Counting down the days to Christmas in a virtual Woody Point

Gros Morne Summer Music’s Mummer’s Journey project mixes the real and virtual worlds in an interactive Advent calendar

CORNER BROOK — The countdown to Christmas is on and Gros Morne Summer Music has taken the traditional Advent calendar and put a digital spin on it.

The Mummer’s Journey, an interactive Advent calendar featuring a mix of music videos and daily digital content in a game format set in the virtual Town of Woody Point, launched today, Dec. 1.

Reg Kachanoski, is Gros Morne Summer Music’s operations manager and creative director of virtual Woody Point and technical director for the whole project.

He said the Mummer’s Journey came about as a combination of two ideas.

Gros Morne Summer Music’s founder David Maggs had the vision for creating the digital Advent calendar.

Kachanoski also works with the Graham Academy’s interactive arts program and had developed a virtual Corner Brook program where kids built the city in Minecraft.

“And we had kind of talked about wanting to make our own game but also extend kind of some of the creative stuff we’re doing with creating these virtual communities.

“Those two ideas kind of just smushed together and then became this,” he said.

The project has been six months in the making with many of the videos shot over the summer.

They chose Woody Point as the setting because of Gros Morne Summer Music’s strong connection to the town. It has a venue there, St. Pat’s Church, and besides being a beautiful town Kachanoski said it is the perfect size community for this kind of project. “To make a virtual twin.”

Kachanoski didn’t want to give away too much of what will happen over the next 24 days but hinted that the videos will feature some well-known people and groups, like Jonny Harris and The Once, some recognizable local performers and some new ones.

“It’s like a lot of the people that Gros Morne Summer Music has programed in the past.”

The videos and the virtual game component of the project can be accessed through Gros Morne Summer Music’s website and social media. It’s all free for the viewing but donations are welcome.

The game, which takes people into the virtual world to explore virtual Woody Point can also be downloaded from the website.

Kachanoski said people will need a PC with a newer version of Windows. There is a version of the game that has been scaled down graphically that some with older computers may be able to access. But there is no version for Mac.

The game is pretty easy to play and objects you encounter in it will lead players to the various sites.

“Basically, each one of these videos is located somewhere in virtual Woody Point and every day you explore the town, and you look for this video.”

Kachanoski thinks what they have created is fascinating.

“I like that you can create these environments that react to your input. You can create these sort of places that resemble the real world but they have more to them. You can make magic happen in these worlds.

“It’s really fun trying to do new things and I think it’s going to be successful,” he said.

Robert Humber didn’t know what to think about the idea when he first heard it.

“It just seemed like such a crazy idea,” said Humber who had been working with Gros Morne Summer Music at the time. He recently worked with the Graham Academy as a music specialist and studio teacher.

He knew Gros Morne Summer Music had done some crazy things in the past and figured if he got involved there would be some excitement.

“It usually ends up being a pretty cool project whatever we do,” he said. “It’s a really funny idea that I think just may work.”

And he thinks people will enjoy it. Humber helped with supervising the music, helping the various musical acts, adding extra instruments or musical arrangements where needed and moving things around during the shoots.

He also made the soundtrack for the game.

“So, as you’re walking around this virtual Woody Point there’s ambient music that accompanies you and sort of shifts depending on where you go within the town.”

Humber also has video in virtual Advent calendar.

His version of “We Three Kings” is a bit different from many of the others and was something he developed with his girlfriend and her sister last year when they created a whole Christmas album while in isolation as a surprise for their families.

“It was just like a whole eclectic thing where we were trying to make every song sound completely different.” “We Three Kings” was one of them. It starts with this crazy weird rhythm that turns into an old bluegrass song. The video was shot with the help of Yvette Coleman and features some of the kids from Graham Academy.