Film Secession: immersive website for a virtual film museum

For Film Secession, Poppr designed and developed an immersive website that brings films, archival material and expert interviews together in a virtual museum. Film professor and curator Richard Suchenski wanted a subscription platform where cinema lovers could explore the ideas and people behind significant films. The result combines custom branding and digital exhibition spaces with video streaming and subscription payments.

• Immersive 3D museum experience for desktop, alongside a lightweight mobile-friendly alternative.
• Seamless integration of video streaming (JW Player) and payment processing (Stripe).
• Full brand creation, combining custom development and cinema-inspired art direction, elevating the immersive website to a true flagship experience.

In the client’s words, the main aim of Film Secession was to create new ways of exploring the ideas that shaped filmmakers across different cinematic eras. The goal was to craft an online platform with a museum-like feel, showcasing historically significant films, archived materials and interviews with directors and other cinema experts. Adapting this cinematic grandeur into a captivating experience for the small screen required an integrated approach that combined technical expertise and a comprehensive artistic vision.

Our art director set to work on a visual platform style that seamlessly aligned with the project’s overarching theme. Drawing inspiration from the art deco sets of legendary art and set director Cedric Gibbons, he created an inviting, yet minimalistic and modern concept. The design offers a welcoming atmosphere as visitors navigate from one virtual museum hall to the next, exploring all the content of the digital museum. Our team handled all visual branding aspects, ranging from conceptualization and logos to typography.

The platform uses custom 3D modelling to enable a content layer on top of a 3D environment. In contrast to SaaS development platforms such as Roblox or Meta’s Horizon Worlds, our custom development approach allows us to fine-tune every little detail to the needs of the immersive universe that projects like this deserve. On top of the development architecture that combines gated and non-gated content, seamless integration with Stripe facilitates smooth processing of subscription payments. In addition, we integrated streaming with JW Player for video and added geoblocking for select video material subject to country restrictions. Detailed usage analytics provide statistical insight that helps to identify opportunities for content expansion and improvement.

Through Film Secession, we transformed a passion project into a solid business concept and fully monetizable platform featuring valuable video content tailored for a global niche audience. Combining custom development with a best-of-breed approach for external integrations, the virtual museum delivers an elevated brand experience.

This case does not only showcase our full-service approach and custom development and design skills – it also proves that immersive experiences can be monetized towards a global audience, yielding a net positive ROI. In similar fashion to our work for the Puratos Sourdough Library, our team delivers fully tailored functionality and a distinctive look-and-feel that sets your brand experience apart.