a touring show, but we do envision it as a resident experience, finding a place in a city and staying there for a few years. Over time, we hope to establish multiple residencies in different cities.”
However, Area15 felt like the perfect home from the very beginning, as Rituit explains:
“The whole concept of Area15 plays off Area 51, and with the new district rebranded as ‘The Terminal,’ it aligns seamlessly with our vision of a spaceport. From the moment you step into Area15, you’re already part of the story.
“We want the experience to begin before you even arrive. Everything, from how the show is advertised to how it’s presented, is designed to feel like you’re heading to a real spaceport. Instead of screenings or showings, we have “daily departures”.
“It’s fully in-world from the very start.”
A project on a whole new scale
Reflecting on some of the most rewarding parts of the experience so far, Lajeunesse says:
“For me, the most rewarding part is simply that it exists, that we took something we dreamed about and found a way to make it real. It’s the culmination of everything we’ve done over the past 20 years, our successes, failures, and everything we’ve learned. To be able to bring a project of this scale and ambition to life is incredibly fulfilling.”
“I’ll definitely second that,” says Raphaël. “Just yesterday, we started showing the project to people outside the studio for the first time, and seeing their reactions has been amazing. Even in its unfinished state, with a few months to go, the feedback has been incredibly rewarding.
“At times, we lose track of whether it’s working, since we’ve been immersed in this vision for so long. Seeing it resonate with others has been a significant moment. And the centrifuge redirection—what we call a ‘magical trick’—has been especially exciting.
“Even after working on it for so long, when you lift the headset and see how different the physical and virtual worlds are, it’s still mind-boggling.
“There’s nothing else like it.”
Rituit adds:
“The most rewarding moment will be when we finally open. Until then, it’s a creative journey; exhilarating, but filled with all the challenges that come with such an ambitious project.”
Creating story worlds with Felix & Paul Studios
Looking to the future of immersive experiences, how they might evolve, and the role Felix & Paul Studios hopes to play in this journey, Lajeunesse says:
“The future of immersive storytelling, in our view, is about creating story worlds, like we’ve done with Interstellar Arc. We don’t just tell a story set inside a narrative universe; we bring people into that universe, where the story is just a small part of the bigger picture.”
Looking ahead, he envisions more chapters within this universe, where people can return, live in it, and experience it in different ways, he adds:
“Virtual reality will evolve into a space where you can deeply connect with these worlds over time, not just by watching the same show repeatedly, but by having multiple entry points to explore. We also see the potential for AI-driven characters within these worlds, offering a level of interactivity and responsiveness that feels as real as the world around us.”
“This is the next step in the evolution of dramatic arts, where you engage with characters and worlds that aren’t real, but still shape your experience in meaningful ways. We’re leaning into this direction and excited by the creative possibilities it holds.”
For the past 12 years, Felix & Paul Studios has been focused on immersion and immersive storytelling, integrating every tool that could contribute to that, says Raphaël: “As new technologies emerged, such as 360 imagery, sound, and eventually, physical space, we embraced them all. Each advancement was a great step forward.
“However, the one thing that was always limited was how realistic a character could be. We could create scripted interactions, but a truly believable, human-like interaction was never possible. Now, that’s changing, and it’s a key ingredient for immersive storytelling.”
The final ingredient
“The work we’ve been doing for over a decade has laid the foundation for this, and it feels like we’re finally reaching the final ingredient: real, believable characters can now exist in our immersive worlds. This wasn’t possible before.
“While we found creative ways to work within the boundaries of what could be done, avoiding the uncanny valley, the evolution of technology means we no longer need to hide those boundaries.
“That opens up endless possibilities for the kinds of experiences we can create, and that’s incredibly exciting.”
Interstellar Arc is scheduled to open in Autumn 2025.
