TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Banger Films and Secret Location announce Welcome to Wacken (wackenvr.com), the first fully 360° Virtual Reality (VR) music festival documentary is now available for purchase in the Samsung Featured Content section of the Oculus Store for $4.99 USD for a limited time. This innovative project combines the award-winning storytelling ability of Banger Films and the groundbreaking technological advancements of Secret Location, offering total immersion into the world’s largest heavy metal music festival, Wacken Open Air. Welcome to Wacken is the closest way to experience the festival, without having to pay the airfare to get you there.
“Wacken has been a mecca for heavy metal fans for over two decades,” said Sam Dunn, Co-Founder, Banger Films. “By partnering with Secret Location, we have created the ultimate VR festival experience, giving a whole new audience a unique glimpse into Wacken and, for metal fans who have attended the festival, the opportunity to relive it like never before.”
Shot by a team of 12 over five days in August 2016, Welcome to Wacken was produced using stereoscopic 360° camera rigs and spatial sound mixing technology to maximize immersion. The 23-minute, multi-chapter documentary is told through the perspective of four distinct festival attendees, allowing viewers to feel the sense of community, debauchery and camaraderie that define Wacken Open Air
"With so many sights, sounds, and stories to be found at Wacken, we saw it as an exciting opportunity to innovate on what a documentary in VR can be,” said Marty Flanagan, Creative Director, Secret Location. “By combining linear, live action segments with an explorable, CG interface, viewers are able to experience the festival as if they were really there."
Viewers can revisit chapters to discover new details of the festival, explore optional viewpoints that unlock as the story progresses and have VIP stage access to the explosive performance by festival headliner, Arch Enemy, one of the world’s top metal bands. Completion of the various chapters unlocks bonus content, including an interview with the festival founder and additional musical performances.
Welcome to Wacken is produced by Banger Films and Secret location with the participation of the Canada Media Fund. The film will soon be available in several additional app stores including Google Play, App Store and HTC Vive.
About Banger Films:
Banger Films is an award-winning film
and television production company based in Toronto, Canada. The Banger
catalog includes the essential heavy metal documentary Metal: A
Headbanger’s Journey (2006), Grammy-nominated and Tribeca Audience
Award-winning Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage (2010), the biggest-ever TV
series on metal and hard rock, Metal Evolution (2011), and the Peabody
Award-winning series Hip-Hop Evolution (2016). In 2013, Banger launched
its youth programming division, B Minors. In 2015, it created the
all-metal YouTube channel BangerTV. For more information, please visit www.bangerfilms.com.
About Secret Location, an Entertainment One Company:
Launched
in 2009 and acquired by Entertainment One (eOne) in 2016, Secret
Location combines cutting-edge technology with traditional
storytelling to create digitally accelerated experiences for the web,
mobile, tablet, and new platforms like Virtual Reality (VR) and
Augmented Reality (AR). It is the first company in the world to win a
Primetime Emmy® Award for a Virtual Reality project and the creator of
the first original serialized VR narrative.
