A Hard Day's Night was the first rock-and-roll album my parents bought. I remember dancing to the Fab Four's music as a diamond stylus wobbled round the spiral groove. Thirty years later the diamond has become a laser beam and flickering pictures now accompany the sound.
Voyager's interactive QuickTime CD of the Beatles' earliest movie will become a collector's item just like the vinyl LP. The movie plays back at just twelve frames a second and the picture is only a couple of inches square, but image definition is not the point.
Voyager's A Hard Day's Night is significant because of what it portends. Building on concepts developed in the company's Expanded Book series and Criterion videodisc collection, Voyager has pioneered a new form of enhanced media. Along with the music and the motion picture are the full screenplay, an essay on the film by critic Bruce Eder, some supplementary interviews, a collection of production photographs, and a bunch of other goodies. All this good stuff is cleverly interconnected by an attractive and intuitive interface: For example, the screenplay scrolls as the movie rolls.
Voyager's product runs on the Macintosh and Windows machines, but the world will soon be awash with low-cost consumer machines that play digital movies full screen and in full motion. They will be available on CD. They will be offered by cable stations. You will even be able to call them up on demand using a regular telephone line.
With A Hard Day's Night, Voyager shows what digital movies can offer: a well-integrated package containing both the film and a wealth of related material to promote enjoyment and understanding. One day, when such enhancements are considered standard, this simple title will be seen as a milestone in the development of the medium.
A Hard Day's Night: US$39.95. The Voyager Company: (800) 446 2001, +1 (310) 451 1383.
STREET CRED
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A Hard Day's Night
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