very important personnel. More than technical know-how, perseverance, and financing, The Réal, Las Vegas, NV was made possible by personal sacrifices. The music composer, Alexandra Vázquez, the actors named below and Becky Bond, the sound recorder, all worked for free. Ralph Kelliher, the illustrator, worked for 5% of his usual rate, while the programmer, Noah Peeters, made an hourly comparable to minimum wage while coding The Réal's 52 rooms. In sum, the production of this CD-ROM cost less than a new computer. Given the beauty of the music, the elegant simplicity of the programming and the stunning visuals that power the CD-ROM, the above mentioned artists are a veritable dream team. Below are some details about the many, many people whose inspired work made the The Réal a reality.
Actors David Cerf
Dave is a musician, technical wiz kid and video artist. His album with the Threnody Ensemble can be purchased at finer indie music stores across the country. Dave is the voice of the impassioned and omniscient bartender.Beverly Crawford
Bev is a political science professor at UC Berkeley. She is working on the EuroDollar and other issues relating to international political economics. Finally, Bev is raising a standard poodle named Cosmo. Bev is the seductive voice of the ladybug dealer.Bill Gaetjen
Bill is a poet, connoisseur's connoisseur and bartender at the 3300 Club in San Francisco. His poetry has appeared in anthologies and can be order through the 3300 Club. Bill is the answering machine voice of the befuddled bartender.Anne Etheridge
Anne is a photographer, video artist and producer. She is also a surfer and former women's basketball star. Think of Anne the next time you see a Ford F150 truck with Dolly Parton blaring from the cab. Anne is the giddy voice of the prostitute.Ed Oasa
Ed is a tricky Private Detective and English PhD from UC Berkeley. A proud Hawaiaan, Ed also has a healthy taste for bbq'ed pork products. Ed is the compelling voice of the YESCO employee.Alexandra Vázquez
Alex is an actress, musician and writer. She is currently working on her tan and an American Studies major at UC Santa Cruz. Alex is the lyrical voice of the opening sequence as well as the singer/songwriter for The Réal's original music.Steve Yamane
Steve is a film maker and musician. His films have been shown at national film festivals and have John Woo's personal seal of approval. Steve is the spooky voice of the speculator.Will Waghorn
Will is an actor and professional spoon bender. You can see Will as Dogboy in the long-running MTV series by the same name. Will is also one heck of a hotdog on his motorbike. Mr. Waghorn is the stately voice of the BBC anchor. Will can be hired at willywag@sirius.com.Paul Wood and Natalie Djokovic were also nice enough to record for parts that didn't make it into the final edit for no good reason.
Visual Artists Paul Wood
The haunting, desolate photographs of Americana you see in Room 33, "One of those days," is the fine work of Paul Wood. A British-born artist, Paul now resides in San Francisco where he attended the SF Art Institute. To learn more about Paul's art and his new digital projects, you can e-mail Mr. Wood at pwood@cnet.comJohn Hersey
John is one of the true pioneers of computer illustration. His early work was made on some of the very first Macs and was unabashedly bitmapped. His commercial work has been profiled in publications like Print and Communication Arts. To find out more about John visit his site at www.hersey.com To order his Thingbat font which was used to create several of the slot reel icons used in The Réal visit the Emigre site at www.emigre.com.Noah Peeters
In addition to doing the truly overwhelming majority of the programming, Noah also gathered many of the images used as collage fodder throughout the more than 52 rooms that comprise The Réal. When not programming in the hateful Lingo® "language," or piling up books at the library in search of vague, esoteric imagery, Noah is a film and video student currently working on a thesis project in photography. Without Noah's helpful advice and inspiration throughout the making of this CD-ROM, the final product would simply not exist (or it would be uncool). Half a dozen of one, six of the other.Mark Wolgemuth Mark was responsible for taking the eerie, all-too-human photographs of the adult Mark that appear in the final room. We hope that photographing custodians has not turned into an obsession.
Christian Lammerts
Christian took the desert photograph that graces the "Desert Flower" room and one of the personality shots in "Machie Bendur." According to Noah, that desert photograph developed thusly: "by the way, an interesting story about that okeefe desert nightscape--we snapped it after hopping out of a mini-van stuck on the freeway 10 or so miles outside of vegas. some guy had shot at a cop after being pulled over to the median and was holed up behind the open door fending off the cops with his hunting rifle. we sat there for two hours waiting for somebody to die, for the cars to move. i think he finally gave up. it was one of the most beautiful sunsets ive ever seen."
Consultants Hartley Shearer
Negotiating between the two creative egos at work in The Réal, Hartley soothed many a trouble soul while lighting the path, always, towards the finished product. Indeed, much of the theoretical framework behind José's design approach is based on Hartley's work and teachings. Mr. Shearer is working towards a degree in social work and teaches contemporary art criticism at Williams College.
Backing
Linda Shearer
As the Director of the Williams College Museum of Art and the only pragmatic enthusiast behind the The Réal, Linda gave shelter to the miscreant art piece when it was still wandering the earth as a few rooms and lots of (broken) deadline promises. Linda is also a dangerously smooth operator and should never be allowed inside a real casino.Marion Goethals
"The publisher? The distributor? ISBN number? What's that?" Luckily for us, Marion, the Associate Director of the Williams College Museum of Art, actually knew the answer to these and an endless number of other all-too-important questions. A world-traveller, Marion will be coming to a museum near you soon (with a busload of very important alumni in tow, no less).Joe Thompson
Thanks to Mr. Thompson, Director of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, The Réal is double-legit as it has twice as many publishers as the average book -- with great acronyms, too, like MassMOCA and the WCMA. When Mr. Thompson is not directing MassMOCA, he's giving electronic artists a home in the art world. Wait, that's the...Alan Thomas
Mr. Thomas, of the University of Chicago Press, took Mark's word on it and ended up making The Réal the first CD-ROM to be distributed by UChicago Press. Thanks to Alan, the Press' academic titles marketing staff are currently hawking "an electronic artists' book...uhuh, yeah, that's right, an electronic artists' book -- yes, that's what it says here," to fine bookstores and museum shops across the country. That gives us a tingly feeling.Testing
Eric Coker, Charles Mathews, Matt Dessem, John Kim, Matt Sly (aka, Slydigs).
Though often hindered by what appear to be bugs (and are actually annoying strategies on behalf of Noah and José, these beta-testers sat and literally "dealt" with The Réal for hours at a time. When otherwise employed, these lads undoubtedly play network Nuke 'Em.