Kacey Musgraves Steps Into the ‘Middle of Nowhere’ With New Meta Immersive Experience

Produced and Creative Directed by Untold Studios, with co-producing partners MediaMonks, Inc. and 7 Cinematics, the experience places fans at the heart of Kacey Musgraves’ world.

Created for Meta and directed by Rohan Blair-Mangat, the new immersive music experience transports audiences inside Billy Bob’s, an iconic Honky Tonk bar in Fort Worth, Texas.

Rather than capturing an existing live show and translating it into immersive, the project flips the traditional concert-film format. Every element - from the staging and choreography to the lighting, camera positions and transitions - were designed around one thing: the audience’s point of view.

With immersive filmmaking, the camera isn’t simply documenting the action. It is the audience. “A lot of immersive music projects are shot at existing shows, so there are limitations on where cameras can be placed” says director Rohan Blair-Mangat. “Meta gave us the freedom to design everything around the camera, which in immersive, is the audience’s perspective.”

Working alongside Executive Creative Director Phil Lee and Sam Cannon, Blair-Mangat developed the experience as a journey rather than a succession of performances - building out its opening, transitions and interstitial moments before adapting each beat to the physical possibilities of Billy Bob’s.

“At Untold, we’re always excited by what can happen when ambitious creative thinking meets groundbreaking technology,” says Phil Lee, Executive Creative Director at Untold Studios. “Partnering with Meta gave us the opportunity to push what immersive storytelling can feel like. We were able to bring together cinematic craft, live performance and VR to create something that feels genuinely new - an experience that doesn’t simply capture Kacey’s performance, but places the audience inside her world.”

The visual language pulls from cinema, art and modern honky-tonk culture, layered with touches of magical realism. Musgraves was closely involved throughout, shaping details spanning set design and choreography, while lighting designer André Petrus developed a series of rich lighting states and cues that push the performance beyond the conventions of a traditional live capture.

At the centre of the film is a standout sequence: a two-song performance filmed entirely in one take in Billy Bob's bull riding arena.

“It’s a really special sequence” says Blair-Mangat. “The lucky few of us hiding right behind the camera could feel the magic in the air as Kacey and her band performed. That energy really translates in the headset".

It’s that feeling of being there - not watching from the outside, but standing inside the performance - that sits at the heart of the experience.

With Middle of Nowhere, Meta and Musgraves use groundbreaking technology to turn the traditional front-row seat into something else entirely: a music experience built for immersive from the ground up, placing the audience right at the centre of Kacey’s world. No front row required. 

Credits:

UNTOLD STUDIOS

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Rochelle Palmer, Iona Goulder, Raj Kapoor

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Phil Lee

HEAD OF MUSIC: Annie Ayres

DIRECTOR: Rohan Blair-Mangat

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Sam Cannon

HEAD OF PRODUCTION: Tessa Wood

PRODUCER: Gem Souleyman

LINE PRODUCER: Jordan Vernes

FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Jeff Cobb

POST PRODUCER: Sarah Athas

MUSIC SUPERVISOR: Joe Rice

PHOTOGRAPHER: Jasmine Safaeian

.MONKS

SVP, Group Account Director: Sarah Cannon

Producer: Zachary Peterson

Line Producer: Andrew Orr

Production Manager: Nathan Israel

Director of Photography: Alan Bucaria

VR Solutions Engineer: Devin Block

VR Lead Engineer: Chase Webb

VR Lead Assistant Camera: Doug Price

VR First Assistant Camera: Marcus Johannes, Patrick Malley

Digital Imaging Technician: Steve Freebairn

Audio Mixer: Eric Schilling

7 CINEMATICS

Executive Producer: Vincent Adam Paul

Producers: Adrian Westendorff, Jason Lewis, Mark Zenow

2D Cinematographer: Benjamin Walter

Specialty Cameras Producer: Lars Larsen

2D Steadicam Operator: Rob Ochtera

2D Camera Operator: Jack Ochtera

Gimbal Operator: Kyle Thomas

Camera Technicians: Christian Chamberlain

Gripp Richardson: Jeffrey C. Hopkins

Video Engineers: Johnny Cunningham, Terry Smith

The Saw

Executive Producer: Krystle Tesoreiro

Editors: Bill DeRonde, Timothy Schultz

Color Grade: Carlos Verdugo

Online: Randy Magalski

Levels

Owner, Mixer: Brian Riordan

Executive Producer: Erica Potter

VR Title Design

Designer/Animator (2D): Jack Joshi-Powell

Animator (Unreal): Dimitri Sourzac

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