Spotlight
September 17, 2025
Bringing the urban Paris of La Haine to the stage with UE5
La Haine is a cult classic of French cinema: Shot in stark black and white, it’s a gritty tale of friendship and young manhood set in the urban decay of Paris’ poverty-stricken housing projects known as “les cités.”
The film follows a day in the lives of three young men from immigrant backgrounds, exploring how they navigate police brutality, racism, and systemic exclusion.
Now, this story has jumped from the screen to the stage in a new immersive theater show that combines dance, cinema, rap, and live performance.
La Haine: Jusqu’ici rien n’a changé is a wildly ambitious project that saw its creators 3D scan many original La Haine filming locations and bring them into Unreal Engine.
These environments were then used to create video content, which is played on a huge LED screen behind the stage during the show.
The visuals are precisely synchronized with the actors’ live performances, blending physical sets with digital environments in a groundbreaking fusion of stagecraft and immersive technology.
Read on as Silent Partners Studio provides a glimpse into the making of this technically complex, immersive, and emotionally resonant experience.
The film follows a day in the lives of three young men from immigrant backgrounds, exploring how they navigate police brutality, racism, and systemic exclusion.
Now, this story has jumped from the screen to the stage in a new immersive theater show that combines dance, cinema, rap, and live performance.
La Haine: Jusqu’ici rien n’a changé is a wildly ambitious project that saw its creators 3D scan many original La Haine filming locations and bring them into Unreal Engine.
These environments were then used to create video content, which is played on a huge LED screen behind the stage during the show.
The visuals are precisely synchronized with the actors’ live performances, blending physical sets with digital environments in a groundbreaking fusion of stagecraft and immersive technology.
Read on as Silent Partners Studio provides a glimpse into the making of this technically complex, immersive, and emotionally resonant experience.
Image courtesy of Anthony Ghnassia
3D scanning entire Parisian buildings
Natan Couture Dumais is Unreal Lead at Silent Partners Studio. He says the immersive theater format enabled the show’s producers to place the audience at the heart of the story, creating a visceral, dynamic experience that traditional film or stage formats couldn’t achieve.
“The use of real-time environments enabled seamless scene transitions, dynamic lighting, and expansive virtual sets that mirrored the gritty, urban atmosphere of the original film,” explains Dumais. “This approach gave the audience a sense of being immersed in the streets of Paris, enhancing the emotional weight and immediacy of the narrative.”
The fact that the story takes place in Paris’ suburban housing projects is one of the most iconic elements of the original movie.
Immortalized by Director Mathieu Kassovitz’s lens, the aesthetic of these streets was so strong that Silent Partners Studio decided to have the buildings scanned, retopologized, and optimized to reconstruct an urban backdrop that fits both the movie’s references and the theater production’s staging needs.
Silent Partners Studio used drone-based photogrammetry to scan entire buildings, creating detailed virtual replicas of urban landscapes that captured the authentic environments and props from the original La Haine filming locations in Paris.
Image courtesy of Gabriel Coutu-Dumont
The team sprinkled the resulting environments with graffiti decals that are based on authentic street artists' photo archives from the 1990s, when the original film was made.
For smaller objects and key landmarks, they used high-resolution photogrammetry with DSLR cameras and even smartphone-based scanning for extra flexibility.
The team then brought the 3D scans into Unreal Engine and used them to create the virtual environments, in a workflow very similar to virtual production.
Silent Partners Studio used virtual cameras in Unreal Engine to record sequences through the 3D environments. They needed to synchronize the camera movements through the virtual scene with the actors walking on a physical turntable that was fitted with a treadmill.
This ended up being one of the biggest technical challenges on the project. To address it, the team used Unreal Engine to receive real-time motor data from the turntable via OSC (Open Sound Control) protocols, which drove the virtual camera’s motion.
Despite the name, OSC is used to control more than just sound. It was originally developed for audio and multimedia devices, but today its flexible network protocol means it can be used for communication between any software or hardware—including for elements such as lighting, projectors, rigging controllers etc— which require flexible, real-time control and data exchange between devices.
OSC protocol is built for low-latency communication—ideal for applications like live performances—and Unreal Engine provides native OSC support via the OSC plugin.
That ensured the virtual environment moved in perfect harmony with the physical stage, creating a seamless and immersive experience.
“It would have been very hard to achieve this workflow without Unreal Engine,” says Jonathan Masterson, Creative Producer at Silent Partners Studio.
For smaller objects and key landmarks, they used high-resolution photogrammetry with DSLR cameras and even smartphone-based scanning for extra flexibility.
The team then brought the 3D scans into Unreal Engine and used them to create the virtual environments, in a workflow very similar to virtual production.
Matching virtual camera shots with the treadmill
Silent Partners Studio used virtual cameras in Unreal Engine to record sequences through the 3D environments. They needed to synchronize the camera movements through the virtual scene with the actors walking on a physical turntable that was fitted with a treadmill.
This ended up being one of the biggest technical challenges on the project. To address it, the team used Unreal Engine to receive real-time motor data from the turntable via OSC (Open Sound Control) protocols, which drove the virtual camera’s motion.
Despite the name, OSC is used to control more than just sound. It was originally developed for audio and multimedia devices, but today its flexible network protocol means it can be used for communication between any software or hardware—including for elements such as lighting, projectors, rigging controllers etc— which require flexible, real-time control and data exchange between devices.
OSC protocol is built for low-latency communication—ideal for applications like live performances—and Unreal Engine provides native OSC support via the OSC plugin.
That ensured the virtual environment moved in perfect harmony with the physical stage, creating a seamless and immersive experience.
“It would have been very hard to achieve this workflow without Unreal Engine,” says Jonathan Masterson, Creative Producer at Silent Partners Studio.
Image courtesy of Gabriel Coutu-Dumont
The team then used Smode as a media server to play back the Unreal Engine renders, adding transition and color correction.
Ensuring the whole thing came together and worked, no matter where you are sitting in the audience, was a big challenge that meant finding perspective tricks which would work from every angle in the room.
The team had to compromise on scene composition to avoid falling into the trap of anamorphic illusion, which would be limited to a couple rows of the center seats.
As they built and integrated the environments, they had to compromise between the virtual lenses and clever scaling/angling of decor elements.
They need to unevenly scale some foreground elements and place them at odd angles to look straight and even on the LED wall.
“A couple of vertigo effects that made the movie a classic had to be translated to stage, and UE camera systems and rigs have been a critical factor to achieve them,” says Masterson.
Ensuring the whole thing came together and worked, no matter where you are sitting in the audience, was a big challenge that meant finding perspective tricks which would work from every angle in the room.
The team had to compromise on scene composition to avoid falling into the trap of anamorphic illusion, which would be limited to a couple rows of the center seats.
As they built and integrated the environments, they had to compromise between the virtual lenses and clever scaling/angling of decor elements.
They need to unevenly scale some foreground elements and place them at odd angles to look straight and even on the LED wall.
“A couple of vertigo effects that made the movie a classic had to be translated to stage, and UE camera systems and rigs have been a critical factor to achieve them,” says Masterson.
Image courtesy of Anthony Ghnassia
Unreal Engine for reliable live event performance
Any immersive theater show as technically complex as La Haine: Jusqu’ici rien n’a changé will live or die by the power of its technology stack.
From the off, it was apparent that real-time technology would be the operational backbone of the production.
Masterson explains that it would have been extremely complicated and creatively limiting to achieve the same immersive results with traditional pre-rendered pipelines.
“Using physical set elements to reproduce the environments would have been prohibitively expensive, and the directors would have been stuck in ‘static scenes’ that would have been detrimental to the legacy of the classic movie,” he explains.
The team chose Unreal Engine because it was the best option for achieving realistic visuals, and because its feature set has been tried and tested in live performance situations.
“Unreal Engine was the clear choice due to its unparalleled visual fidelity and robust performance capabilities,” says Dumais. “Its ability to handle complex scenes with thousands of objects and high-resolution 3D geometry was critical for this project.”
Additionally, Unreal Engine’s real-time rendering enabled the team to make on-the-fly adjustments during rehearsals.
Image courtesy of Gabriel Coutu-Dumont
That made collaboration exceptionally fluid—the team could display content on stage in real time, enabling directors, artists, and musicians to provide immediate feedback and request changes, such as tweaking textures or lighting directly in the engine.
“This is a significant advantage over other engines or pre-rendered solutions,” explains Dumais. “The engine’s versatility, combined with its extensive toolset like Nanite and Lumen, made it ideal for delivering the high-quality, immersive experience we envisioned.”
Nanite is Unreal Engine 5’s virtualized geometry system. Without it, the team would have struggled to bring the data-heavy 3D scans of Paris into the game engine and work with them effectively.
“Nanite was a game-changer for this project, allowing us to incorporate high-resolution 3D scans of real-world locations, such as the Parisian settings from the original La Haine film, without compromising performance,” says Dumais.
Lumen provided dynamic global illumination, ensuring that lighting in the virtual environments reacted realistically to scene changes. The team also leveraged Unreal Engine’s Blueprint visual scripting system for rapid prototyping, and Sequencer for precise control over cinematic sequences.
“These features enabled us to create visually stunning, responsive environments that seamlessly integrated with the live performance,” says Dumais.
“This is a significant advantage over other engines or pre-rendered solutions,” explains Dumais. “The engine’s versatility, combined with its extensive toolset like Nanite and Lumen, made it ideal for delivering the high-quality, immersive experience we envisioned.”
Nanite is Unreal Engine 5’s virtualized geometry system. Without it, the team would have struggled to bring the data-heavy 3D scans of Paris into the game engine and work with them effectively.
“Nanite was a game-changer for this project, allowing us to incorporate high-resolution 3D scans of real-world locations, such as the Parisian settings from the original La Haine film, without compromising performance,” says Dumais.
Lumen provided dynamic global illumination, ensuring that lighting in the virtual environments reacted realistically to scene changes. The team also leveraged Unreal Engine’s Blueprint visual scripting system for rapid prototyping, and Sequencer for precise control over cinematic sequences.
“These features enabled us to create visually stunning, responsive environments that seamlessly integrated with the live performance,” says Dumais.
Image courtesy of Anthony Ghnassia
Real-time environments improve actor experiences
If La Haine: Jusqu’ici rien n’a changé is an immersive experience for the audience, it is doubly so for the actors, who are virtually transported into urban Paris for the duration of the show.
“The actors found the real-time visuals transformative, as the dynamic backgrounds provided a rich, immersive context for their performances,” says Dumais. “Unlike traditional static sets, the live-rendered environments reacted to their movements and the narrative. This setup ultimately enhanced their ability to understand the context of their performance.”
In the original film, the actors walk throughout the whole movie, and their performances are clearly influenced by their surroundings. Similarly, the ability to walk through the virtual Parisian environment enables the actors to fully immerse themselves in the world of La Haine and bring the audience with them.
“It would have been impossible for them to bring the movie to the stage without feeling like they were acting inside the digital decor,” says Masterson.
Image courtesy of Gabriel Coutu-Dumont
A new era of technologically augmented immersive theatre
Dumais says this project has reshaped his perspective on digital performance, particularly in how virtual camera movement can enhance storytelling.
“Traditionally, we’ve used fixed cameras in live shows to avoid technical complexity, but La Haine demonstrated that Unreal Engine’s allow for sophisticated camera work without sacrificing stability,” he says. “This has inspired me to explore more dynamic set extensions and virtual cinematography in future projects, balancing technical precision with creative freedom to elevate the audience experience.”
Having seen what’s possible with real-time technology, Dumais has high hopes for the future of innovative theatre, envisioning Unreal Engine evolving into a comprehensive show control platform, orchestrating not just digital content but also stage lighting, compositing, and media server operations.
“My dream is for Unreal to serve as a previsualization tool, allowing creators to simulate an entire show—complete with virtual actors, lighting, and sound—in a fully digital environment before production begins,” he explains. “As real-time technology advances, I see immersive storytelling becoming more interactive, with audiences potentially influencing narratives through real-time inputs, creating truly personalized theatrical experiences.”
With talented studios like Silent Partners Studio exploring the full potential of what real-time technology can achieve, the future is full of exciting possibilities like these—La Haine:Jusqu’ici rien n’a changé proves we’re just at the start of an exciting new era of technologically augmented immersive theatre.
Image courtesy of Anthony Ghnassia