by Dan Bass

Okay, you’ve seen the movie. You were dazzled by the special effects. Now, do you want to know how they did all that? It’s all here, from menacing aliens to entire cities getting zapped. Inside Independence Day has the scoop on the entire film. You can learn how they blew up the White House and just about every other major landmark in America with startling realism, not to mention eight video clips and hundreds of photos from the movie.

Inside Independence Day, plus a whole lot more
The CD is essentially a large reference volume of the making of the movie. The nuts and bolts behind just about every special effect is included in the CD. There is a nifty slide show on the construction inside Area Fifty-One of the Alien Attacker that Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith use to combat the Mother ship. 

Also included are storyboards which provides insight into thoughts of the director and writer. Storyboards are a kind of outline for the production team to use in the making of the movie. You can compare the storyboards to the finished frames of the movie and see the differences that occur. 

There is also a collection of artist sketches and paintings for Independence Day that was done in the production stages of the film. These, the storyboards, help provide a good look into how the ships and scenes would look in the actual filiming. 

One medium that is used very successfully in the CD were Quicktime movies. Interviews with the stars of the movies were are done. There are additional movies with major members of the movie crew. The collection of movie clips in the CD are lots of fun to watch over and over again. The movies ran very smoothly on my 2X speed CD-ROM, and there are hundreds of photos from the movie of objects, locations, the actors, and just about anything else that was of interest in the movie. The CD was made for both the Mac and the PC, and the interface was easy to use.

From Area Fifty-One with love
There is something in here for all of you government conspiracy theorists (I must admit that I love that stuff also.) A collection of several UFO photo’s from years past are also included, many of them have been enhanced for detail. Also, interviews with UFO specialists and former members of the military, who claim to have been witness’ to many of the  government cover-ups, tell all they know about the incidents. There is also a background piece on the notorious and supposedly nonexistent Area Fifty-One (that doesn’t officially exist, of course) and lots of other nifty UFO stuff.

The Truth Is Here
The bottom line on Inside Independence Day is this:  If you liked the movie a lot, then this CD-ROM is for you. The CD is loads of fun and a neat inside look at the making of the movie. This CD was not slapped together at the last moment and this shows in the amount of detail and background it provides. The price is low and while this is a documentary of the movie, it has great appeal for those who wonder how movies like this are made. There is also a preview on the CD for an upcoming Independence Day Video game for Super Nintendo and Sega. Will it appear on the Mac? Who knows?

Pros
• Hey, its only $19.99!!!
• Quicktime Movie Interviews are used very well on this CD.
• Lots of Inside Tidbits on the making of the movie

Cons
• The screen saver that is included on the CD is very difficult to use and can only be used at certain times.

Publisher Info
Fox Interactive
Tech Support:  (303) 369-8324
E-Mail:  gamehelp@fox.com

         http://www.foxinteractive.com