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- ION LAUNCHES JUMP:
- THE DAVID BOWIE INTERACTIVE CD-ROM
-
- (press release)
-
- World's First Interactive Music Video Experience
-
- JUMP: The David Bowie Interactive CD-ROM allows users to
- passively view or proactively create their own music videos based
- on David Bowie's hit single "Jump They Say" from his Black Tie,
- White Noise album. The product offers a virtual Bowie environment
- in which users can watch clips from favorite Bowie videos and flip
- through archive photos and interviews. But the main attraction is
- the interactive video studio, in which players can "cut" their own
- personalized video to the music.
-
- The JUMP interactive video studio presents the user with five
- sources of raw video footage, some never before seen by the public.
- Utilizing ION's groundbreaking switcher, players can edit these
- clips together into one seamless, custom creation; each session is
- a chance to make an entirely new video. Players can even share
- their creations with anyone who has the title.
-
- "For the first time, you don't just get to play a new music
- video, you get to play with it," explains Ann Greenberg, who along
- with John Greenberg, Ty Roberts and Lou Beach founded ION earlier
- this year. "Music-driven products are leading the way in the
- digital entertainment revolution. But most interactive music
- systems currently available merely give the user information about
- the artists. ION products move beyond the cerebral to the visceral,
- allowing the user to express their own vision. In this sense, they
- are profoundly different from anything that's come before."
-
- Adds Ty Roberts: "This is the future of the record album. In
- a few years, you'll be disappointed if there is no interactivity
- on the disc you get from your favorite artist. It fulfills every
- rock fan's ultimate fantasy: to get in on the thrill of creation."
-
- To develop state-of-the-art technology to forge this
- unprecedented visual experience, ION first compiled footage from
- more than nine hours of video from the original shoot. Then they
- simulated an environment that mirrors the stark, high-style milieu
- of the Bowie video. Finally, ION created an interface that is easy
- enough to let anyone become an amateur video-maker.
-
- Other features of JUMP: The David Bowie Interactive CD-ROM
- include:
- Real-time video editing with a click of a button,
- Five simultaneous QuickTime video channels,
- A behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the "Jump They
- Say" video,
- An interactive environment that explores Bowie's creative
- world,
- Four complete music videos included in QuickTime format.
-
- JUMP: The David Bowie Interactive CD-ROM requires a color
- Macintosh running System 7 with five megabytes of RAM, a CD-ROM and
- other interactive platforms. Prototypical of a new entrepreneurial
- spirit, ION remains fiercely independent in practice but recently
- signed a historic multi-million-dollar deal with Bertelsmann Music
- Group (BMG), one of the world's largest media conglomerates, to
- develop product and create the first interactive music label. With
- JUMP, ION has leaped into the vanguard of young entrepreneurs
- shaping the content that will make the future of digital highways,
- interactive television networks, and two-way entertainment a
- viable, creative reality.
-
- ION has offices in Northern and Southern California. The
- company's main headquarters are located at 11845 West Olympic
- Blvd., Suite 1050, Los Angeles, CA 90064, (310) 312-8060.
-