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.
Kacey Musgraves Middle of Nowhere: An Immersive Experience is available now on Meta Quest!
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




