`Everybody who has worked on this project has fallen in love with it," says Niall Austink, executive editor of Enter, Ireland's (and indeed Europe's) first monthly interactive CD Rom. A very well produced arts/entertainment magazine, Enter is brimful of flashy graphics and punchy interviews with Ireland's great, good and getting-there.
Unashamedly aimed at a youth and "adultescent" market, the first edition of this new media format contains seven hours of viewing and listening material, including an interview (and exclusive live performance) from singer/songwriter David Gray; an intense chat with novelist Colm Toibin; a look and listen session with artist Pauline Bewick and some straight talking with film producer Jim Sheridan.
Taking in categories from music, fashion, sports, film, books, comedy, theatre, art, TV, games and food, there's something for everyone in the computer generation and there's no need to worry if you're still technologically challenged - all you have to do with the CD Rom is bung it in your disc drive, up comes the magazine and then you click away merrily selecting whatever category you're interested in. "It's a magazine but an alternative to the usual 300-page glossy magazine," says Niall Austin of his creation, which is based in an office in Rathmines. "I got the idea for it when I was travelling in the US and picked up a CD Rom magazine there. With technology being what it is these days, we found that we could just film our interviews and put them on the screen. There's full pictures, full sound and one of the best aspects to reading and listening to it on your computer screen is that you have full control of the action - you can go anywhere you want".
Austin and Enter's creative designer, Ben Linehan, both have backgrounds in the advertising business and pretty much knew their target market from day one. "Even if you look at the amount of computers that were sold in Ireland this year, you'll find that the majority of them were to 16-35 year olds. But what really motivated us was a shared passion for music, books, film, theatre, comedy and art. And we wanted to create a full interactive experience to present a magazine that catered for these areas.
"What we've done on the CD is create a city called Nighttown which has a City Plaza and a City Quay. Within those areas you can click on, say, the icon for Library for interviews with Ardal O'Hanlon and Colm Toibin talking about their books, or you can click on the Movie Theatre icon for the Jim Sheridan interview or hear Graham Linehan doing film reviews. Similarly in the Music Room, once you enter, you can choose from a David Gray interview, a Devlins interview or an Aslan or Stephen Ryan interview."
The magazine's editor and the person who researched and conducted all the interviews, Ken Sweeney, says that getting some of the bigger names to participate in a new, untried format was easier than he thought. "We approached people telling them it was a new CD interactive format and we found that most of them were really willing to embrace it," he says. "We got some people in who don't normally do interviews and I think they were impressed by the fact that, unlike print interviews, they couldn't be misquoted or have someone else overly interpreting their views.
"We got a really good interview out of playwright Billy Roche and film-maker and artist Clare Langan was great also. It's not all arts related though - there's a really good Sports section where Jason Sherlock talks openly about his involvement with the GAA and the managers of Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne football teams provide some neat insights into the state of football in Ireland today."
The mechanics of doing the interviews for a CD Rom are surprisingly simple. The interviewees were brought into a studio in Baggot Street where they were filmed in front of a "blue screen" and the background you see on the finished product is added in by computer simulation.
"Because it's very quick and easy to get around, I suppose people will think it's an `MTV generation' venture," says Sweeney, "but the whole point of this is that once you've seen the Colm Toibin interview, hopefully you'll be motivated enough to buy one of his books and once you've heard what Pauline Bewick has to say, you might go out and see some of her art".
Arguably, the fashion section is the most appropriate for the CD Rom treatment. Apart from an interesting interview with Louise Kennedy, there's a live fashion show where models walk around trying out new clothes and a mere click on what they're wearing brings up the garment's details (colour, fabric, size, price etc;). Sometime soon, Enter hopes to introduce a facility where you will able to buy the clothes modelled on screen direct from your computer terminal.
With a rake of advertisers aboard - from Heineken to Sony to Toyota - there's already considerable interest from the advertising world, and beyond, in the new medium.
"I think when the Internet first came into its own, it was billed as the pinnacle of entertainment" says Austin, "but people soon found that it was slow and that it was in the main, text-driven. It simply isn't a rewarding entertainment experience. With the CD Rom though, you can watch and listen with full colour and good sound. Another aspect of the Internet is that it has led, in a sense, to an Americanisation of culture and we were very keen with Enter to have a close on 100% Irish content".
A very impressive piece of work, it remains to be seen if Enter really will revolutionise the magazine world, but certainly there's enough on show in their first edition to convince most anybody that this is a bold and adventurous leap. "Coming from an advertising background, what I've always found is that people in the area are always preaching change," says Austin, "but they are very slow to embrace it. I hope, with Enter, that that's all changed now".
Enter, price £4.95, is available in newsagents
