POV Mount Diablo is an interactive multimedia documentary about artist Stephen Joseph, a San Francisco photographer/naturalist who uses vintage antique cameras to ╥record the mountain in all its different moods.╙
To experience POV Mount Diablo is to be taken to a quiet place in nature, totally away from the computer where the viewer is sitting. Soft acoustic music and wind chimes accompany a collage of Stephen╒s stories (via QuickTime movies) and expansive photographs as the viewer is transported to his world atop Mount Diablo.
The intuitive interface intrigues and lures the viewer into Stephen╒s world of beauty. The designs simultaneously set a quiet mood one feels only when on a mountaintop and accentuate the beauty of Stephen╒s photography. A set of wind chimes leads you anywhere from a ╥Tree Portrait╙ to the mechanics of how a ninety-year-old panoramic camera works. The title, while interactive, has a filmic quality and relaxes as well as entertains the viewer.
About the Artist, Stephen Joseph
One of the most striking features is the breathtaking beauty and quality of Stephen╒s photographs. THE CONTRA COSTA TIMES claimed that ╥Stephen Joseph, who does for Mount Diablo what [Ansel] Adams did for the Sierra, is the most closely allied [to Ansel Adams].╙ The viewer can experience unique panoramic and exquisite stereographic-D photographs that have been specially made for the computer screen. To make the potential audience as large as possible, STUDIO SOFTWARE rendered each photograph with its own custom color palette and in 256 colors so that POV Mount Diablo can be fully viewed on any 8-bit monitor.
Stephen╒s quiet easy manner and charm are what drive the intrigue and experience of the piece. On a hike, he╒ll pause to tell you about the time he attempted to get some dragon oak honey from one of his favorite old oak trees and how he thought the bees felt about it. In ╥Nap Spots╙ we listen to him describe nap spot thirty-seven as we watch him nestle in a shady spot between the gnarled roots of an old oak.
About Studiosoftware
Studiosoftware is a multiplatform multimedia development studio located in an artist╒s loft in the heart of Los Angeles. Clients include Voyager, TimeWarner Interactive, Macromedia, Apple Computer, Imergy, and many others. We are dedicated to creating the highest quality and most elegant designs and creations for multimedia.
Awards
Voyager-WIRED magazine New Voices/New Visions competition
Digital World╒s Digital Demo-Day Exhibition Rockefeller Award
Honorable Mention
Invitee/Speaker
Nominee
Featured CD-ROM title, The American Film Institute╒s Cutting Edge Salon
Primary Business
We offer top-to-bottom multimedia production including complete creative direction, design, and programming to clients in the entertainment, advertising, and publishing industries. We create multimedia in all its forms including CD-ROMs, floppy disks, IPKs, Web pages, and content for the Internet. We develop and produce our own titles, including POV Mount Diablo featuring the works of naturalist/photographer Stephen Joseph. We have recently been nominated for a Rockefeller Grant for this piece. One of our most recent titles is the Apple Multimedia Program Developer Showcase, which will be distributed internationally by Apple Computer this summer.
Key People
Studiosoftware was founded by partners Laurence Tietz and Leslie Safarik. Tietz, the technical director, was formerly a software designer for Hewlett Packard and senior programmer for Amazing Media. Safarik, artistic director, is a known sculptor and designer whose work has been featured in galleries and museums across the United States. Creative director Kimberly Shlain combines her backgrounds in design (Landor Associates) and television production (FOX Television) to develop the highest quality multimedia.
The Production Team
Our full-time production staff is efficient and team-oriented. The high skill level and design sensitivity that we bring to this new art form greatly differentiate us from other studios. Every member of the design team has a strong fine-art background in addition to his or her design skill set. Our film and video crews have traditional film and broadcasting backgrounds. Likewise, our programmers have traditional software engineering backgrounds and are able to create features that most studios would consider impossible. We use all original music, sound design, and voice talent for our multimedia productions.
System Requirements
For best performance please copy the entire POV folder to your hard drive.
We have allocated 4 MBytes to the POV Mt. Diablo projector. This is the minimum RAM requirement. If you wish you can increase the memory partition of the POV Mt. Diablo projector once the folder is on your hard drive.
