Welcome to Ethos

Have you ever wished you could shout through a movie screen and change a character’s mind, warn them of danger, or even build a friendship with your favorite protagonist? Better yet, how would you like to step through the screen and become part of their world, influencing plot-lines, and even taking up the hero’s mantle yourself? Now you can. Welcome to Ethos, a revolutionary game show and immersive park experience where the guest becomes the hero of the story and live audiences (in-studio and watching from home) shape the world around players and live actors in real-time. While the digital players and in-park guests are engaged in meeting the living characters–where they could be engaged in such things like being hired by the tavern keeper to collect a bounty, or be swept up in a plot of intrigue that could change the course of the season storyline–the audience (or “Fates”) make decisions behind the scenes in real-time that may generously help our guests, or lay devastating or hilarious stumbling blocks on their road to adventure.

With the guest in mind always, we have custom created a rich IP and fantasy world filled with ancient storied histories, many unique and colorful species each with their own cultures, well developed fantastical geographical environments rooted in actual science and biology, and a trade and economy system, all which is shared between our digital and in-park experience and all is built to facilitate a deep and rewarding connection for the guest. We want a guest to be able to invest and engage in the digital interactive show and then visit the park and feel like they are really stepping into the world that they had been playing in from home. Characters, played by the same actors from the digital experience, will be in-park and open to interact with guests as if being visited by a friend. The physical environments and attractions in the park will be designed to replicate places and scenarios that the guests may have heard of or visited in the digital show experience.

Ethos is designed to capture, expand, and sustain a global audience through the digital experience where even the most remote audience members are active participants in the story. While the physically immersive park experience drives depth in storytelling, genuine human connection between guest and actors, and incorporates imaginative immersive environments and attractions. Together, the digital show and the live park marry together to create a cohesive interactive experience that incorporates the highly sustainable and easily expansive digital entertainment model, keeping audiences invested and engaged no matter where they are with a living park experience that not only incorporates thrilling immersive attractions and environments rooted in the IP, but more importantly brings to life a world where the guest feels seen, valued, and that they matter.

Ethos strives to push the modern understanding and boundaries of what story-driven, immersive entertainment is, and usher in a new era of digitally accessible and physically dynamic experiences that transports the guest into a world of pure escapism while celebrating and rewarding genuine human connection through story. While the pandemic of 2020 gave the world unprecedented social isolation and a demand for accessible entertainment, it also exposed the world’s hunger for home and theme park entertainment that transcends the passive products of the past. Ethos invites its guests and audiences to connect with the story, characters, world and each other in meaningful ways that make truly meaningful impacts that can be felt and seen. In a world of global pandemic, political tribalism, and social media replacing community, our societal experience is one of near isolation. Audiences are hungry for active entertainment and crave an experience that rewards genuine human connection, common purpose, and personal heroism. 2021 offers the entertainment industry an unprecedented opportunity to not only entertain, but connect. To engage their audience in ways that transcend the dated passive entertainment experience and instead, blur the lines between actor and audience, artist and viewer, story-teller and listener. To build an immersive experience where the guest becomes a story-teller and ultimately, the hero of the story they have created. This is the future of entertainment. This is the future of regaining our human connection.

The attached design document will explore:
-Design aesthetic
-Ethos Online
-Ethos Park
-Guests and audience
-Story telling and formatting
-Sets, environments, and sample attraction

Cottam-Ethos-Design-Pitch-1.pdf

Micki Cottam, Bryn Curry, Trevor Ballard, Robert Bolton