I am a big fan of the possibilities of storytelling in Virtual Reality – and I'm also very optimistic about the opportunities it will deliver for music fans. In fact, I'm much more interested in the storytelling/experience as well as music side of things than in the gaming aspect.
Punk was invented by girls.
Yesterday I've seen the best thing I've seen in VR for a while: A VR movie drama called "Battlescar – Punk was invented by girls". It is a story about two young women in the gritty New York City (Bowery to be more precise) of the late 1970s who form a punk band: Lupe, a Puerto Rican merican (narrated by Rosario Dawson) and Debbie, a runaway kid. They find themselves as part of a city full of dealers and junkies, hoodlums and drunks – and famous punk singer Elda Stiletto.
"Battlescar – Punk Was Invented By Girls" has been out since 2018, but it is now available in Virtual Reality for the first time. And it's everything a VR movie can and should be.
It has a great story, it uses many different perspectives (you find yourself in a shabby New York city room, you see the scenery as a sort of doll house, you experience the city in bird's eye view, you find yourself on a motorcycle driving through NYC's streets at night or floating through the air in midst of animations). The word "immersive" is overused, but in this case it's true: It's REALLY immersive.
It's also very fast for a VR movie. You don't get to dwell too much in the environments but rather get taken along in in a harsher pace. Which makes it different from your usual VR experience.
"Battlescar – Punk Was Invented By Girls" creates an extremely dense atmosphere. It's raw, funny and sad at the same time and it's very, very well-crafted. The movie is divided into three chapters and all in all lasts about 30 minutes. It costs about 5 Dollars/Euros in the Oculus Store – so if you own this headset (yeah I know, Facebook) then you should not hesitate and check it out.
I can only emphasize it again: This is what VR storytelling should look like.
You can find more about the movie on https://www.battlescarfilm.com.