By Benjamin Pola

On April 24, 2025, the Ganek Immersive Studio at the USC School of Cinematic Arts presented the second annual Student Immersive Showcase on campus. The event featured thirteen projects at all stages of completion, underscoring the Studio’s emphasis on innovation and discovery.

Before the showcase, Dean Elizabeth M. Daley welcomed David and Danielle Ganek of the Ganek Family Foundation, setting the stage for a thoughtful panel discussion with Marianna Acuna,
Former SVP, Technicolor, previously worked also at Epic and Glassbox, Ryan Damm, Co-Founder, Aina Tech and Joel Newton, Partner and Co-Founder of City Lights, moderated by Associate Professor and Studio Director, Jordan Halsey. The conversation broached the evolving relationship between traditional narrative film and virtual reality, highlighting the Studio's role in developing the storytelling grammar required to close the gap.

Following the panel, guests were given the opportunity to see and test the latest VR projects of the students. From interactive storytelling to tech presentations, each work demonstrated how the Ganek Studio is equipping future filmmakers and creatives with technology, education, and inspiration.

The slate of projects selected embrace a wide range of technologies and storytelling mediums of VR, XR and AR as artistic platforms and include the following:

They Shall Not Come Back – Director, Seleny Xie
Unreal Interactive Story Telling
A narrative VR interactive experience that enables the player to embody the soul of a young WWI soldier, endeavoring to reunite with his NYC family for a final farewell. Traversing from war's reality to the afterlife's ethereality, the player embarks on a moving journey, exploring timeless bonds and love that transcends mortality.

Perfect City - The Room – Director, Shengwei
Experiential Linear Art Film-Based Experience
One of the episodes in the Perfect City series. Perfect City: The Room is a VR piece that explores the mental textures of a woman’s dreams and memories, inviting the audience to feel the different textures in this “room” inside her mind.

Help is on the Way – Director, Nathan Fairchild
Seated Linear Storytelling Experience
An experiment in building suspense in VR. Walking through town at night, Flora Chapman is followed by a mysterious threatening presence. Viewers will move back and forth between the perspectives of Flora and her pursuer.

Embodiments:

Experimental VR – Director, Michael Brown
Embodiments is a system of works that explores the questions and emotions that arise as we probe the relationship between our physical and digital bodies.

The Blue Deer – Director, Pablo Diaz De Leon Hicks
 Seated Linear Storytelling Experience
 A magical adventure of a young boy and a magical deer.
 
Altered Visions: 

Wounded Dreams – Director, Nina Ceklic
 Seated Linear Storytelling Experience
The immersive story of an athlete whose career was ended by injury-induced disability. A journey through memories and surreal dreamscapes as she comes to terms with an altered sense of self.

Free Roaming AR | XR Projects

O.R.A.C.L.E
XR choose your adventure game prototype
Director, Rylan Pozniak

Kooks - Team Project
AR Storytelling Driven by A.I

Quest 3 Headset Projects

Shades of Blue - 2-4 Minutes
Director/Writer - Akaash Tumuluri
Seated linear narrative 360 stereo experience
A woman in her twenties returns to a familiar place to confront her past only to discover that she is not sure about the reality that confronts her and begins to doubt her sense of truth.

Pina - Ganek Experimental Work 5 - 8 Minutes
Directors, Jordan Halsey & Esther Chae
Seated or standing visual experience
Working with Professor Esther Chae and the choreography disciples defined by Pina Bausch the Ganek Immersive Studio has already recorded the motion capture on a visual expiration of body movement.

IllusoryLands
Director, Jake Wang
Futuristic Narrative
 
Baby of the Earth
Director, Harry Chen